Chelsea are down to ten men against Fulham. New year, new manager… same old Chelsea!
Enzo Maresca was questioned a lot over his side’s dreadful disciplinary record, something which was actually a hangover from Mauricio Pochettino’s time at the club. But nothing has changed with the Italian coach’s departure.
Chelsea given yet another red and a spate of yellows
Marc Cucurella gets his red card.
Marc Cucurella gets his red card.
A simple straight punt up the pitch from Bernd Leno after a Chelsea corner caught out Chelsea’s back line, with Marc Cucurella left trailing in the wake of Harry Wilson. Cucurella got hold of Wilson’s arm and pulled him down pretty blatantly, outside the box.
It was needless – Trevoh Chalobah was there to cover, and Robert Sanchez was set in goal. At the very least, Cucurella and Chalobah could have made it a tricky shot for Wilson to beat the keeper. Even if they failed, we’d rather be 1-0 down with 11 men for 70 minutes than down to ten.
Cole Palmer, Tosin and Enzo Fernandez were all booked for dissent after the decision – those are the really frustrating cards. It was a bad decision from Cucurella but he was trying to stop a goal. Those players going into the book for shouting pointlessly at the ref are far more frustrating ones.
Rosenior’s first order of business will be to make sure that players leave the ref alone after a bad decision.
You can see the goal in the clips embedded here:
Cucurella pulls down Wilson on the edge of the penalty area and is given his marching orders! 🟥 pic.twitter.com/8vPliMWqxo
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 7, 2026
[Footage from Sky Sports]
Marc Cucurella straight Red Card against Fulham. #FULCHE pic.twitter.com/TAmwtd0R9P
— 🖤🏴☠️ (@MrChelsealad02) January 7, 2026
[Footage from BeinSports]
In other news…
You can see how this compared with our predicted team which we lined up, here.
Chelsea’s new coach has done a brilliant first interview with the club which is enough to get anyone excited. That included big promises about playing attacking football, which we would love to see.
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