West Ham United are set to be without all four senior centre-backs for their next Premier League game at home against Arsenal on May 1, following Craig Dawson's red card in the 1-0 defeat at Chelsea on Sunday.
With the Hammers goalless against the Blues heading into the final five minutes at Stamford Bridge, Dawson was deemed to have denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity when he pulled back Romelu Lukaku inside the penalty area, with the initial yellow card given by referee Michael Oliver upgraded to a red following a look at VAR's pitchside monitor.
Jorginho's saw his tame effort from the resulting spot kick saved by Lukasz Fabianski, but West Ham were dealt a crushing blow in the 90th minute when substitute Christian Pulisic tucked away a left-footed strike to condemn David Moyes's men to their fourth successive away league defeat.
West Ham are already having to cope without Angelo Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma and Issa Diop due to injury, with all three centre-backs set to miss the rest of the season.
Dawson will now serve a one-match Premier League suspension, meaning the Hammers will have no senior centre-back options available for their next league game against Arsenal at the London Stadium.
West Ham will, however, be able to select Dawson for the first leg of their Europa League semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.
Moyes opted to use a back five against Chelsea, which included Aaron Creswell and Ben Johnson at centre-back alongside Dawson, while Vladimir Coufal and Arthur Masuaku operated as wing-backs.
Declan Rice came off the bench for the final half-hour and slotted into defence when Dawson was dismissed; the 23-year-old is seemingly the most likely candidate to start at centre-back against Arsenal next weekend.
West Ham remain seventh in in the Premier League table, eight points behind Arsenal in fourth place having played a game more than the Gunners.
Oliver Thomas
