Benitez banks on old guard to bail him out

West Ham 3 Chelsea 1

The players in question, as ever, are Frank Lampard and John Terry. The manager this time is Rafa Benitez. The emergency, as ever, is Chelsea and their trigger-happy owner whose irresponsible passion for sacking managers has left his team struggling for form, confidence and consistency.

Andre Villas-Boas will certainly empathise with the situation Benitez finds himself in; as will Carlo Ancelotti and probably Avram Grant too — after all, if legend is to be believed, the Israeli made it all the way to the Champions League final by allowing Terry and his deputy to run the team.

For Benitez, four years on, it is a more difficult. Terry, who will be 32 this week, and Lampard, who is 34, are older, slower and more injury prone — and of course the club captain has been involved in off-field controversies that must surely have sapped his energy reserves.

But as the pair return to training after long-term injuries you get a sense that Benitez — still reeling from Saturday’s horrendous defeat at West Ham — can’t get them in his squad quick enough.

Chelsea have a huge Champions League tie against Nordsjaelland on Wednesday — a match they must win — followed by an awkward away trip to Sunderland three days later.

Then, the very next morning, Benitez’s already-stretched squad fly to Japan for the Club World Cup in Yokohama while their championship rivals remain at home.

So no wonder Terry and Lampard, who will be both be included in the squad for Japan, were the names on Rafa’s lips as he assessed the damage done by a miserable second-half display at Upton Park that saw his team, who went ahead through Juan Mata, completely unable to react to a change of tactics from the hosts.

Chelsea need the kind of self-confidence, organisational ability and competitive spirit that Terry and Lampard bring, no matter what their level of fitness, especially when you listen to Benitez’s assessment of Saturday’s defeat.

“The first half, we were on top of them. We had the confidence, the chances, a lot of space we could use, a lot of positive things,” he said. “But the second half everything changed. We did not manage the physicality of the other team, the long balls, the second balls, the corners. That is when you have to show character and quality. We did not do that.”

It’s the kind of statement you can imagine hearing in the Jose Mourinho era when Chelsea were so organised and confident with Terry and Lampard at the heart of it. But Benitez insists things have changed.

“It is a different time. We have young players in their first year in the Premier League. It is very physical and if you cannot cope with that you cannot play.

“You cannot just have quality and that’s it. You have to change things, adjust position, attitude, the way you play. Sometimes you cannot play on the floor, you have to clear the lines.”

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce certainly smelt Chelsea’s weaknesses and exposed it. Chelsea were impressive in the first 45 minutes as they created several excellent chances, including the cut-back from Fernando Torres that Mata swept home to put them ahead. But Allardyce brought on midfield enforcer Mohamed Diame and Matt Taylor to halt them in the tracks, set up his team to be more direct and to deny Chelsea space — and then sat back and watched it all work out just as he planned.

Carlton Cole climbed all over Branislav Ivanovic to head the equaliser after 63 minutes before Diame fired home in the 86th minute and, in a frantic finale, substitute Modibo Maiga (following a poor pass from Ashley Cole) made the game safe. It means Chelsea have gone winless in seven Premier League matches in-a-row for the first time since 1995.

The away fans were unforgiving; and chants ranged from ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ to ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ when Benitez took off Eden Hazard in a match that means he has no wins and only one goal in three games.

Allardyce, as you would imagine, revelled in it all. It was after all a tactical victory against an old adversary.

“Chelsea have got some quality players, outstanding players. But in the second half they didn’t quite show as much resilience as they needed,” he said pointedly. “They couldn’t change the way they played to cope with us. I think they’re missing John Terry. I think they’re missing leadership.”

WEST HAM: Jaaskelainen 7, Demel 6, Collins 7, Reid 6, O’Brien 6, Tomkins 5 (Taylor, 46; 8), Noble 7, O’Neil 5 (Diame 46; 9), Nolan 8, Jarvis 7, Cole 7 (Maiga 87).

CHELSEA: Cech 7, Azpilicueta 6, Ivanovic 5, Cahill 6, Cole 6, Mikel 5, Ramires 6, Moses 7 (Marin 78; 6), Hazard 6 (Oscar 73; 6), Mata 7, Torres 5.

Referee: Martin Atkinson.