Stick your blue flag...

West Ham 3 Chelsea 1

It's a balmy August afternoon at Hackney Wick, where the old road to the stadium has been blocked off and access to the ground is now a longer trek via the away end. Good to see a photo of Jarrod Bowen's winner on the exterior of the London Stadium. Inside "2023 Europa Conference League Winners" has been added to our list of honours on the main stand. 

Lisa is taking it easy having only seen two West Ham games so far this weekend with the Under-18s and the Under-21s, both of which we won, plus watching the Lionesses on TV. Matt is wearing his Prague winners t-shirt, Nigel has arrived on the right day and just beaten the 3pm deadline for getting a Best Cafe breakfast. Michael has enjoyed a successful read-through of his latest play and dapper Fraser is unusually jacket-less in the heat. There's a Raise the Flag display with a silver Europa Conference trophy in the middle of a sea of claret in the Billy Bonds Stand.

"If we defend like this we're going down," says Michael, three minutes into our first home game. Nigel has to give him a talking to and tell him to raise himself and save his pessimism until the start of September. 

EMERGENCY WARD-PROWSE

It's immediately evident that James Ward-Prowse can take a great corner. Bowen nearly scores from his first delivery. From the next corner after seven minutes he swings the ball right on to Aguerd's head. Nayef rises above Conor Gallagher to head home. A hearty chorus of "Stick your blue flag..." rings around the London Stadium.

But after the goal Chelsea start to dominate through the speed of Jackson and Sterling as West Ham start to miss Rice in midfield. Areola appears to have conceded a penalty when he brings down Jackson, only to be saved by an offside flag. Benrahma loses possession and Aguerd is forced to bring down his man and take a booking for the team.

But a Chelsea goal is coming and arrives as a loose clearance by Zouma is gathered by Chukwuemeka, who cuts inside Soucek to fire home a fine shot. Paqueta twists to send a shot against the outside of the post but West Ham are hanging on at the back. A second goal looks inevitable when Soucek fouls Sterling and a penalty is given.

"Areola never saves penalties, remember the Blackburn shoot-out last season when he didn't get near any of them?" says Matt. Enzo Fernandez takes the penalty and Areola duly saves. Mystic Matt has done it again. It's a good height for the keeper and not a great penalty from the £105 million man, but credit to Areola for going the right way.

YOU BLOW MY MIND HEY MICKY!

It's a relief to make it to half-time level. But whatever Moyes says has an effect. Antonio starts to hold the ball up and menace the Chelsea defence. Eight minutes into the half Ward-Prowse plays a ball over the top to Antonio. Micky shrugs off Colwill and fires a rocket of a shot through the defender's legs and into the back of the net. That was unexpected, and it's two assists for Ward-Prowse on his debut.

Chelsea come back at us and Aguerd, Soucek and Zouma make some vital blocks, But with 23 minutes left Aguerd makes a rash challenge for a second yellow and is off. Surely we can't survive half an hour with ten men? But the team's resilience is excellent. Moyes brings on Ogbonna for Benrahma and Fornals for Antonio. Fornals is a clever move as it ensures the Hammers can still threaten on the break rather than sitting back all the time. Paqueta mops up in front of the defence and has a good team game too. Akvarez comes on for an effective 15-minute cameo. 

Sub Mudryk wastes some opportunities for Chelsea and a great Soucek tackle on 89 minutes proves the side's commitment. Paqueta and Fornals break down the left and Fornals gets through to fire a shot against Sanchez's legs.

Madueke has a deflected shot well saved by Areola, but generally Chelsea have lacked creativity against a massed defence. In the 95th minute Emerson and Paqueta get the ball in the corner. It seems they are going to waste some more time, but Paqueta's clever back-heel sets Emerson free in the box and he's fouled by £115 sub Caicedo. Lucas does a little hop, skip and stutter that ages Nigel ten years, but calmly sends Sanchez the wrong way and shouts at the heavens to celebrate the fact he's staying at a proper club and not gambling on the Mancs. 

What a great result and all after 24 per cent possession - the ultimate Moyesball win. Though I still think Chelsea can stay up. On the way to the Eagle Nigel confesses that he has forgotten his lucky banana. Perhaps WHU's fortunes are not entirely fruit driven?  At the pub we're joined by Tom from Gidea Park and Sinead has bottles of East London Pale Ale and Guinness and a cheese toastie for Fraser. Nigel reflects that the unexpected victories are the best and remembers a 1-0 win brings at Chelsea with an 89th minute own goal after being bettered all game. 

Four points from two games is four more points than we had at the same stage last season. And what a great way to celebrate our first home game since the Europa Conference win. Irons!

PLAYER RATINGS: Areola 8; Coufal 6, Zouma 7, Aguerd 6, Emerson 7; Soucek 7, Ward-Prowse 8 (Alvarez 6), Paqueta 8, Benrahma 6 (Ogbonna 6); Bowen 6, Antonio 8 (Fornals 7).