It was never going to be a classic, with the pikey boys from East London looking to kick lumps out of us wherever possible, and the pitch resembling a gypsy caravan site, it was always going to be a battle.

Thankfully in Michael Essien, we have the ultimate warrior for such occasions. Strong, quick, skilful and as we found out on Saturday, not too bad with his head either!

Chelsea got off to the perfect start in only the 2nd minute of the game as Didier Drogba, in the absence of West Ham favourite Frank Lampard, took the first corner of the match, crossing a sublime ball in to the box where Essien out jumped everyone to head past the disparing Rob Green to make it 1-0.

It was the perfect start for Chelsea, giving an immediate cushion to what was expected, goal apart, and delivered by West Ham; a physical and high tempo opening with pressure in the middle closing down as often as possible, with ex Chelsea man Scott Parker making most of the running.

West Ham played a narrow diamond formation that allowed us to utilise Ferreira and Cole as the wing backs to provide width.  Ramires, making his full début, showed some good early touches and passing but as the half drew on tired slightly. With Kalou replacing Malouda for this match, the middle wasn’t as cohesive as it had been in games before.

It was again Drogba who turned provider though, with an ambitious 35 yard free-kick towards goal and it looked a simple save for Rob Green, however the calamity keeper spilled the shot and as Upson tried to clear it, he smashed the ball into Kalou’s ankle only for the ball to rebound over Green to make it 2-0 to Chelsea.

West Ham rallied but by half time had nothing to show for their efforts other than a few chances, with Obinna spectacularly woeful hitting a shot out for a throw in at one point and a Carlton Cole goal ruled out correctly for offside. Even Mikel managed to crack the post with a shot Drogba would have been proud of, but it remained at 2-0 as the teams went in at half time.

With no changes for Chelsea, and only one for West Ham at the break (Kieron Dyer, remember him?), the match kicked off again to West Ham pressure being held back by the dominant Chelsea defence, and counter attacking moves as we broke well and often. Ramires had an effort not far off, and despite looking tired as the first half wore on, he seemed to grow in stature as the game progressed.

Kakuta entered the fray on the 75th minute and after initially falling on his backside, then showed some nice touches and was looking to get involved wherever possible, setting up Drogba for a chance that 99 times out of 100 he would have finished, sadly for Didier this was the one time he didn’t. The third goal came after a flowing piece of play saw the impressive Ferreira pick up the ball to the right of the West Ham area, send in a lovely cross and it was again Essien on the end of it who headed home to make it 3-0 and pretty much end the game.

It wasn’t over though, and West Ham rallied. Late on a cross into the box was punched clear by Cech, yet only reached Parker on the outside of the area who coolly lobbed the ball back into the area, over Cech and into the net to make it 3-1, and the first goal Chelsea have conceded in the league this season.

Goal scorer Essien, when asked about Mikel utilising the holding role said after the match; “I really enjoy playing on the right side, it gives me more freedom to go forward and come back and defend and I really enjoy it. It has been a long wait for me and I had to do a lot of work to get fit but that is all over. There are no pains in the knees and I am really happy to be back and enjoying my football.”

The Ghanian added; “We still have a lot to do. The season is very long but we have played some good football and are scoring a lot of goals and we have to keep going like that.”

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry (c) (Alex 81), Cole; Essien, Mikel, Ramires; Kalou (Malouda 83), Drogba, Anelka (Kakuta 75).

London, we love it, but one of the worst parts has to be the continual ‘improvements’ being made to the underground most weekends, that more often than not finds us blues struggling to get to a match, or stuck in the vicinity afterwards.

Ironically these improvements aren’t making it any better for us this weekend either.

With the usual district line weekend fiasco and militant muppet Bob Crows’ extra actions this week, the journey will be even trickier than expected.

The East London pikeys should be ok though, with their caravans not having to run on road, or rail, and not bound by the simpleton strikers self serving stupidity, they should at least fill their side of the ground…. or perhaps not.

Yes the football at Upton Park/Boleyn Ground/Hell on Earth hasn’t been worth paying for recently, say around ten years, but this season has been far far worse for the unlucky ‘ammers’ who under the stewardship of Dr Death Avram Grant, only seem to have blowing bubbles to look forward too. Well, that and giving Frank Lampard some stick, again.

