A west London side who have belied all the justifiable doom and gloom around their recent transfer activity, who might seriously be able to achieve a lofty finish few would have expected at the start of the season. Enough about Fulham, though. Their 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge taught us little about Marco Silva’s side that the previous 17 hadn’t. This is not a team that the best in England can afford to take lightly, particularly when they have such game-changers to come off the bench against tired legs.
Instead, this was must-view football for the many who have viewed Chelsea’s place in the title race as indisputable. Enzo Maresca would not count himself among that group and on the evidence of the final eight minutes plus added time, you could see why. Impressive though this team have so frequently been in the last few months — a side who at their best are clearly worthy of being in the mix at the top of the table — there is a vulnerability to this team that will require the most devastating of attacks to mitigate against.
Putative Premier League champions have wingers who get back up to defend when Antonee Robinson and Alex Iwobi have left them in the dust, the former hanging a dangerous cross to the back post that was flicked back towards goal by his fellow defender Timothy Castagne. That the two fullbacks were both attacking the Stamford Bridge area speaks to the pressure Fulham put on the opposition area even when lined up against the best attacks. Chelsea, however, had six men back to defend the quartet attacking Robinson’s cross. None seemed to spot Harry Wilson, gliding in behind them all to flick in the equalizer.
Chelsea’s pursuit of parity never really got going while Fulham sensed there was more in this for them, the chance to draw level with the champions as the season enters its halfway stage. Marc Cucurella was too easily taken out of a counter through midfield but still the hosts had just about enough bodies back. None of them were standing in the right position, however. A five-on-five really cannot end in Sasa Lukic simply rolling the ball into the penalty area for Rodrigo Muniz to roll home.
Neither goal was the product of a particularly disastrous error from an individual. Nor was there anyone who was especially off in an attacking display that petered out after Cole Palmer’s 26th Premier League goal of 2024, the most ever scored by a Chelsea player in a calendar year. Rather this was a young team guilty of what so many young, recently forged teams are: a little bit of sloppiness, a slight overreliance on individuals, an inability to shut up shop when they need to.
That latter failing will surely hurt them again before the season is out. With 18 games played, Chelsea still have not kept a side to under 10 shots. They give up nearly half an expected goal more than Liverpool and Arsenal. When that runs aground there may yet be more games like there were on this Boxing Day. Keep doing that and the wheels will fall off the title bandwagon. Then again, Maresca has known that for a while.
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