Fulham 2-1 Chelsea: Felix SENT OFF on debut as Willian slays his former club

Joao Felix was sent off on his Chelsea debut as his new side lost a west London derby at Fulham to increase the pressure on Blues boss Graham Potter.

Joao Felix, who only joined Chelsea on Wednesday in a £9.7m loan deal until the end of the season from Atletico Madrid, was shown a straight red card for a horrible lunge on defender Kenny Tete after 58 minutes.

Potter's Blues side started brightly, but the hosts nearly took the lead when Chelsea lost possession and Carlos Vinicius played a pass through to Bobby de Cordova-Reid, who fired against the crossbar with Kepa Arrizabalaga beaten.

But Chelsea fell behind two minutes later in the 25th minute. It was poor defending from the visitors as teenage left-back Lewis Hall failed to clear, before Trevoh Chalobah should have done better with his clearance.

The ball fell to Willian and the Brazil midfielder, a two-time Premier League winner during a seven-year spell at Chelsea, saw his strike take a big deflection off Chalobah to give Arrizabalaga no chance. Willian did not celebrate against his former team.

But Chelsea equalised within two minutes of the second half as Koulibaly reacted quickest to force the ball over the line from close range after Mason Mount's free-kick had bounced off the left-hand post.

Joao Felix had been the visitors' best player before his dismissal left his side on the back foot, with Vinicius scoring the winner.

Chelsea have now only won twice in 10 matches in all competitions.

Match Events

23' OFF THE POST!

25' GOAL! Fulham 1-0 Chelsea (Willian)

28' CLOSE! Félix’s shot wide out

47' GOAL! Fulham 1-1 Chelsea (Koulibaly)

58' Red Card! Felix sent off

73' GOAL! Fulham 2-1 Chelsea (Carlos Vinícius)

76' Yellow Card! Mount booked

Line-ups

Fulham XI: Willian, Leno, Tim Ream, Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Tete, Pereira, João Palhinha, Harrison Reed, T.Adarabioyo, Antonee Robinson, Carlos Vinícius

Subs: Tom Cairney, Kurzawa, Chalobah, Daniel James, Harry Wilson, Marek Rodak, Diop, Manor Solomon, Luke Harris

Chelsea XI: Thiago Silva, Azpilicueta, Koulibaly, Kovacic, Kepa, Trevoh Chalobah, Mount, Zakaria, Havertz, Felix, Lewis Hall

Subs: Aubameyang, Jorginho, Marcus Bettinelli, Ziyech, Marc Cucurella, Conor Gallagher, Benoît Badiashile, Carney Chukwuemeka, David Datro Fofana