It’s said that our very own Mr Consistency will play after recovering from a hernia operation, and should also be joined by John Terry who has also recovered from an injury that kept him out of the England matches recently. No doubt the thick air and lack of a decent gene pool in E13 will also see our two English stalwarts booed even harder than normal for ‘letting our country down’… damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Damned if you’re Chelsea.

So what can we expect from this weekend’s match up? Despite the fact it’s so easy to point and laugh right now, we need to take Wet Sham very seriously indeed, there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal as we saw with Wigan and Rottenham recently, yes they are rock bottom and yes they are managed by a man who looks like Herman Munster, but their players will be up for this one, and we can expect them to press us hard and high early in the match, much as Wigan did.

With Carlton Cole, Scott Parker, Tal Ben-Haim & Frank Nouble all facing their old club, there will also be extra motivation for them to do well, however with the mighty blues having scored 47 goals in the last 11 Premier League games, whilst only conceding four in return, so long as we weather the early storm then Wet Sham should run themselves out, and our superior quality should tell in the end.

The match kicks off at 3pm tomorrow afternoon, if you are travelling our advice to you is to leave as much time as possible. Check out the TFL website and plan your journey well. Good luck!

Chelsea were briefly top of the Premier League once more on Saturday as they defeated West Ham United 4-1 at Stamford Bridge. In the ideal warm up for Internazionale on Tuesday, Didier Drogba scored twice, whilst Alex and man of the match Florent Malouda also got one each.

Ross Turnbull made his league debut in goal after the injuries to Hilario and Cech, but wasn’t really tested throughout the 90 minutes. He should have been though, had Ilan not wastefully blasted over after 12 minutes. Chelsea made the Hammers pay by opening the scoring just minutes later and typically Malouda was involved, crossing for Alex to head home.

Former Blue Scott Parker equalised for West Ham on the half hour, a goal rare in number let alone it’s brilliance. Taking Kieron Dyer’s throw in thirty yards from goal, the midfielder hit a swerving volley high into the top corner past Turnbull.

Chelsea lifted the tempo in the second half and had the lead before the hour mark, through Drogba. Malouda supplied another excellent cross, leaving the Ivorian the simple task of heading in at the far post with Green nowhere.

Two became three when Malouda grabbed the goal his performance deserved. 20 yards out, the Frenchman thundered a left foot strike low past Green and into the back of the net.

Lampard nearly made it four when he touched a Malouda cross on to the post, but the icing on the cake came from Drogba in the final moments. Lampard’s shot was too powerful for Green, who spilled the shot, allowing Drogba to thunder in the rebound.

Inter next, and the return of the Special One.

Chelsea host local rivals West Ham United in the third of four consecutive home games, looking to re-establish themselves at the top of the English Premier League.

Always a highlight of the season, this fixture has taken on an added romanticism in recent times with the mercurial Gianfranco Zola taking over the reigns at Upton Park with Steve Clarke as his assistant.

Chelsea have injury problems that will affect not only this league match, but the second leg match against Internazionale on Tuesday.

Petr Cech is already out injured, but his deputy Hilario picked up a groin injury against Stoke City and will also be missing and is doubtful for Tuesday. Ross Turnbull will make his league debut. Yuri Zhirkov is fit again at left back, however Ricardo Carvalho will not play.

West Ham’s attack is almost certain to feature former Chelsea protégé Carlton Cole. The forward has been in great form this season and could well be on the plane to South Africa come season’s end.

Guillermo Franco is likely to partner him in attack, should Zola opt for two strikers. Scott Parker, another former Blue, will play in midfield.

Both the corresponding fixture last season and the reverse fixture this season ended in 1-1 draws. Last season, under Luiz Felipe Scolari, Nicolas Anelka scored the equaliser after Craig Bellamy scored for West Ham.

This season, Frank Lampard equalised from the penalty spot after Alessandro Diamanti opened the scoring, also from the spot.

Ladbrokes has installed Chelsea as incredibly short priced favourites at 1/5. The draw is paying 5/1 and a West Ham upset a massive 14/1.