A blog of two halves

Pads on, it’s West Ham

Hammers midfielder Declan Rice has been given the task of snuffing out the threat posed by hat-trick hero Eden Hazard when the Blues visit the London Stadium at the weekend.

17 September 2018
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Hat-trick hero Eden Hazard. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

Hammers midfielder Declan Rice has been given the task of snuffing out the threat posed by hat-trick hero Eden Hazard when the Blues visit the London Stadium at the weekend.

While the creative maestro ran Cardiff ragged at Stamford Bridge, he'll need shin pads, knee pads and ankle pads to protect himself from West Ham's anticipated close marking.

The Irons recorded their first win away at Everton, a result which gives a beleaguered team and manager real hope.

But Hazard, the Blues' most valuable player and the club's most coveted player, has hit a rich vein of form, forging an intuitive bond with Olivier Giroud, who was given the nod ahead of Alvaro Morata against Cardiff.

The crowd rose to give the 5ft 6in Belgian wizard a deserved ovation when he was subbed in the 84th minute against Neil Warnock's Bluebirds, and Hazard will look to continue his scoring run in the wide-open spaces of West Ham's home turf.

And yet the cream of the crop of goals in Chelsea's 4-1 defeat of Cardiff was a sublime late strike from Brazilian sub Willian; a 25-yard turbo-charged missile, delivered with next to no backlift.

Morrie Sarri wants more out of his team, particularly at the back where David Luiz still looks flaky at times. "We aren't as solid defensively as I want," he said. Sunday should be a cracker.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

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Tim Harrison

Tim is our Chelsea FC blogger.

He also writes our Shepherds Bush Cricket Club match reports during the football close season.

Tim has been writing Chelsea match reports since the late 1980s for newspapers and, more recently, websites.

When he first reported on the Blues, the press box was a metal cage suspended over the lip of the old west stand - and you reached it via a precarious walkway over the heads of the fans.

But he has been a Chelsea fan since his father took an excited seven-year-old to watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the mid 1960s... and covered his ears every time the chanting got too ripe.

In July 2005 he wrote The Rough Guide to Chelsea, published by Penguin, which sold 15,000 copies.

His favourite player of all time is Charlie Cooke, the mazy winger who lit up Chelsea's left wing in the 60s and 70s.

When he isn't watching the Blues, Tim acts, paints, writes and researches local history.

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