Liam Rosenior praised his Chelsea players for making history at Stamford Bridge after they staged a stunning comeback to turn a two-goal deficit at halftime into a Premier League victory for the first time.

Until now, Chelsea had never managed to win a match in this league after trailing by such a margin at the break. The game concluded with a heated altercation involving West Ham, during which Jean-Clair Todibo received a red card for grabbing Joao Pedro by the neck.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s team was fortunate not to have more players sent off as tensions flared in the closing moments of this thrilling London derby. Chelsea clinched the win in stoppage time thanks to a goal from Enzo Fernandez.

“There are many positives and areas we need to improve on. I’m not avoiding that,” said Rosenior. “But witnessing the heart, mentality, and spirit of the group, along with their second-half performance, makes me extremely happy.”

He continued, “The biggest takeaway is the spirit, fight, and resilience in this group, which I’ve insisted on since day one. Although we haven’t had many training sessions, we emphasized the importance of reacting positively to setbacks.”

Liam Rosenior reacts to Chelsea scoring their late winner over West Ham at Stamford Bridge

Rosenior added, “We discussed responses to losing possession, pressing, energy, and intensity. All of that emerged in the second half, which was lacking in the first. It’s not just about the changes I made; it’s challenging, but the team’s second-half reaction shows we have something special here if I can manage the squad effectively.”

West Ham deserved their half-time lead through Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville after an abysmal first 45 minutes from Chelsea, with loud boos from those inside Stamford Bridge.

However, Rosenior’s triple substitution helped turn this match around as the new trio – Joao Pedro, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana – all played big parts in Chelsea’s three goals.

Fofana assisted Joao Pedro for Chelsea’s first goal before Cucurella’s diving header made it 2-2. Two minutes into stoppage time, Joao Pedro set up Fernandez for their dramatic winner.

When Adama Traore threw Cucurella to the ground in anger before the end of the game, a gigantic shoving match broke out between both sides. Traore avoided a red card, along with Konstantinos Mavropanos, who appeared to try to slap Cole Palmer. 

But Todibo was not so fortunate as referee Anthony Taylor was sent to his pitch-side monitor to see how he grabbed Joao Pedro by the neck with both hands and showed the West Ham defender a straight red card for violent conduct.

‘I haven’t seen the images,’ Espirito Santo said. ‘There was confusion. A lot of stress for both teams. I need to see the images.’ 

On Todibo now set to miss three matches for West Ham at a crucial time, the Hammers boss added: ‘That is disappointing but I have to see the images so I can judge properly what happened. VAR intervened. They saw the images.’

Espirito Santo added on the game itself: ‘We controlled, we scored, we combined well. The first half was really good. The second half, we started well, but we allowed Chelsea to react.’

Enzo Fernandez scored in stoppage time to complete the comeback from 2-0 down 

Asked about the Chelsea fans’ anger at the moment, amid so many changes happening at their club, Rosenior said: ‘It’s on me. I hope in time they’ll say it’s the best decision this club’s ever made. But I can’t focus on that. This is a really proud club with an incredible tradition, history, recent history of winning trophies. They want that and I want that, too.

‘For a manager to come in midway through a season with not many sessions and have six wins out of seven games, it’s not a bad way to start. 

‘As long as the team showed a fight and the energy and the intensity that they did in that second half, the fans showed that they’ll be with us and they’ll support us and I’m really enjoying being part of this football club.’

This victory came after Chelsea’s comeback versus Napoli to finish in the Champions League’s top eight, which was also inspired by a half-time substitute. Rosenior brought on Cole Palmer, who assisted both of Joao Pedro’s goals to secure that win.