Fulham have no less than briefly damaged into the top six within the Premier League and have clearly put their title ahead for the race for the spots guaranteeing a marketing campaign in Europe subsequent time period. They did it in fashion, by beating Chelsea 2-1 at Craven Cottage on Thursday, with former Blues winger Willian breaking the impasse within the twenty fifth minute, Kalidou Koulibaly equalizing for the guests simply after the break, and Carlos Vinicus heading the winner in with 17 minutes left on the clock.
Chelsea in disaster
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With simply 25 points from 18 matches thus far, Chelsea’s place in subsequent season’s Champions League is now within the realm of fantasy, even when it hasn’t been utterly dominated out but. They’ve gained simply two of their final 11 matches in all competitions, and it painfully clear that their cart is in a ditch.
Ever since Todd Boehly took management of the membership following the pressured exit of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have been making an attempt to remain aggressive by quite a few costly signings, strengthening their choices in each division. They used an early patch of poor type as an excuse to let Thomas Tuchel go away and introduced in Graham Potter to interchange him, however now there’s loads of hypothesis about the potential for the previous Brighton and Hove Albion supervisor shedding his job as properly.
There’s loads of high quality within the Chelsea ranks, and so they’ve proven, significantly within the first half of their 0-1 Premier League defeat to Manchester City, that they will really play properly towards top opposition once they set their minds to it. That, nonetheless, hasn’t been the case practically sufficient this season and therein lie the issues.
Injuries haven’t helped, that’s for positive. Chelsea now have an entire XI out of motion. But the gamers who can be found are (or ought to be) ok to grind outcomes.
Potter has been making an attempt to rotate wherever it was cheap to attempt that method, giving a few younger prospects some essential game-time. Lewis Hall, 19, is certainly one of them, and he began this match forward of Marc Cucurella. Potter0 additionally switched to a again three system, permitting for Trevoh Chalobah (20) to hitch seasoned centre-backs Thiago Silva and Koulibaly in that line, however the teenager struggled tremendously on that aspect, with the Fulham duo of Willian and Antonee Robinson proving a handful and captain Cesar Azpilicueta not doing sufficient to assist.
It was a wierd state of affairs which led to Willian’s opener, as Azpilicueta stood in entrance of his former teammate and as an alternative of exhibiting him large and forcing him onto his weaker left foot, allowed the Brazilian to chop inside and shoot. Not solely is Azpilicueta skilled sufficient to learn such moments higher, however he additionally is aware of Willian fairly properly and it’s laborious to elucidate why didn’t react higher, or no less than smarter.
Kepa Arrizabalaga has solely added to Potter’s issues with a few questionable moments lately, and this
Joao Felix – The dream turns into a nightmare
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Just 24 hours after becoming a member of the membership on mortgage from Atletico Madrid, Joao Felix was named to start out upfront beside Kai Havertz and his efficiency was very full of life for 57 minutes. He was concerned in the whole lot good Chelsea did within the opposition half straight, and by halftime, the sensation was that his title showing on the scoresheet on this match was a matter of time.
But in that 58th minute, he inexplicably slid into Fulham defender Kenny Tete along with his studs exhibiting, and whereas some would argue that there was no malice supposed, there might be little question that referee David Coote made the appropriate name when he raised the purple card towards the Portugal worldwide. What had been wanting like a high-quality debut for the membership broke into 1,000,000 items, significantly with a three-game ban that accompanies direct purple playing cards in thoughts.
Felix left Atletico in disagreeable circumstances, having fallen out with head coach Diego Simeone. It turned painfully apparent {that a} participant like him, artistic, technically very gifted and suited to an attacking model of soccer, had no enterprise becoming a member of a group like Atletico – a group the place defensive duties bear absolutely the precedence over the whole lot else and the place a certain quantity of so-called “dark arts” is employed.
It’s subsequently no shock that Felix turned extraordinarily sad along with his state of affairs and wished to go away the Wanda Metropolitano as quickly as doable. Manchester United had been stated to be all for his companies too, however Chelsea acted decisively and introduced the 23-year-old to Stamford Bridge, albeit with out an possibility to purchase on the finish of the season.
To get that accomplished, Chelsea needed to pay €11 million as a mortgage price to Atletico directly, and so they did so within the perception the ahead would play 21 Premier League matches for them between now and the tip of the season. Having performed as soon as, nonetheless, he’ll play a most of 17 extra because of the ban for the purple card on this match.
Fulham flying
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Speaking to the press after the match, Fulham defender Tim Ream was requested about his group climbing into the top six and sitting above not solely Chelsea, however Liverpool as properly. The USA worldwide clearly didn’t need to get dragged into some sort of speculative end-of-season dialogue, and centered his discuss on taking the marketing campaign match by match, every as it comes, considering solely in regards to the subsequent opponent.
Maybe the gamers and supervisor Marco Silva gained’t permit themselves to get too excited at this level, however the followers will definitely be dreaming a few superb finish to a season through which their group returned to the Premier League, performed rather well and booked a spot in a European competitors.
But for now, Silva and his males will certainly be wanting on the upcoming fixtures, and there’s rather a lot to consider there. They first go to Newcastle, then they welcome Tottenham Hotspur, and after going through Sunderland within the fourth spherical of the FA Cup, it’s Chelsea once more, this time at Stamford Bridge.
It’s all the time good to really feel optimistic, however Fulham’s prospects for the season will certainly develop into barely clearer after that.
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