Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic pull the strings against West Ham to set stage for vital win

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It is Christian Pulisic who wears the No 10 shirt for Chelsea but in Thomas Tuchel’s system there are two players who operate in that creative position. Both Pulisic and Mason Mount have the freedom to move around the final third, searching for space and pulling opposition midfielders into spaces they do not want to go. This crucial win for Chelsea was secured by Timo Werner’s first-half goal but so much of their assured performance was based on the scheming duo of Mount and Pulisic, the two playmakers who asked plenty of questions of the West Ham United defence. With the European Championship looming this summer, much of the focus will have been on Mount’s battle against Jesse Lingard, one of his rivals for a starting position in Gareth Southgate’s side. Lingard had his moments of promise at the London Stadium but, unlike Mount on the opposing team, he did not have a partner in crime. Mount to Pulisic, Pulisic to Mount. It was a constant theme of this match, especially in the second half, and West Ham were never able to shut them down in the absence of the injured Declan Rice. David Moyes has built such a solid structure this season, with a unified defence and hard-working midfield, but Pulisic and Mount proved capable of chipping away with their intelligent movement and passing. In a potentially pivotal match in the race for the top four, the two 22-year-olds were key in destabilising a West Ham team which looked far more sturdy than in recent weeks. West Ham’s last four Premier League games had produced a combined total of 21 goals between them. They have been the league’s most entertaining team over the last month, providing almost as much drama on the pitch as the ‘Big Six’ have generated off it, but such an approach is far from sustainable in the race for Champions League qualification. Moyes knows this, and he has made it clear after some of their recent chaotic victories. It has been too open at times, with too much back-and-forth within matches, and it was therefore no surprise that he set up his team in a far more compact formation here. This was a return to the sort of football that got West Ham into this position in the first place: organised, solid and willing to counter-attack when the chances arose. Chelsea therefore had to be precise in picking their moments, looking for the small spaces that might lead to goalscoring opportunities. The task fell primarily to Mount and Pulisic, who had started at the top of Tuchel’s midfield “box”. Mount roamed to the right for much of the first half, pulling wide and then darting inside, while Pulisic did the same from the left.

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