Match Report: Chelsea see red again and are beaten 2-1 by Fulham in front of new manager

Chelsea’s miserable form continued as the Blues were beaten 2-1 by Fulham with incoming manager Liam Rosenior watching from the stands.

As so often in the last few years, the turning point was a red card for a Chelsea player. After a solid opening 20 minutes where the Blues were finding their feet in the game, a simple punt up the field from Fulham goalie Bernd Leno found Harry Wilson, who was brought down on the edge of the box by Marc Cucurella, who walked.

From there it was damage control, and it felt inevitable that Fulham would score, which they did shortly after half time. Chelsea continued to fight, and after a period of pressure they scored through Liam Delap, who bagged his first Premier League goal for the Blues after a corner dropped perfectly to him off the post.

But the visitors couldn’t hold that lead, and after one goal was ruled out of offside Wilson was given another chance and his hot streak continued as he found the bottom corner with a lovely strike.

Another game, another defeat, another tumble down the table. Despite the hope that a new coach can change things, there are some problems which aren’t going away.

MOTM – Liam Delap

Analysis

It’s hard to analyse the game tactically because it was changed so much by the red card. We were interested to see the new setup with Andrey Santos in midfield and Cole Palmer pushed to the right, but Santos was the man taken off for a new left back after Cucurella saw red.

Despite the denials of every manager who takes a press conference, discipline is clearly an issue at Chelsea. The red card was just poor cost-benefit analysis from Cucurella, who should have just let Wilson shoot, and even score, rather than bring him down. But the THREE yellows for dissent that followed are absurd and need to be eliminated.

That’s Rosenior’s first job right there.

Teams

Fulham
Bernd Leno
Issa Diop
Joachim Andersen
Jorge Cuenca
Timothy Castagne
Sander Berge
Tom Cairney
Antonee Robinson
Harry Wilson
Emile Smith Rowe
Raul Jimenez

Substitutes
Benjamin Lecomte
Harrison Reed (on 83′)
Adama Traore (on 90′)
Jonah Kusi-Asare
Sasa Lukic (on 73′)
Kevin de Macedo (on 46′)
Ryan Sessegnon (on 73′)
Samuel Amissah
Seth Ridgeon

Chelsea
Robert Sanchez
Malo Gusto
Trevoh Chalobah
Tosin Adarabioyo
Marc Cucurella
Andrey Santos
Moises Caicedo
Cole Palmer
Enzo Fernandez
Pedro Neto
Liam Delap

Substitutes
Filip Jorgensen
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
Joao Pedro de Jesus (on 75′)
Jorrel Hato (on 28′)
Reece James (on 65′)
Wesley Fofana
Josh Acheampong (on 76′)
Estevao de Oliveira
Alejandro Garnacho

Stats

Quote of the game

“It’s not a cultural issue, it’s probably the feeling and emotion of the game. They let their emotions boil over, just like I did when I got a yellow card.” – Calum McFarlane reveals he doesn’t know what a cultural issue is.