Nicolas Jackson scored twice to help Chelsea to a third straight away win with a 3-0 victory at London rivals West Ham United on Saturday that suggested new coach Enzo Maresca is getting his huge squad to gel.
Jackson capitalised on poor defending to find the net in the fourth minute when he sprinted down the wing, cut inside unchallenged and beat Alphonse Areola with a low shot.
Fourteen minutes later the Senegal striker was left in space by West Ham’s defenders to receive a pass from Moisés Caicedo and double Chelsea’s lead.
West Ham were 3-0 down little more than a minute into the second half when Jackson, on the break, teed up Cole Palmer and the England striker fired home from the edge of the box.
Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Bournemouth last Saturday and 6-2 at Wolverhampton Wanderers in August, moved into second place in the Premier League table before the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
Maresca, the fourth permanent coach to work for Chelsea’s American owners since they bought the club two years ago, has faced questions over his ability to create a coherent team following a latest spate of signings.
At the London Stadium on Saturday, he gave first starts to Jadon Sancho in attack and Tosin Adarabioyo in defence and played Wesley Fofana in the unusual position of right back due to injuries to Reece James and Malo Gusto.
But the reshuffling did not knock Chelsea off their stride as they took full advantage of West Ham’s own adjustment to life under new coach Julen Lopetegui.
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Maresca played down talk of Chelsea putting behind them a disappointing couple of seasons when they finished sixth and 12th in the Premier League, even as he became the first coach to win his first three away games in the Premier League since Pep Guardiola achieved the same feat at Manchester City in 2016.
“I think we are improving in many things, even if today we could attack better, we could defend better,” he told reporters. “Especially we could manage the game much, much better… But overall I think we deserved to win the game.”
Boos from the home fans rang out at half time and also when Lopetegui replaced winger Crysencio Summerville – who provided some much-needed spark on his first start for the Hammers – with Michail Antonio in the second half.
The hosts had a penalty claim denied after Summerville went down in a tangle with Fofana after half an hour but they did not seriously threaten Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez.
West Ham have won only one of their first five league games of the season.
“We were never in the game which is an awful thing to say,” West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen told TNT Sports postmatch.
“The goals that they scored were easy on our part – two gifts. You have to be switched on in every moment. On the pitch it felt quite easy to play through (us),” he said. “A disappointing day all-round.”