It was unconvincing and Enzo Maresca will continue to stress that his team remain a long way from a Champions League return. But after the Chelsea head coach recently lamented his side’s penchant for letting leads slip, he will have taken confidence from how they battled back against a gritty West Ham to move up to fourth. With an hour gone it looked like Irons boss Graham Potter would enjoy sweet redemption against the club that sacked him after seven difficult months.

Jarrod Bowen had put them in front late in the first half as Chelsea again struggled to be clinical. But a quartet of substitutions early in the second half alongside Cole Palmer’s continued brilliance turned the derby around. Pedro Neto fired home the leveller from a rebound before Palmer danced his way into the penalty area and forced an own goal out of the unlucky Aaron Wan-Bissaka. West Ham’s shape may have been conservative but they pressed hungrily with both Bowen and Mohamed Kudus charging forward at the sniff of any Chelsea dawdling.

And the sight of Filip Jorgensen, who replaced error-prone Robert Sanchez in the home goal, miscontrolling an early pass offered the visitors belief that they could capitalise. Bowen, back after five weeks out from a fractured foot, offered the game’s first attempt on target when trying his luck from an acute angle that Jorgensen had covered. But Chelsea always looked the more creative, even if 45 minutes passed before Alphonse Areola made a save.

Palmer was blocked by Vladimir Coufal before Noni Madueke whipped a whisker wide after a clever through ball from Nicolas Jackson. Palmer drilled over from range, Enzo Fernandez tried his luck and Aaron Cresswell cut out a Jadon Sancho centre when several in blue were queuing up behind him. Yet home frustrations were visibly building nearing the interval as Kudus brought another save out of Jorgensen and Sancho struck high and wide at the other end.

Then came Bowen’s sucker punch. Areola punted a long pass for Tomas Soucek to knock down towards Kudus and Levi Colwill. But the Chelsea centre half could not deal with the pressure and sent a weak pass in from his left flank for Bowen to gratefully intercept. His finish was a beauty, stitched into the bottom right corner. Areola was called into meaningful goalkeeping action in added time by getting a strong hand to a Palmer free-kick that looked destined for the top right corner.

The French stopper smothered another Palmer shot moments later. Emerson and Cresswell both drilled first-time strikes over before Maresca introduced Neto, Marc Guiu and Christopher Nkunku to a reshuffled attack. And Neto levelled when driving home a rebound after Enzo Fernandez’s attempt was blocked by Wan-Bissaka. Kudus directed a free header off the post - although he would have been flagged offside - as West Ham pushed to retake the lead.

But all their hard work was undone by a failure to close Palmer down as his flash across goal took a big deflection off Wan-Bissaka and the ball spun over Areola and in. Kudus saw an effort to equalise blocked four minutes into added time. Join our new WhatsApp communityand receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.