Tag: Fulham

Chelsea continued their unbeaten start to the Premier League (PL) season with a 2-0 victory over Fulham at Stamford Bridge, a result that means they have now lost just one of their past 12 league games.

It has been another busy week in the transfer window for Chelsea, with Christopher Nkunku joining AC Milan and Nicolas Jackson closing in on a loan move to Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, an imminent new arrival, Alejandro Garnacho, was in the stands to watch his future employers struggle against a well-drilled Fulham outfit during the first 45 minutes. There were early half-chances for João Pedro and Liam Delap, but the latter’s hamstring injury around the quarter-hour mark threw the hosts off-kilter, with the Cottagers subsequently causing plenty of problems.

In fact, they thought they had taken the lead midway through the half when 18-year-old Josh King finished off a counter-attack for what would have been his first PL goal. However, much to the chagrin of Marco Silva, who was apoplectic in his protests, the goal was ruled out as Rodrigo Muniz was judged to have fouled Trevoh Chalobah in the build-up.

As the first half progressed, Chelsea did improve slightly, and only an instinctive Bernd Leno save denied Tyrique George, yet from the resulting corner, Pedro headed Enzo Fernández’s ball home to give the Blues a perhaps undeserved HT lead.

Not long after the restart, VAR was again Silva’s nemesis as Chelsea doubled their lead. Chalobah’s cross hit the raised arm of Ryan Sessegnon and, after a trip to the pitchside monitor, referee Rob Jones pointed to the spot. From 12 yards, Fernández made no mistake to give Enzo Maresca’s men breathing space.

That second strike knocked the stuffing out of Fulham and, had Pedro not been caught in two minds when one-on-one with Leno, the home team’s margin of victory may well have been greater.

Ultimately, the Blues had to make do with just the two goals, but that is enough to temporarily take them to the top of the table. On the other hand, Fulham, and particularly Silva, will feel aggrieved with the manner in which they were defeated by their local rivals. It means they are still waiting for their first win of the season, although this is also their opening loss in all competitions.

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Chelsea secured a huge win in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) race as they battled back from behind late on to win 2-1 away to Fulham in the Premier League, ending their eight-match unbeaten away league run in the process.

Victories against Chelsea have been few and far between down the years for Fulham, but they thought they’d got off to the perfect start against the Blues here when Andreas Pereira poked home from inside the six-yard box.

Unfortunately for the Brazilian, the offside flag and a brief VAR check ruled that there were a couple of offsides in the build-up.

That only served as a temporary reprieve for the Blues, who soon found themselves behind.

They were the masters of their own downfall in that sense, as Reece James had his pocket picked by Ryan Sessegnon, who strode forward, found Alex Iwobi on the edge of the area, and drilled a left-footed effort from the edge of the area into the bottom corner.

Chelsea responded fairly well to falling behind, pinning Fulham in their own half at times, but creating any clear-cut opportunities was proving problematic for the UCL chasers.

Chants of “attack, attack, attack” by Chelsea fans for the second week running certainly weren’t helping their cause, but the fans were far from shy in making their feelings known.

The Blues heeded the plea from their travelling supporters after the break and did create a clear-cut sight of goal.

HT substitute Malo Gusto was involved, as his cross worked its way to the feet of Pedro Neto, but his wicked drive from 12 yards was blocked by the legs of Bernd Leno.

Enzo Maresca was looking to his senior players to dig them out of the mire, and when Cole Palmer broke into the box and worked a yard of space, it looked like they’d done just that.

But when he skewed his effort horribly wide, it appeared it wasn’t going to be Chelsea’s day.

Parked inside the Fulham half for most of the second 45, Chelsea were giving themselves a great chance of drawing level, and they eventually did so through academy graduate Tyrique George, who pounced on a loose ball and arrowed an effort into the bottom corner.

Chelsea had all the momentum going into the closing stages, and they translated that dominance into a late winner.

There was nothing fortunate about it either, as Pedro Neto controlled, swivelled, and thundered an effort into the roof of Leno’s net to send the away end into raptures and move Chelsea into the top five.

Defeat isn’t catastrophic to Fulham, but they did miss the chance to move into eighth, which could be enough for a European spot come the end of the season, depending on who wins the FA Cup.

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