Twitter erupts as Christian Pulisic spares Chelsea's blushes with last-gasp winner against West Ham

Chelsea tightened their grip on third place in the Premier League with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over West Ham United, with Christian Pulisic coming off the bench to score a vital winner.

It seemed like West Ham would eke out a 0-0 stalemate, having put up a resolute defense all game until the latter stages of the London clash. Michael Dawson, the Hammers' only fit center-half, was then adjudged to have brought down Romelu Lukaku in the box to earn Chelsea a penalty.

After being given a yellow card, referee Michael Oliver would then consult VAR and brandish a red card for the English defender instead. Jorginho stepped up to take the penalty but placed a tame effort into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski.

Just when it seemed the opportunity to take all three points had passed them by, Marcos Alonso, who had been impressive all day, pulled the ball back into the West Ham box for Pulisic to sweep home.

Jorginho's blushes were spared as Tuchel's men earned a crucial three points, with Pulisic sending Twitter into hysteria.

Chelsea finally broke through West Ham's stern defense late in the game

It had been a bit of a struggle on the afternoon for the Blues, with West Ham putting on an admirable defensive display. Much had been said about David Moyes' decision to put Declan Rice on the bench given the rumors linking him with a return to Stamford Bridge this summer.

Michael Dawson had a great game up until his red card offense, with the Hammers succumbing to the pressure eventually. Jorginho's penalty was woeful and having not started the game, he'll eye a return to Tuchel's starting XI in the games ahead.

But with an effort such as that, he can't expect to be coming back into the fold any time soon. On the whole, Tuchel's men probably just deserved their victory given their strong second-half performance.

Next up for Chelsea is a trip to Old Trafford to face a Manchester United side who are seemingly at rock bottom.

About the author

Matthew is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who has been covering news, rumors and match reports for close to 3 years. Learning creative writing from University of Essex, he combined his skills and passion for football take up writing for the sport professionally.

Matthew always strives to go beyond a story and offer unique and lesser-known insights, while maintaining an unbiased tone in his articles. His reporting exploits at the company have helped him gain a humungous readership of 25 million, with one of his articles raking in a whopping 724,000 reads.

A Manchester United fan since childhood, Matthew admired Sir Alex Ferguson for his loyalty and brave coaching style. His favorite footballer is Thierry Henry, believing the Frenchman to be uniquely talented and charismatic. An ardent Three Lions fan, England's penalty shootout win over Colombia in 2018 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment of all time, and he believes that Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe will have a Ballon d’Or duopoly after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

He also follows his local EFL League Two clubs AFC Wimbledon and Sutton United, and spends his free time watching and writing about professional wrestling. He also likes to work out, watch movies and go for night outs.

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