Fulham’s Harry Wilson piles pain on 10-man Chelsea as Liam Rosenior watches on
Few things in life can be more awkward than sitting next to your new boss while 3,000 malcontents bellow abuse at him. On the bright side, at least this was a crash course in the modern Chelsea for Liam Rosenior.
The new head coach saw poor defending undermine flashes of defiance, witnessed his erratic side collect their eighth red card of the season, and heard the away end at Craven Cottage spend much of the second half aim mutinous chants in the direction of Behdad Eghbali, the club’s co-controlling owner.
This was such an unserious effort from Chelsea. Calum McFarlane, the under-21s coach, was in charge. It was hard not to feel that Rosenior had made his first misstep. He has had a dizzying few days since leaving Strasbourg but it is worth thinking back to Thomas Tuchel taking over from Frank Lampard five years ago. Tuchel came up with a new system on his journey to London, had one training session before his first game and led Chelsea to Champions League glory four months later.
Different times. Rosenior preferred to watch from the directors’ box and at least had a good view of the shambles unfold. Chelsea were down to 10 men after Marc Cucurella brought down Harry Wilson when the Fulham winger was through on goal. The red mist descended, three players picking up bookings for dissent, and there was no containing the discontent from the travelling fans after Raúl Jiménez put Fulham ahead early in the second half.
Supporters are not convinced by the project overseen by Eghbali and his fellow investors. Tension has grown since Enzo Maresca’s messy departure and it will not be easy for Rosenior to mend the damage. It begins for him with a trip to Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup on Saturday but the 41-year-old inherits a wounded team. Chelsea are down in eighth place after one win from their past nine league games and even find themselves level on points with Fulham, who made light of a lengthy list of absentees by earning a precious win thanks to a moment of impudence from Wilson in the 81st minute.
Fulham were more streetwise. They have gambled on players who have been written off by other clubs. They are proof that experience matters. Jiménez, 34, has three goals in his past five games and is testament to Marco Silva’s ability to keep pushing this experienced group.
This is a chance for Fulham. They are three points off the top four, although they will need to invest this month if they want to mount a push for European football. “It is nine years since my first game in this country,” Silva said. “I don’t remember many seasons like this, where the league is so tight. That shows the demands.”
There is no hiding place at this level. Taking charge for the second and final time, McFarlane stuck to club policy and rotated heavily. Chelsea started well and should have led when Andrey Santos headed a corner against the bar.
Santos did not make it to half‑time. The midfielder had to make way for Jorrel Hato after Cucurella’s dismissal. It came when Chelsea failed to reset after a corner. Bernd Leno, the Fulham goalkeeper, hit the ball long and Wilson sped through on goal before tangling Cucurella, whose foul on the edge of the area was a clear denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
McFarlane denied that the incident was evidence of a discipline problem. He will head back to the under-21s. They also played but it was uncomfortable when McFarlane asked for their result: it finished 6-2 to Benfica in the Premier League International Cup.
Rosenior needs to give Chelsea direction. They escaped when Wilson had a goal disallowed for offside but they trailed in the 55th minute. Fulham had shifted from a back five, Kevin replacing Jorge Cuenca at half‑time, and they were ahead when Sander Berge crossed for Jiménez to head past Robert Sánchez after escaping Trevoh Chalobah.
There was a response from Chelsea, who levelled when Antonee Robinson headed Pedro Neto’s corner against his own bar and Liam Delap converted the rebound. Yet it did not quell the mutiny. The chants towards Eghbali were constant and there was a banner calling for BlueCo, the consortium that owns Strasbourg and Chelsea, to sell up.
It meant Eghbali was pumped when Delap scored. Fulham were undeterred. Silva regained the initiative with positive substitutions and the game was settled when Wilson danced round Hato before squeezing in his seventh goal of the season.
[Source: The Guardian]
