Both teams will hope to open their scoring account for the season in a fixture that last finished goalless back in 2018. Chelsea’s stalemate at home to a resolute Crystal Palace came despite 19 shots, an expected goals tally of 1.6 and a host of promising debuts, especially quicksilver teenager Estevao Willian.

The Hammers, meanwhile, started the season with a 3-0 loss at newly-promoted Sunderland and are on a run of 10 defeats and just five wins from their last 20 fixtures.

When Chelsea and West Ham met at Stamford Bridge in February, Graham Potter’s first visit since leaving in April 2023, a late own goal by Aaron Wan-Bissaka settled the game 2-1 in our favour.

The Blues’ most recent visit to the London Stadium in September ended in a 3-0 rout, with Nicolas Jackson scoring twice then setting up Cole Palmer for the third. Enzo Maresca’s side will hope to extend our current run of three straight wins against the Hammers, with 10 goals scored and one conceded.

The history

Chelsea’s most recent Premier League Friday under floodlights came at home to Manchester United on 16 May 2025 – Marc Cucurella pouncing for the only goal to lift the Londoners into fourth place. The previous experience, on Valentine’s night, was a very bad dating experience – a 3-0 loss at Brighton.

Of course the FIFA Club World Cup served up two Friday games, beginning with a 3-1 defeat by Flamengo for the 10 men of Chelsea. Then came a red letter day for Estevao Willian, who scored for Palmeiras against his future club – though the Blues prevailed 2-1 thanks to Cole Palmer’s opener and Weverton’s own goal.

The Blues’ first Good Friday match in 1906, during our debut season, was a keenly anticipated showdown between Division Two promotion aspirants Chelsea and Man Utd. It attracted a then-record 67,000 league crowd to Stamford Bridge, but the 1-1 draw did the hosts no favours and elevation had to wait another year.

On 4 May 1984, United’s cross-town rivals Manchester City hosted the Londoners in Division Two, as the BBC’s Match Of The Day Live cameras covered a match from England’s second tier for the first time. Two goals in six second-half minutes from Pat Nevin and Kerry Dixon settled the score in favour of the already-promoted Blues.

Friday coverage became semi-regular again from 2016/17, but back in 1992 Sky pioneered ‘a whole new ball game’, and on 12 December Middlesbrough’s glamorous Ayresome Park was the setting for Chelsea’s bow on Friday Night Football. Ian Porterfield’s team, seeking a ninth win in 11 games, had to settle for a 0-0 draw – but briefly rose to second in the new Premier League table.

Know this...

Chelsea’s three defeats to West Ham in our past 11 meetings have all come at the London Stadium.

Sunday’s 0-0 draw extended the Blues’ unbeaten league run against Crystal Palace to 16 games.

The Hammers have won only twice at home in the league all year and are on a run of five without victory at the London Stadium since March.

Chelsea’s centre-backs delivered the most accurate passes over the opening Premier League weekend – Trevoh Chalobah top-scored with 92 and an accuracy rate of 91.09 per cent, while Josh Acheampong was next with 87 and 93.55 per cent.

Overall, Man City were the only team to manage higher passing accuracy (88.7 per cent) than the 86.8 per cent recorded by Enzo Maresca’s side.

Against the Blues, Palace completed the fewest passes of any top-flight team over the opening weekend – 184.