LONDON, Substitute Andriy Yarmolenko marked a remarkable West Ham United appearance with a dramatic late goal to take his side on Wednesday's precious 3-2 Premier League victory over Chelsea.
With a topsy-turvy derby on a knife edge at 2-2 the Ukrainian, who made his first appearance for six months as a late substitute in their 2-0 loss by Wolves, was added in the 78th minute.
With Chelsea pressing for a late winner, West Ham counter-attacked and Pablo Fornals played in Yarmolenko who sliced a shot past Kepa Arrizabalaga inside Antonio Rudiger before slipping.
Inside the London Stadium, there were no West Ham fans but the joyful roars of the players blowing around the empty arena showed exactly what this victory meant.
"I know that Yarmolenko can achieve a score. He does have a good record. I felt that the time had come to make a move, "said West Ham boss David Moyes. "At the point, at 2-2, we were up against it but the players kept at it and we got a result.
"When you cross 40 (points) you 're going to be free in the Premier League and we're going to have to target for that tally. This means probably winning another three games.
Only the consistently bad form of their relegation rivals held West Ham out of the drop zone after three consecutive defeats without scoring but victory lifted them over Watford with 30 points, three above drop zone, to 16th place.
Chelsea is trying to kick themselves off. Victory would have put them third above Leicester City but now their dreams of a Champions League spot are under pressure, with Manchester United and Wolves in hot form.
It was a generally classic derby.
In the 34th minute, Tomas Soucek obviously prodded West Ham into the lead only for VAR to rule that a grounded Michail Antonio was fractionally offside.
Minutes later West Ham must have assumed their luck was certainly out when Christian Pulisic went down under Issa Diop 's challenge and Willian slotted the penalty home.
Soucek headed the hosts level from a corner on the verge of half-time and then the hard-working Antonio scored from close range in the 51st minute after Jarrod Bowen played in a low cross.
Willian curved a free kick off the post in the 72nd minute to punish a badly positioned Lukasz Fabianski.
So in a frenetic conclusion it was Yarmolenko's unlikely figure who was to have the final say as West Ham for the first time since 2002-03 sealed a league double over Chelsea.
