Pedro and Ruben Loftus-Cheek secured a 2-0 victory for Chelsea against Fulham despite a below-par performance.
2018/2019 Premier League
2-0
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.