Pedro and Ruben Loftus-Cheek secured a 2-0 victory for Chelsea against Fulham despite a below-par performance.
Match Report
Chelsea responded to their first Premier League defeat of the season by putting west London rivals Fulham to the sword in a routine 2-0 win.
Maurizio Sarri's men were beaten 3-1 by Tottenham last time out in the league but, after easing to a 4-0 win over PAOK in the Europa League, did not have to produce their best to resume normal service.
Pedro pounced on a poor passage of play from the visitors to open the scoring after just four minutes, and an excellent team goal finished off by Ruben Loftus-Cheek made the points safe late on.
Fulham had briefly threatened a leveller before that decisive blow, making it an unhappy return to Stamford Bridge for Claudio Ranieri, whose side remain bottom, while Chelsea at least momentarily move up to third.
Match Events
4' GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Fulham (Pedro)
It’s the first attack of the game from the Blues and they make Fulham pay dearly!
Kante pinches the ball from under Seri’s feet on halfway and breaks towards goal, playing Pedro in on the right.
The forward simply steps back around the last man and buries a strike past Rico into the bottom-left corner.
Brilliant work from Kante there, but Seri's concession was absolutely shocking. He'll have to deliver a great game to redeem himself for that error.
16' CHANCE! Chambers' shot saved by Kepa
Fulham break down the left in a tidy, punchy counter-attack and a cut-back pass finds Chambers marauding down the middle. He pulls a shot towards Kepa which the keeper reins in easily enough, but it’s better intuition from the visitors.
49' SAVE! Rico denies Pedro's shot
Pedro whips a right-footed effort from the edge of the box towards goal and the keeper leaps left to tip it away for a throw-in.
65' Amazing save from Kepa
Chambers blasts a visceral shot in on the fly as he hits a cut-back on the right edge of the box – and Kepa keeps it out again with a stunning save.
82' GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Fulham (Loftus-Cheek)
That puts the game to bed for sure at Stamford Bridge as the England man, off the bench, is given a beauty of a square ball from Hazard on the right of the box and simply lifts it over Rico at the near post.
The Blues haven't been at their best but look set to be back to winning ways in the Premier League.
Hazard hasn't quite shown what he is fully capable off today in this derby but that is a lovely assist from the Belgium international.
Line-ups
Chelsea XI: Kepa; Alonso, Luiz, Rudiger, Azpilicueta (C); Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic; Hazard, Giroud, Pedro.
Subs: Caballero, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek, Zappacosta, Willian, Christensen, Morata.
Fulham XI: Rico; Le Marchand, Odoi, Mawson, Chambers, Christie; Sessegnon, Cairney (C), Seri, Johansen; Mitrovic.
Subs: Bettinelli, Kebano, Ayite, Ream, Bryan, Cisse, Kamara.
Moore89
401
Morata blazes the ball over from 3 yards..... For the 12th time this season.
elninoh de suspect
279
Morata will really kill Sarri due to His poor perfomance in every match....
Nesaiknruy_Legend
246
What can i say. Tougher game than expected but will take the win. I think Fulham has improved a lot under Ranieri. Perhaps he was the coach they needed to make the transition from Championship to BPL quality football. Have to say man of the match was Kepa. How many times has this guy saved us from being embrassed. He's so underrated with what he has to play with in front of him. Speaking of in front of him. Again, Luiz and Alonso get torn apart till Azpi took over that left side. Sessegnon showed us yet again that were defencively weak on that left side and need reinforcements there, possibly a new left back and centre back or move Azpi there to either left or left centre and bring in Hysaj on the right. Overall good performance. Kepa was outstanding. Kante, Kovacic, Pedro and Ruben were superb. Kante made an assist and threatened going forward the whole game when he had the ball though I'm sure people will still claim he can't pass which is pure stupidity since he already got better passing than Alonso. Ruben came on and also worked hard on the pitch and got his reward. Probably our best midfielder going forward. Kovacic also giving us his standard standout performance giving the defence trouble. Pedro proving again why he suits the system the most and deserves starts over Willian easily despite Willian being great in the past. Overall good game with a few faults but I won't go into them in detail as it would take away the joy of winning the game.
RGGil
245
I wish Morata left his children back in spain, He can have reason to request transfer back to Madrid
Barbara31
232
2 - N'Golo Kante has provided as many assists in 14 league games for Chelsea this season (2) as he had in his first two seasons with the club combined (69 appearances).
Asphalt
219
Scanning for hazard's goal loading....... Error 404
manieminem10
206
It's 50 PL appearance for Loftus Cheek. and He scored.🎂 Pedro must start instead of William. Morata missed another shitter. No wonder Daily Routine.
am_fresh
195
searching for morata problem. ....
tropicalda
181
Ruben Loftus-Cheek has done more from the midfield than Alvaro Morata has done as an attacker,
Desirben
163
1000 – Pedro’s strike for Chelsea was their 1000th home Premier League goal, becoming just the third club to reach this landmark in the competition after Manchester United (1079) and Arsenal (1029).
Adebode
160
Good result with fair performance I think Morata needs rehabilitation Covacic needs rest Jorginho needs more long passes Hazard needs factory settings Let's hope Arsenal wins
Alakiri
112
oh Loftus Cheek. it's time for you to replace morata and striker Giroud king of assist, you are more better than them that's the real truth to replace them.
preciousgeoffrey59
97
If only morata is as serious in scoring goals as he is in falling an missing clear cut chances am sure will would have been at the top of the league or at the very least in 2nd. Nevertheless congrats boy because we are back on track
Oklahoma
96
5 - Pedro has scored more Premier League goals in 12 appearances this season (5 goals from 21 shots) than he managed in 31 such games in 2017-18 (4 from 56 shots).
caoacdlntu
75
Though three valuable points gotten, not a good enough performance looking at the opposition. That's the truth! Chelsea had the opportunity to shore up their goals tally through this match but played as if nothing is at stake. This coach is not a great match reader. Why keeping Alonso for that long. What's Luiz doing on that field with all the purposeless wrong passes he continues making. The same stupid mistake he made that resulted to Song's classic goal, he committed it again but we're lucky not to have been punished. Morata will continue to fans heart break. Let Chelsea bring back some better players from loan assignment if they can't by quality strikers in January.