West Ham boss, Manuel Pellegrini has named two Chelsea stars that helped his side play 0-0 against Maurizio Sarri’s men in Sunday’s Premier League fixture.
According to Pellegrini, left-wing back, Marcos Alonso and forward, Eden Hazard, were the two Chelsea stars that helped his side play goalless against the Blues because his players forced the West London club to play their game on the right side of the pitch and not on the left side that had the pair.
Chelsea struggled to find a way past West Ham’s stubborn defence and were forced to settle for a point following a goalless draw.
Pellegrini also believes that his players defended well against the Stamford Bridge club, adding that Sunday’s game was a perfect demonstration of the team’s hard work on the training pitch.
“It’s a first clean sheet, so that demonstrates that the team is working hard in knowing the way we must defend, against a team who have scored 14 goals in their other five games and were the leaders in the table, so in that sense I am happy,” Pellegrini told the club’s official website.
“But when you have clear chances against big teams, you must score one of them and we had three clear chances before they created one chance. But you must score
“Chelsea had a lot of possession because we allowed them to. We forced them to play a lot of their game down the right side and not the left with [Marcos] Alonso and with [Eden] Hazard who are very dangerous that side, and they also had a lot of possession because I was not happy with the way we kept the ball in the second half.
“The first half, it was clear the way we wanted to play, and the second we lost too many balls. But against these teams, if you cannot win, don’t lose it so the draw is not a bad draw. But all we are thinking is that with those chances, we could have had three points.”
“Maybe the chances that seem most easy are the most difficult,” the Chilean reflected.
“That’s maybe because you relax more, but I think Antonio also had two in the first half which were very clear; one from the left and one from the right that Kepa [Arrizabalaga] saved.
“At the end, they had one rebound when Lukasz made a very good save from [Alvaro] Morata. The chances are the chances, and it’s always difficult to score,” he added.
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