There was hope Calum McFarlane would go back to his U21 head coach duties from his short caretaker stint with Chelsea’s first team with a bang. Fulham however are a tough team to face since Marco Silva took helm, especially at Craven Cottage.
The name of the first half was Harry Wilson. The Welsh attacker almost got Fulham in front two minutes into the match, with Robert Sánchez forced to intervene to keep us up in the early game. He then got Marc Cucurella off the pitch with a red card, forcing the Spaniard to pull a wrestling move as he ran towards Sánchez’s goal 20 minutes later.
Wilson must have felt his goal was due. It would have been had his shot at goal in stoppage time of the first half not been cancelled by VAR.
Chelsea did get quite close to the opener with Enzo Fernández putting a nasty curve on a corner kick that Bernd Leno parried off the goal line at the near post, and Andrey Santos hitting the post on another corner a few minutes later. But it wasn’t enough to get us over the line in the first half.
It would be difficult keeping up with Fulham with nine men on the line versus ten. No wonder Raúl Jiménez found the space he needed in the box to put the Cottagers in front at minute 55 with a header.
We wouldn’t go down without a fight. With Fulham looking to hold onto a one-goal lead, the Blues were getting more and more chances against them. Eventually Liam Delap would add the finishing touch to our equaliser.
Now it was Chelsea’s turn to hold for dear life onto a hard-fought draw. And Wilson, the protagonist of the first half who had been mostly quiet for the second one, re-entered the stage with a goal to get the hosts back in front.
* Andrey Santos starts!
* …and he’s subbed off less than 30 minutes later.
* First ever Premier League goal for Liam Delap in a Chelsea shirt.
* Next up: Charlton away in the FA Cup, with Liam Rosenior at helm.
* KTBFFH.
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* [Chelsea FC: Premier League](/premier-league)