Next Wednesday, 4th of March 2015, an extremely moralized Chelsea will travel to Upton Park to measure forces with a free falling West Ham for round 28 of the English Premier League, on a match where the Blues will certainly try to extend their already solid lead at the top of table and continue with their recent quality moment.

Chelsea’s motivation levels are sky high after their win at the Capital One Cup final in Wembley against their neighbours and rivals Tottenham last Sunday. The Blues were by far the better team during the entire match and they have not only deserved their win but have also managed to avenge the heavy defeat the Spurs had imposed on them at White Hart Lane on the first day of the new year. José Mourinho has proven once again that he is an expert when it comes to winning finals and granted Chelsea their third League Cup over the last ten years.

Although some pundits claim that Chelsea are not at their best currently, the truth is they keep collecting good results, with the exception of their home draw against Burnley and the surprising home defeat against the modest Bradford, the remaining results have been fairly positive. The Blues are a stone cold team that is planning on winning the competitions in which they are still involved and sometimes this amount of ambition forces teams to decrease the quality of their game and opt for something less impressive but at the same time effective to win the matches.

The upcoming clash against West Ham will certainly not be a walk in the park for Chelsea, especially because it is a London derby, and those type of matches are always special for both sides, no matter how comfortable they are on the league table. For that particular fixture, José Mourinho will not be able to rely on the contribution of Nemanja Matic, who is suspended and on Mikel, who is still recovering from his respective injury.

As for West Ham, the Hammers are far from being living a dream lately as they have failed to win any of their last six official matches. The London team has surprisingly been defeated by Crystal Palace at home last weekend and casted another rusty nail on their already perforated coffin. With their confidence levels completely floored, the Hammers will need to come up with something very special if they want to disturb the current EPL leaders next Wednesday at Upton Park, otherwise they risk being severely punished by their neighbours and rivals and at the same time conceed their ninth defeat of the season.

West Ham

Stats: W-0 L-2 D-3

Recent Form - LDLDD

Chelsea

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WDDWW

Possible Line-ups

West Ham (4-3-3) - Adrian -Jenkinson - Tomkins - Reid - Cresswell - Kouyate - Noble - Song - Downing - Sakho - Valencia

Chelsea (4-3-3) – Courtois - Ivanovic - Terry - Cahill - Filipe Luis - Ramires - Fàbregas - Óscar - Hazard - Willian - Diego Costa

Prediction

West Ham 0 Chelsea 2