Garett T Switzer: I am a Chelsea fan, and this is not sarcasm or hyperbole; West Ham should have walked off the pitch. This is not a situation where "it's kind of harsh" or "could have gone either way". Enough is enough. They literally sent off a player for kicking the ball.

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Yep. All over.

Advantage Chelsea in the race for the top four.

I suspect we'll hear more about the red card than the result in the aftermath, though.

Tammy Abraham with a chance to add what would probably be an unnecessary second, heading over a cross that is just a fraction too high for him from point-blank range.

That is likely your lot.

Chris Kavanagh is now dishing out yellow cards.

Kante gets one for a foul. Mendy has one too for wasting time.

Coufal does almost exactly the same thing that Balbuena did to get sent off, kicking through the ball and catching Rudiger.

Nobodty wants that to be a red card either, but it highlights another issue with VAR - the utter lack of consistency.

Oh, who are we kidding. It's a mess.

Said Benrahma goes for glory from range but it is the wrong choice. He slices his effort well wide.

There will be five added minutes.

West Ham will give it all they have.

Benrahma drops the shoulder to beat his man down the left but his cross is flicked away by a Chelsea defender.

Hakim Ziyech is set up for a shot from distance but he pulls it wide. As you'd expect, that game has taken much of the life out of West Ham.

Awful decision to ruin what could have been an entertaining last 10 minutes.

Chelsea send on Reece James for Cesar Azpilicueta. Tammy Abraham also gets a shirt run-out, coming on for Timo Werner.

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What is Balbuena meant to do with his foot there? He's made the clearance. It would take some serious body mechanics to then halt the momentum.

Ben Johnson is on for Ryan Fredericks.

Richard Vaughan: You are absolutely kidding me. Balbuena clears the ball, how is he meant to avoid not following through? That is a complete joke. If that’s intentional, so is the handball up the other end. Simple as that.

We're wading back into the VAR debate again.

Chilwell was caught in the follow-through. The law stipulates (and VAR enables) a decision like that.

But is it really something we want to see red cards for? I don't think so.

It is red.

For me, that's harsh.

I think Balbuena is in trouble here. It tends to be a bad sign when the referee is called over to take a look at numerous slow-motion replays.

Video Assistant Refereepublished at 19:05 British Summer Time 24 April 2021

19:05 BST 24 April 2021

West Ham 0-1 Chelsea

Oh. Ow. Chilwell has taken a big rake down the calf from Balbuena in his follow-through after a clearance.

VAR is going to check this for serious foul play.

It doesn't look intentional but that's not the issue.

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