West Ham star Edson Alvarez were involved in a heated squabble on the pitch with Enzo Fernandez during the Hammers’ 3-0 loss to Chelsea on Saturday.
Two goals from Nicolas Jackson and one from Cole Palmer eased the Blues to three points against a lacklustre West Ham side, as head coach Julen Lopetegui’s problems mounted.
For Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca it was a third win in five Premier League games since taking charge with his side having scored 10 goals in their last three away matches.
West Ham struggled to lay a glove on Chelsea for most of the match and tensions ramped up when Palmer was taken out by Alvarez after Chelsea’s third goal.
The Mexico international received a yellow card for his challenge but Fernandez was not happy with the tackle and confronted his fellow midfielder.
Alvarez covered his mouth but Spanish broadcasters picked up that the West Ham midfielder told Fernandez: “I’ll wait for you.”
Before the Mexican added: “I’ll kill you outside, wherever you want.”
To which Chelsea midfielder Fernandez patted Alvarez and said: “Go on, go on.”
West Ham were undone in the fourth minute by their own incoherent defending.
Jadon Sancho, making his full Chelsea debut, received a quick free-kick and fed the ball smartly into the left channel for Jackson, who strode unimpeded from the touchline into the penalty area before rolling it neatly beneath Alphonse Areola.
Palmer shot inches wide in an acre of space as the hosts tottered and the defence was no more effective in attempting to prevent Chelsea’s second goal after 18 minutes, Moises Caicedo’s parting the back line with a simple pass for Jackson to run through and knock it into the corner.
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Jackson turned provider for Palmer at the start of the second half, cruising unchallenged over the halfway line and feeding the England forward who swept in at the near post.
Despite the ease with which a vibrant Chelsea overran their hosts, Maresca warned against being lulled into thinking the team’s problems have all been solved five weeks into the season.
Maresca said: “I think we’re on the right path. We’re in the right direction, but it’s a long journey. We won today and we’re in a good moment, it looks like everything is fine. But not everything is fine. We could attack better, defend better.
“For me, the main target in this moment is to see how we progress as a team and I think we are improving many things, even if today we could manage the game much better.
“Sometimes we need to give more passes and keep the ball. We are in a rush and we want to attack immediately. But overall I think we deserved to win.”
Hammers boss Lopetegui has seen his team pick up just four points from his five games in charge and reflected on a game in which his side made it too easy for Chelsea.
“We are very frustrated today for sure because we had big expectations,” he said. “We worked a lot to prepare and it’s been a very soft way to lose.
“We suffered two early goals that we should have done better. We weren’t consistent. When you’re not consistent against this kind of team, you’re going to have few possibilities to win.
“We had chances, we had more of the ball, but that is not important.”
