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Stewards eject West Ham fans who tried entering the pitch during 5-1 thrashing by Chelsea

Stewards had to eject West Ham fans who tried entering the pitch during the 5-1 thrashing by Chelsea on Friday night.

Tempers threatened to boil over while West Ham fans wanted to make their feelings known, while also leaving the stadium early.

The Hammers did take a surprise lead on 6 minutes, Paqueta opening the scoring, but Joao Pedro levelled shortly after, before Fullkrug had an effort ruled out.

Neto put Chelsea in front on 23 minutes and Fernandez added a third from an Estevao assist. Caicedo and Chalobah added to the scoreline after the break.

West Ham haven’t won in six home matches and eight goals is the most they’ve conceded across their two opening games of a top-flight season.

Fan discontent increases. There is pressure on the players, manager and owner. Potter now has a worse record than predecessor Julen Lopetegui, was sacked in January after just 22 matches. As per BBC Sport, Potter has earned less than a point per game in his first 21 league fixtures.

West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen speaking to Sky Sports on his emotions after the game: “I think you can probably imagine. Fuming. Disappointing.

“All the emotions that come with being on the back of conceding eight goals in two games and not picking up a point yet.

“I think we got ourselves into a really good position at 1-0 and then I thought the goals were really cheap on our behalf.

“We didn’t really make them work for those three from set pieces, which we’ve always prided ourselves on over the years and a couple more finishes inside the six-yard box.

“We gifted the goals away and you do that against any opposition and we’ve learnt that against Sunderland last week and here tonight.

“It’s a collective, we’re out there on the pitch and when things are going well it’s easy to get individual awards and what have you but when things aren’t going so well you have to point the finger at every single person because we’re out there on the pitch.

“It’s not defenders defending well enough, it’s not midfielders, strikers, as well, maybe not pressing as well as we know we can do. It’s definitely a whole, especially at the moment.

“I think we have to look at ourselves because obviously manager’s come in but the players are out there playing on the pitch, the manager can’t influence that, that’s down to us.

“You have a plan but football has always been football. You keep the ball out of your net and you score in the other net. Basic football I don’t think we’re doing very well enough. I can tell you that because we’ve conceded eight in two.

“Myself, as captain, I’m fuming with the first couple of weeks and I share that responsibility and it’s down to me to get a reaction from everyone.”

West Ham boss Graham Potter, speaking to BBC Sport: “Incredibly disappointed of course with the result.

“A good start, scored a great goal and then conceded a cheap goal and that probably set the tone for the evening.

“We played a top side but the manner of the goals we conceded made it impossible for us. We have to do better.

“We are disappointed with the goals and disappointed with the result.

“We have to dust ourselves down and prepare to play against Wolves. Keep going.”

Need some new signings? “We will always look but its more fundamental than that, we have to make it harder for teams to score against us.

 Potter speaking to Sky Sports: “A tough evening for us, of course. Bitterly disappointed with the result. With the manner of the goals, we concede after starting the game well. Too cheap, I think against a top team, we have to say that, to concede the goals in the manner we have is an impossible task.

“As I said, goals change games. Goals affect things too much, and when they’re cheap, like the ones we gave away, we have to do better. Until you can solve that, it’s always difficult in the Premier League, especially against the top team. We have to improve a lot.

‘When you concede the goals in the manner we have, it makes it difficult. The timing of them as well. We were sort of were a little bit unlucky with this, getting that offside goal, fine margins again, but nevertheless over the course of the game, you put yourself in a position where if you open up too much and press too much, you can get passed through. But at the same time we’re at home and we need to create some pressure and try to get on the front foot and create some mistakes, so it was a tough evening for us.”

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, speaking to BBC Sport: “Very happy for today, also very happy last week. I thought the performance was good, we didn’t score then but tonight we scored five.”

On Cole Palmer: “In the last four or five days he was not 100%. In the warm up he felt something and we didn’t want to take any risk to get worse.”

On Estevao: “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.”

Thoughts on recent successes: “For me it has been fantastic since the moment I enjoyed the club. Probably the last results – Conference League, Club World Cup, top four in the Premier League. I think no-one expected but we achieved it.”

On Reece James not starting: “Reece is one of our best players, I would like to start every game with him but we have more players. We have two good full-backs and will use both.”

Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella speaking on Sky Sports: “We are very happy. I think in the last game we missed something. I think we don’t play our style but I think today, at the beginning, we started a little bit sloppy but the reaction from the team was very good. We showed a lot of energy. We want to play good football and we have a good result tonight.”

On losing Cole Palmer in the warm-up: “It’s difficult because we practice one thing, at the end we need to change very fast but I think Estevao, in this case, played an amazing game. I think it’s very important because we have a good squad, all of us, we are ready at any time and we are very happy because we showed we have a good team.”

On Estevao’s performance: “I think he’s young but he showed that he’s very mature. He made very good decisions and all the new players, all the new signings came here to help the team, to bring something good, good energy, good talent. I think we have an amazing squad, so I hope we can do good things this season.”

There was plenty pf reaction online while stewards eject West Ham fans who tried entering the pitch during the 5-1 thrashing by Chelsea…

@ToonPolls: Shame what’s happening at West Ham. Great historic club and set of fans, but awful owners, soulless bowl of a stadium, poor manager and a talentless squad. They have to be amongst the favourites for the drop. #WHUFC

@Radio_Gaz: Remember when West Ham fans hounded out David Moyes after he won a European Trophy and finished 9th?

@BennyBoyTips: I’m not a West Ham fan but it’s obvious the Board doesn’t care at all about the fans or the club. Potter is out of his Depth. Brady & Co Must Go. Good Luck for the rest of the season Chaps 👊

@Daya66: #WHUFC 2nd game and already relegation fodder. We are so shit it’s truly unreal… the board are total waste of space who appointed a waste of time manager nobody else wanted. Between them all they have killed West Ham.

@GordonFielden: Could not stay until the end. A mate tapped me on the shoulder and said, come on, cannot stand it any longer. That sums up West Ham. Another Potter nightmare, and it may yet end his career in top flight football.

@AzamWHUFC: It’s frustrating that most people outside of West Ham don’t know what Sullivan is really like. He’s one of the worst operators in football. He’s destroyed West Ham United, ripped the soul out of it.

@HLTCO: You’d assume Graham Potter doesn’t have long left at West Ham. It’s not worked for him at all, the sense of frustration from their supporters runs far deeper than just the manager but as a whole, their fan-base are close to the lowest I’ve seen them; just totally disconnected.

@WHUFC_News: Rob Green calling out the West Ham board on Sky Sports, great to see ❤️

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