Mauricio Pochettino suffers first Chelsea loss as Blues’ unfamiliarity

LONDON — A spending spree running towards the billion-pound mark can bring you many things, including a collection of some of the most heralded young talent in the global game. What it cannot bring you, on the evidence of proceedings in east London, is a team that has learned what to do when the opposition hands it a lifeline.

This will be a match that comes to be defined by two penalties, one missed by Enzo Fernandez, another conceded by Moises Caicedo, Chelsea’s two £100 million-plus midfielders making the wrong sort of decisive contribution in the same penalty area. It ought to have been a game that pivoted on Nayef Aguerd’s clumsy challenge on Nicolas Jackson with more than 20 minutes left to play. West Ham might have been leading 2-1 and there might be few teams better equipped to manage a man disadvantage than one managed by David Moyes, but the game was there for the taking by anyone in blue prepared to get a grip. No one could or would.

Chelsea’s forlorn pursuit of an equalizer reflected a club still in search for its ringmaster on and off the pitch. The ball was cycled from flank to flank only for crosses to be punted in the direction of the titans that patrolled West Ham’s box. The hosts had looked vulnerable in the extreme when Raheem Sterling and Carney Chukwuemeka had squeezed into the space between their defensive lines before the interval. Their total collapse in invention cannot be attributed to the latter’s exit with what looks to be a worrying knee injury.