West Ham United secured an impressive victory in a heated London derby against high-spending Chelsea, even though they had to play with only 10 men for nearly 30 minutes.
The Hammers had taken a 2-1 lead when defender Nayef Aguerd, who had initially opened the scoring with a header, received his second yellow card and was subsequently sent off in the 67th minute. But Chelsea could not force an equaliser with their numerical advantage and then conceded a late third through Lucas Paqueta’s penalty in the fifth minute of added time.
Teenager Carney Chukwuemeka scored his first goal for the Blues to make it 1-1 but Enzo Fernandez wasted a chance to put them ahead when his penalty was saved by Alphonse Areola.
In the 53rd minute, Michail Antonio gave West Ham the lead again with a strong angled shot before the home team was reduced to ten men.
However, Mauricio Pochettino’s side were unable to capitalise on Aguerd’s dismissal to force a second leveller despite a second-half debut for Moises Caicedo, who has joined from Brighton in a deal that could become a British record.
The Ecuador midfielder, who signed for an initial £100m fee which could rise to £115m, had a chance to make it 2-2 but shot over from the edge of the penalty area.
Caicedo, looking rusty after two months without a game, then conceded a penalty for a foul on Hammers left-back Emerson and Paqueta made no mistake from the spot to seal West Ham’s victory.
