Chelsea won a 2-1 victory over Fulham in the Premier League 2018/2019 at Craven Cottage Stadium on Sunday (3/3).
West London’s derbies were colored by opportunities at the start of the match. Chelsea threatened through Gonzalo Higuain’s chance in the fifth minute which was returned by Tom Cairney’s attack two minutes later.
Chelsea took the initiative to attack first in order to make a quick goal to Fulham’s goal. Nevertheless, the Fulham defense was still quite tight in the early minutes of the first half so that there was no Chelsea attack that produced fruitful results.
Chelsea finally scored in the 20th minute through Higuain who maximized a horizontal pass from Cesar Azpilicueta on the right side of the penalty box.
Intermittent seven minutes later, starting from a corner, Fulham equalized. Ryan Babel’s cross pass from the left side was successfully utilized by the free-standing Calum Chambers. With a volley, Chambers conquered Kepa.
A draw score lasts only four minutes. In the 31st minute Eden Hazard made an individual move while carrying the ball into the penalty box. Instead of firing a shot, Hazard sent a pass to Jorginho who was outside the penalty box. With an placing kick, Jorginho puts the ball to the right of the goal.
After scoring the second goal, Chelsea had the opportunity to add to the advantage before the first half ended through Higuain and Hazard. Sergio Rico saved Fulham’s goal to not concede more than two goals in the first half of the match.
The Blues continued to hunt for the third goal in the second half. Only four minutes into the second half, Hazard had returned to test Rico’s toughness under the crossbar. Willian and Azpilicueta also helped create opportunities that were still unable to change positions.
After several wasted opportunities, Chelsea almost conceded. Aleksandar Mitrovic could not finish the final perfectly after receiving feedback from Ryan Sessegnon.
The condition of the game changed, it was the turn of the Cottagers who controlled the ball and made Chelsea survive. Tom Cairney still failed to beat Kepa through an opportunity in the 67th minute. Six minutes later, Joe Bryan also suffered a similar fate when trying to open fire into the corner of the Chelsea goal.
The 2-1 score lasted until the match broke up and Chelsea got three points which made them now ranked sixth with 56 points, only one point behind Arsenal who was ranked fifth.
While Fulham is still one of the teams in the relegation zone, precisely ranked 19th with 17 points.
