Chelsea were naive against a very good Fulham side and Behdad Eghbali may change his opinion on the need for January additions. Also, Cole Palmer’s a wonder.
Cole Palmer is now so good at football that shooting is beneath him. He took his already delightful levels of nonchalance to new levels in a Boxing Day treat for the home fans at Stamford Bridge, likely a significant portion of the away fans and everyone watching at home. If the Premier League has bred robotic footballers designed to win, often at the cost of entertainment, Palmer is the antidote to that poisonous post-Barclays reality.
In the space of six first-half minutes he saw a curled effort towards the far corner saved after a nutmeg on the edge of the box, played a superfluous and therefore joyous one-two with Nicolas Jackson in a crowded penalty area before being denied again by Bernd Leno, and preceded those two examples of his unrivalled flair with a wonderful goal requiring puffed cheeks, titters of astonishment and the immediate grasping of devices to advise friends, family and fellow football revellers that they too need to see what Chelsea’s genius has just done: ‘Oh, Cole. That’s disgusting.’
It was all quite Ronaldinho: taking the ball on the half-turn with both nimble feet and glorious balance on show as he nipped past a couple of challenges. But it was the finish – passed into the corner through the defender’s legs with just enough pace to rule out the goalkeeper simply walking over and picking it up, but not too much to stop Leno look a bit daft as he almost had to wait for the ball after diving for it to roll past his outstretched fingers – that almost required a double take to check the goalscorer wasn’t sporting flowing locks along with the hint of buck teeth that Palmer shares with the Brazilian genius.
A handful of Premier League players could have scored having picked the ball up in the pocket, but they would have curled or blasted the ball into the corner rather than rolling it home as Palmer did, with anything other than that finish an unnecessary complication to a game he makes look absurdly simple.
Marc Cucurella really should have doubled Chelsea’s lead but headed Enzo Fernandez’s excellent free-kick straight at Leno. The rejuvenated Argentinian then had a fine whipped effort from the edge of the box tipped over by the Fulham goalkeeper.
But opposite number Robert Sanchez was equally busy as the speed of Antonee Robinson and Adama Traore on the wings offered a significant threat that Chelsea failed to curb throughout, while Alex Iwobi consistently found space around Moises Caicedo to cause Chelsea further problems.
Fulham nearly drew level courtesy of a Calvin Bassey run that we’re obliged to brand as Barrelling as he’s a centre-back but in which he displayed the fleet-footedness of a diminutive winger. His shot produced one excellent save from Sanchez and the Blues goalkeeper was again called into action as he rushed out to block Robinson, who had brought Traore’s cross down at the back post.
But the Blues goalkeeper remains a mercurial concern for Chelsea and Enzo Maresca, as shown by his failure to sort his feet out from a backpass to very nearly gift Raul Jimenez a goal.
There was never a point where Chelsea looked comfortable and Fulham fully deserved their equaliser, with Robinson’s cross after fine work from Iwobi finding Timothy Castagne, who headed the ball back across goal for Harry Wilson to nod in off the post.
A genuine title challenger – particularly at home against a side that’s not won at Stamford Bridge since 1979 – would ordinarily at that point force the opposition back and necessitate a backs-to-the-wall rearguard for them to cling to a point. That didn’t happen.
Jadon Sancho had a decent shot saved and Nkunku’s acrobatic effort was tipped round the post by Leno, but Fulham looked equally likely to grab all three points and scored in the 95th minute between those two chances as Chelsea appeared surprised by Fulham’s cheek in even trying for the win.
It’s a goal that did little to dispel the claim made by Jamie Carragher that Maresca is short of a world-class goalkeeper and centre-back in order to mount a serious challenge for the title. It’s hardly a hot take, with those weaknesses clear to the vast majority of pundits and fans, but frustratingly – for those hoping for a title race – not in the view of Behdad Eghbali and the Chelsea hierarchy, who are of the belief that the players Maresca has at his disposal are enough, if not now then in the future.
Sanchez rushed from his goal, kicked the ball into a crowd of Fulham players and from that point until Rodrigo Muniz controlled and finished brilliantly, no Chelsea player broke into more than a trot.
Tosin Adarabioyo was ten yards deeper fellow centre-back Levi Colwill, who was beaten with one simple pass in behind him for Saka Lukic (who was very good throughout) before Tosin neither pressed the ball nor marked either of the two Fulham players in the box.
None of it would have happened had Sanchez just passed the ball square for Tosin rather than booting it long but the centre-backs are just as much to blame for the defeat here given what they did, or rather didn’t do, after that rush of blood to the head.
Despite Chelsea displaying their lack of experience in big moments and failing to manage the game effectively, this result was just as much to do with how good Fulham were rather than the naivety of the home side. Marco Silva is doing a wonderful job and his team, now eighth and level on points with Manchester City, are very much in the crowded mix for European football.
Them playing in the Europa Conference League next season feels more likely than Chelsea winning the title, with Maresca’s need for a top goalkeeper and a centre-back apparent to everyone except the people with the power to make those additions.