Chelsea turned early adversity into a statement of strength with a dominant 5-1 victory over West Ham at the London Stadium on 22 August 2025 .
West Ham stunned the visitors early, with Lucas Paquetá firing in a spectacular opener in the sixth minute. However, João Pedro quickly equalized and set up Pedro Neto to give Chelsea the lead in the 23rd minute.
The breakthrough continued before half-time as Enzo Fernández tapped in from an assist by 18-year-old Estêvão Willian, who was making his first Premier League start after replacing the injured Cole Palmer .
The second half saw Moisés Caicedo mark his 100th Chelsea appearance with a goal, followed swiftly by a Trevoh Chalobah strike, sealing a crushing win.
The defeat deepened West Ham’s early-season woes, as fans streamed out in frustration and manager Graham Potter came under fresh scrutiny .
In his post-game press conference, Enzo Maresca provided a measured, insightful assessment of both the team’s performance and that of rising star Estêvão:
“Very happy, very impressed. We didn’t start in the right way, [with the] Cole injury, and concede in five minutes but the reaction was impressive.”
“We concede the goal because of him – he lost the ball in the build-up, he needs to make mistakes to learn, but overall he impressed.”
He added: “He needs to adapt, he needs to make many mistakes to understand how the Premier League is different to in Brazil. We conceded after he did the flick, he needs to understand but he is a fantastic player.”
On the “Cole Palmer FC” narrative:
“You are there to say things, and people in general. The ones that say we are just ‘Cole team’. Cole is our best player, we are a much, much better team. But we showed last season when Cole wasn’t 100% and we achieved top four.”
On Palmer’s injury:
“Cole in the last four or five days was not 100%. He tried the warm-up but he felt something. We preferred not to take any risks. We will see if it’s something important or not. Groin.”
“Palace game, he was not 100% but he tried the big effort. He tried tonight but it was not very good.”
On deploying Joao Pedro and Delap together:
“We didn’t play them both together since we started. It worked quite well but we can do much, much better, but overall we are happy.”
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