Summary Chelsea suffered a disappointing 3-1 loss to West Ham United in their first London derby of the season. Mykhailo Mudryk, who has yet to score a competitive goal for Chelsea, missed a clear opportunity to score in the 85th minute of the match. Mudryk's poor performance was highlighted by his dismal volley, numerous mistakes, and low statistics, making it another bad day for the 22-year-old winger.
For all the hope there has been over the summer at Chelsea thanks to the arrival of new manager Mauricio Pochettino, reality hit hard this weekend as his side lost badly away from home.
What happened in Chelsea vs West Ham?
Indeed, playing in their first London derby of the season, the Blues were beaten 3-1 in a chaotic Premier League match against West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Nayef Aguerd opened the scoring as he headed in from debutant James Ward-Prowse's corner after just seven minutes. Before halftime, though, Chelsea were deservedly level thanks to a fine goal from Carney Chukwuemeka – who just this week had been talking about how good the "vibes" now were at Stamford Bridge.
Well, the mood would have dropped somewhat when Enzo Fernandez missed a penalty before Michail Antonio then scored completely against the run of play to make it 2-1.
Aguerd, however, had a moment of madness and was rightfully booked for a rash lunge. Having already picked up a yellow card earlier in the match, he received his marching orders.
This left Chelsea with over 20 minutes to pick up a result against the 10-man Hammers and Moises Caicedo was brought on for his debut to help the cause but only succeeded in giving away a late penalty, allowing Lucas Paqueta to seal the 3-1 win.
Before then, with the game still in the balance, Mykhailo Mudryk came on at halftime for an injured Chukwuemeka and the winger's inability to change the game for the good is perhaps where things went wrong for Pochettino and co.
How many goals does Mykhaylo Mudryk have?
The 22-year-old has yet to score a competitive goal for the Blues, having now featured 19 times for them in all competitions after arriving last January for a reported £88.5m fee (and in his whole club career he only has 12 senior goals).
Read the latest Chelsea transfer news HERE…
Last week he wasted a glorious opportunity to grab his first against Liverpool but couldn't hold his nerve late on as he raced through on goal, and so that match ended 1-1.
Well, in this next match for Chelsea against West Ham, he had another big opportunity to get on the scoresheet but completely fluffed his lines in the 85th minute when Raheem Sterling picked him out unmarked at the back post.
As you can see in the footage shared on Reddit below, Mudryk arrives with perfect timing but his technique on the volley is so poor his shot flies into the air, goes backwards remaining in play as Sterling is then flagged offside for retrieving the unintentional one-two.
This screenshot on Twitter also perfectly captures just how much time and space he had.
The poor volley was also referenced in his 3/10 player rating score given by Nizaar Kinsella of the Evening Standard, who slammed Mudryk as he wrote: "His first time volley going out for a throw in on the 85th minute mark summed up a dismal half."
It wasn't the only poor moment for the Ukrainian winger either, as noted in the player ratings for 90min (in which he got a lowly 4/10), journalist Jude Summerfield noted: "One chance to shoot after a great touch was followed by a comical slip."
You can see that slip here:
As per SofaScore, his stats don't make for pretty reading either. After all, he lost the ball 10 times in his half, which is twice as many as Chukwuemeka managed in the first 45 minutes.
Mudryk also had the same amount of toches as goalkeeper Robert Sanchez (29). And he didn't do much good when he had the ball, as he had a lowly 76% pass accuracy, completed just 3/7 attempted crosses and the aforementioned awful volley was his only shot.
All in all, unfortunately, it was another bad day at the office for the 22-year-old.