Chelsea’s horrid run of form failed to end for the better with the 10-man Blues suffering a 2-1 defeat to Fulham in Thursday’s west London derby clash.
MATCH PROCEEDINGS
The visitors had their new signing Joao Felix create trouble in the attacking third for the Fulham backline which had two of their players, Antonee Robinson and Andreas Pereira, booked for challenges on Felix in the opening stages.
Fulham’s Bobby Decordova-Reid rattled the crossbar with his effort after Trevoh Chalobah’s misjudged header came the former’s way but Chelsea’s reprieve lasted a few moments.
An ex-Chelsea star Willian opened the scoring with the Brazilian winger cutting inside Azpilicueta and his shot caught a deflection off Chalobah to land up in the back of the net.
Felix forced two saves from Fulham No.1 Leno before the break while Azpilicueta’s shot was deflected over as Chelsea went into the interval trailing the home side by one goal.
The game was levelled two minutes after the start of the second period with Kalidou Koulibaly in the right place at the right time to poke the ball into the net after Mason Mount’s free-kick had thudded into the post.
A promising debut outing for Felix was brought to an abrupt halt with a straight red card shown to the Portuguese forward following his tackle on Kenny Tete.
Chelsea, now reduced to 10 men, were unable to deny Fulham from reclaiming their lead with Carlos Vinicius heading home from close range from a wide cross from Pereira which secured three points on home turf for Marco Silva’s men.
