(Credit: Sky Sports/Manh Tung, Breaking Media)
Fri 22 August 2025 22:06, UK
West Ham fans voted on their feet as they walked out on their side’s 5-1 defeat to Chelsea at the London Stadium on Friday night.
Graham Potter looks increasingly likely to be sacked before the end of August after watching his side succumb to a miserable defeat, despite holding the lead early on through a Lucas Paqueta wonder-strike.
Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah all then scored for Potter’s old club, prompting an early exodus of home supporters before the hour mark.
While no one will criticise the Hammers as much as their outraged fans, Sky Sports analyst Jamie Redknapp did his best to sum up just how bad the team’s defending was at half-time when the score was only 3-1.
Jean-Clair Todibo was in Jamie Redknapp’s crosshairs. (Credit: Imago)Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jean-Clair Todibo slaughtered for West Ham defending
Redknapp went in on Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jean-Clair Todibo after watching West Ham’s horrific defending for Chelsea’s first goal.
Wan-Bissaka has largely been praised for his performances as a West Ham player.
But that wasn’t the case on Friday night.
In the 15th minute, Marc Cucurella flicked on a corner-kick at the front post.
That allowed Joao Pedro to score at the back post after he was being marked by Wan-Bissaka.
Ex-Tottenham and Liverpool star Redknapp wasn’t happy at all with the highlights that were shown on Sky Sports at the break.
“[Cucurella] waits, he gets himself in a great position. He gets in front of Paqueta, lovely flick and Joao Pedro gets up and he’s too strong for Wan-Bissaka. It’s a good piece of play,” said Redknapp at half-time on Sky Sports Main Event on Friday night.
“Wan-Bissaka and Todibo, in this first half, have done a masterclass in how not to defend the area or your back post.
“It’s scandalous defending.”
West Ham players are doing their best to make Potter unemployed. (Credit: Imago)What did Jean-Clair Todibo do wrong to annoy Jamie Redknapp?
Todibo cost Fullkrug his fourth West Ham goal by being offside in the build-up to the German’s disallowed strike.
He then switched off to allow Chelsea to score their third of the night.
Redknapp added to his tirade about the former OGC Nice defender by noticing him fail to track Fernandez’s run into the box in the 34th minute.
Todibo simply had to keep tabs on Fernandez while the ball wasn’t in a dangerous area, as seen in the image from Sky Sports Main Event below.
Todibo has the measure of Fernandez when the ball is nearer the halfway line. (Credit: Sky Sports Main Event)
As shown in the next image, Todibo then ends up nowhere near the Chelsea midfielder, leaving him for Wan-Bissaka to deal with by himself.
It’s really no shock to see West Ham conceding the goals they’re conceding when they’re spending £36.3million on players like Todibo, who can’t be bothered to do any defending.
Todibo loses track of Fernandez, who’s charging into the six-yard box. (Credit: Sky Sports Main Event)
It seems pretty obvious that West Ham now have two options between now and the end of the summer transfer window – sack Potter and hope a new manager can improve what’s already available, or invest a lot of cash in fixing this defence.
Todibo has been a huge flop and cannot be relied upon at all.
Wan-Bissaka was great last season but his performance against Chelsea was abysmal – was he really the Hammers’ player of the year last term?
At least one of the newly-promoted teams looks like they could stay up this season.
That means a club like West Ham is a serious contender for relegation.
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