'Bad feeling' for Enzo Maresca after Chelsea fall to Fulham fightback
Fulham's Harry Wilson scores his side's equaliser against Chelsea. Picture: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.
Chelsea's title hopes could be as good as done and it is not even 2025 yet. Their late second half collapse at home to west London rivals Fulham had the hallmark of a team that has exceeded expectations and some. Whilst this team of young players have grown up a lot under the leadership of Enzo Maresca, they appear to still lack the killer edge that will take them from a good team to a great team.
That will come with time, and this defeat courtesy of Rodrigo Muniz's dramatic 95th minute goal will go a long way to improving the team, but for now, a dream of a first Premier League title since 2017 should be ushered away from the minds of players and fans alike. The Blues boss believes this match will go a great way in his side's development.
"It's a bad feeling," Maresca said. "I said many times when you cannot win it's important that you don't lose. I think the first 15-20 minutes of the second half has been the part that I didn't like because we conceded so many transitions, too many transitions.
"First half I think we controlled that very good. We scored, we created chances and then second half I think we give them too much energy in the first 15-20 minutes.
"It's a game that for me before you attack you need to give passes, passes, passes because that keeps us together and in the moment that we lose the ball we can be aggressive.
"But if we want to attack with one or two passes then we are stretched, we are open and they can hurt us. It's a lesson that we can learn."
The opening period of this west London derby was a cagey affair, but that was all extinguished inside 15 minutes by the brilliance of talisman Palmer. The 22-year-old jinked his way in between three Fulham players before stroking the ball past Bernd Leno in the visiting goal.
Stamford Bridge erupted, with chants of "Palmer Again Ole Ole..." ringing around all four stands for their illustrious star.
Neither side managed to take control of the match, and Chelsea's immaturity showed with 81 minutes gone when Harry Wilson headed Fulham level. Repeated attempts to flag a Pedro Neto head injury failed after the Portuguese winger's attempt at shuffling out Alex Iwobi lead to him getting caught by the Nigerian's shoulder. Wilson's subsequent cross to Timothy Castagne was diverted back to him by the Belgian and the 27-year-old capitalised on poor Chelsea defending to nod home from close range to equalise.
The capitulation was completed deep into injury time with Marco Silva's side took advantage of a loose ball to counter, with Muniz applying the finishing touch to Sasa Lukic's cross to send Fulham fans into paradise.
Title talk has always been ushered by Maresca since the Blues started their 13 match unbeaten run in all competitions, but this first loss in two months shows there are still cracks that need filling.
"When we win a game, I always said not because we won tonight that we are ready for the title, and not because we lose tonight. It's more the feeling that we have inside, the reality is that there are many things that we can do better.
"One of the things that we could do better is the game management. But also I think we did many good things.
"I didn't feel or I didn't see the players with pressure. If we try to focus, when we play Everton away or tonight, we don't prepare the game thinking if we beat Everton or we beat Fulham, it's just the way we try to beat them and focus on that."
Defeat for Chelsea leaves them in second place behind leaders Liverpool with the Reds in a commanding position with a game in hand.
(4-2-3-1) Sanchez 5; Gusto 6, Tosin 5, Colwill 6, Cucurella 6, Caicedo 6, Fernandez 6, Neto 5, Palmer 8, Sancho 5, Jackson (Nkunku, 73') 7.
Bettinelli, Jorgensen, Acheampong, Disasi, Casadei, George, Felix, Guiu.
(5-2-3) Leno 7; Castagne 6, Andersen 7, Diop 6, Bassey 6, Robinson 5, Lukic 6, Pereira (Cairney, 73') 5, Traore (Wilson, 67') 6, Jimenez (Muniz, 73') 6, Iwobi (Sessegnon, 90+2') 7.
Benda, Cuenca, King, Godo, Vinicius.
Sam Barrott - 6
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