NONI: BLUES BROTHERS ARE NO LONGER SELFISH

and 1995-96) and Chris Sutton (1993-94). The stats for Hammers are less impressive. That is 16 league games without a clean sheet for the Hammers but it was only going to get worse. By the end they had conceded their 70th goal of the campaign with only the bottom three letting in more. Gallagher doubled the lead after half an hour with a super volley.

And the Hammers contrived to leave two players unmarked from Mykhailo Mudryk’s 36th-minute corner when the recalled Thiago Silva headed back for Madueke to nod home.

Between getting fouled by Chelsea players on a rotation basis, Jarrod Bowen twice hit the bar in a first half where the Hammers could not manage a shot on target.

CHELSEA WEST HAM

70% POSSESSION 30% James Ward-prowse

4 SHOTS ON TARGET 2 came on for Edson Alvarez

7 SHOTS OFF TARGET 8 at half-time and forced

726 TOTAL PASSES 297

Djordje Petrovic into his

93% PASSING SUCCESS 81%

8 CORNERS 6 first save from a free-kick

1 OFFSIDE 0 after 55 minutes.

12 FOULS 10 But by then more

0 CARDS 0 Keystone Cop defending had ended the contest. After 47 minutes, Trevoh Chalobah’s pass from right-back was not cut out and Madueke unselfishly set up Jackson for a tap-in.

Shortly after Bowen hit the bar for the third time, Jackson netted a second – and his 16th of an inconsistent season after a long VAR check for offside.

Since the 5-0 humiliation at Arsenal, Pochettino’s side have responded by fighting for a draw at Aston Villa and derby wins over Tottenham and now West Ham.

Christopher Nkunku came off the bench for his first appearance since the EFL Cup final to add to the refound feel-good factor.

While home players went on a post-match lap of honour, the apologetic Coufal, Bowen and Tomas Soucek gave their shirts to the

BY NEIL MCLEMAN

DAVID MOYES revealed before this London derby that West Ham came “close” to signing Cole Palmer last summer – but the Scot’s shambolic defence got nowhere near the England star or any other Chelsea attacker yesterday in this one-side defeat.

The £42.5million bargain opened the scoring with his 16th home Premier League goal of the season to equal the Blues record set by Chelsea legends Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. Fellow Englishmen Conor Gallagher and Noni Madueke also scored before the break and Nicolas Jackson added two to follow his goal against Tottenham last week.

Even in the opening half, Blues fans were mockingly chanting, ‘Are you Tottenham in disguise?’.

The win keeps alive Chelsea’s hopes of European football next season – and Mauricio Pochettino’s chances of staying for a second term.

That would see one of these managers still in the capital next season as Moyes’ long goodbye is ending on a horrible low, just a year after the high of winning the Europa Conference League.

A new head coach will oversee a summer rebuild with Lucas Paqueta – whose aborted sale to Manchester City could have involved Palmer – the most valuable asset if the uncertainty over his betting charges is resolved.

What is sure is the impact that 21-year-old Palmer has made in SW6 instead of Stratford.

He netted his 21st league goal of the season with a finish which deflected in off Vladimir Coufal after 14 minutes when the ball broke free following a Madueke cross.

He is also only the third player aged 21 or younger to be involved in 30 or more goals in a single Premier League season after Robbie Fowler (1994-95 1 3

REF: Andrew Madley ATT: 39,295

FROM FRONT PAGE public rebuke from manager Mauricio Pochettino.

But after losing the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City and suffering a 5-0 humiliation at Arsenal, Chelsea are now back in seventh place and hunting down a place in Europe after consecutive London derby wins over Tottenham and then the Hammers.

And Madueke said: “We have been confident, but now we’re starting to put everything together, being unselfish and working as a collective.

“The last two games have shown that. Two clean sheets and seven goals. It’s a credit to the whole club.”

Boss Pochettino said: “The assist from Noni to Jackson (with Pochettino, left) showed that we learned, we are smart. The situation with the penalty against Everton, we received a lot of criticism – but a young team needs to make mistakes.

“Today was a great action by Noni to see how the group is starting to live and feel between them. It is a process that takes time, you never know if it will be one month, six months or a year.

“But they are starting to feel and live like a group of players with links.

“I am so pleased for that, helping them to grow and be mature. It is only the first step, but a massive step.”

Chelsea have now won nine out of 11 home Premier League games and are sitting above Manchester United on goal difference ahead of the visit to Crystal Palace tonight by Erik ten Hag’s side.

“We are going to try our best to be in Europe,” added Pochettino.