West Ham United vs. Chelsea, Premier League: Preview, team news, how to watch

Chelsea have the early kickoff this weekend, and the early kickoffs have a habit of producing weird games and strange results. Something about high noon-ish on a Saturday.

But Chelsea have also had a full week to prepare, which is a luxury we won’t have again for a while with midweek matches in the League Cup and the Conference League about to crowd the fixture list. Head coach Enzo Maresca won’t have too many more chances to truly focus on training his charges, with loading and recovery set to be the main concerns.

So this game is a chance to show some progress. Results have been okay, the football has been okay as well. There’s plenty of room for improvement in both.

Date / Time: Saturday, August 21, 2024, 12:30 BST; 7:30am EDT; 8pm IST

Venue: London Stadium, Stratford

Referee: Sam Barrott (on pitch); Stuart Attwell (VAR) — Barrott is in his second year as a Premier League referee, though this will be his second Chelsea match after the League Cup semifinal first leg last year (which we lost to Middlesbrough)

Forecast: warm but chance of rain

On TV: TNT Sports 1 (UK); USA, Universo (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); elsewhere

Streaming: discovery+ (UK); NBC Sports Live, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA); Hotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)

West Ham United team news: West Ham had themselves a busy summer, spending well over £100m to bring in reinforcements in attack (Niclas Füllkrug from Borussia Dortmund, Luis Guilherme from Palmeiras, and Crysencio Summerville from Leeds United) and defense (Max Kilman from Wolves, Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Manchester United, and Jean-Clair Todibo on loan from Nice) in support of new head coach Julen Lopetegui.

They also managed to retain the likes of Lucas Paquetá, Mohammed Kudus, and Michail Antonio, who loves scoring against us. Our old pal Emerson Palmieri is still around as well, though Kurt Zouma was sent on loan to Al-Orobah in Saudi Arabia. Emerson’s facing a late fitness test ahead of kickoff, as does Füllkrug.

Four points from their first four games is probably not quite a good enough return on this investment, but they have had to face both Manchester City and Aston Villa already. They drew with Fulham away last weekend.

Chelsea team news: There’s some good news regarding injuries, with Roméo Lavia getting close and both Enzo Fernández and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall having recovered from illness that caused them to miss out last time. However, both Reece James and Malo Gusto remain out, which will once again cause a headache at the right back position. Axel Disasi did not play well last weekend; Wesley Fofana did a bit better while Maresca seems reluctant to thrust youngster Josh Acheampong into the fire.

Chelsea are unbeaten in three in the league coming in, and other than the hiccup against Servette in the second leg of our UEFA Conference League qualifier, we’ve played some decent football (with results to match) since the opening day defeat against Manchester City. With a favorable schedule on tap until the October international break, we have a great chance to put together a nice run of results.

Previously: The home team have not lost in this matchup since our visit to the London Stadium in 2021. We lost 3-1 here last season, but did beat the Hammers 5-0 back in May in the reverse fixture.

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