Fulham at Chelsea

On Saturday Fulham makes the short trip to Stamford Bridget to take on Chelsea. It is an early start with kickoff at 7:30am EST on USA Network.

Chelsea had a nice little run at home in December winning all three matches - but sprinkling in away losses to Manchester United, Everton, and Wolverhampton. Their win against Palace required an 89th minute penalty to get the winning goal and earlier in the season they lost to Nottingham Forest and Brentford at home, so they have struggled against at homes to teams in a similar position to Fulham. Bottom line: Fulham can get points from this match. Chelsea is a mess and are coming off of loss to Middlesbrough while Fulham had a disappointing, but respectable loss to Liverpool.

Fulham continue to miss Iwobi and Bassey due to AFCON. I was pleased against Liverpool that Fulham showed they could be creative without Iwobi. Hopefully a rejuvenated Raul can get a goal this time around against Chelsea rather than being shutout like Fulham was back at the Cottage in early October. In that match, Fulham gave up two goals in 90 seconds including one where a terrible pass from Ream put Fulham under pressure and then a follow-up block from Ream ended up bouncing the ball into the net. Fulham is good enough to get results against this Chelsea squad, they just need to score and cut down on the mistakes at the back.

 

This match snuck up on me. I just checked the schedule this afternoon. It'll be interesting to see how the teams both react to mid-week losses in the Carabao Cup. I agree with @MicahMan that the points are there for the taking. Fulham will likely be a bit tired due to squad depth and AFCON but still have the quality to put the screws to Chelsea. I rarely sleep past 0730 these days but will still be thankful for a pot of coffee and early finish. COYW!

 

Diop should expect a call from the authorities after such a vicious tackle on Sterling …I mean, Diop really clobbered Sterling…right? Just a violent attack that I’m surprised didn’t produce a straight red….

 

The penalty was tough. It was one of those plays that if my player was going down then it’s a definite foul. But when their player goes down, it’s “well he was already falling” or “he was dragging his foot unnaturally” (which honestly should be considered if the unnatural position of an arm is what classifies a handball or not).

The bottom line, though, is that Fulham couldn’t produce any quality in the attacking third. The defense held well but there was no help from up top.

The biggest surprise is that six yellows were handed out and not a one of them went to Palhinha.

 

The PK was up to a lack of coverage. Jedi was tracking Palmer's run to the top of the box but then fell back as he was being dragged out of position. Either someone should have picked up Palmer or Jedi should have trusted his coverage and stayed with the runner. Neither happened, Palmer had the time to make a pass, and we've seen the rest. Even though Diop was the one ultimately penalized, he's the least culpable for the PK. Yes, it was weak, but the scum will get those calls at home.

The tackle on Willian is a red in any other game in the Prem this season. Another VAR mistake.

I know I've said it before. But it is mindboggling how much worse the refereeing is in England (including VAR) compared to Serie A and the Bundesliga. I have no idea how to explain it.

 

I wasn't able to catch the game and these highlights stink because they didn't show any replay on the Diop penalty, which looked pretty soft from a distance. And they didn't show the foul on Willian that sounds like it could have been a red.

I so jealous of Brentford that keeps getting wins at Stamford Bridge while Fulham struggles to even get a draw.

I miss having Traore available as a sub for matches like this. He's the kind of guy to break something loose for a late goal

 

Fulham's highlights provided everything that was missing from NBC's