Tammy Abraham completes Chelsea comeback to snatch draw at West Brom

The least one expects from any team, let alone one that this week took their spending for the window beyond £200m, is desire. Chelsea showed that here, along with a belated smattering of quality, to save face and salvage a point after practically giving away three goals. In the first half Frank Lampard’s team were wasteful up front and truly rubbish at the back and looked set to be humiliated by the Premier’s League supposed whipping boys. For a long time West Brom, well organised and clinical, offered a perfect contrast to ramshackle visitors, with Callum Robinson scoring twice and Kyle Bartley adding a third to send the hosts in at half-time with a three‑goal lead. Chelsea improved sufficiently after the break to draw level thanks to goals by a trio of homegrown players, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi finding the net before Tammy Abraham struck in stoppage time. The only change Bilic was able to make from the 5-2 defeat by Everton was to draft in Conor Townsend for the suspended Kieran Gibbs. Compare that with Lampard’s de luxe options: he gave a start here, and the captaincy, to Thiago Silva, for whom the trip to the Hawthorns turned out to be clumsy first steps in his attempt to add a Premier League title to the 18 trophies he won with Paris Saint-Germain. Lampard also elected to consign the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, to the bench even though Édouard Mendy, the £22m replacement signed from Rennes this week, was not ready for a debut. Willy Caballero began in goal instead, leaving Arrizabalaga to wonder if last week’s blunder against Liverpool was the last he will ever be allowed to make for Chelsea. His absence certainly did not spell the end of his side’s mistakes. The visitors helped West Brom to take the lead after just four minutes. Marcos Alonso was the chief culprit, heading the ball straight to Matheus Pereira, who slipped a clever pass through to Robinson, who fired a shot from the left-hand corner of the area beyond Caballero. Full report here