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Calum McFarlane’s second match in charge of Chelsea on a caretaker basis went considerably worse than the first.
This time, as new head coach Liam Rosenior watched on from the stands, there was no last-gasp rescue act.
Fulham began to dominate, fired plenty of shots at Chelsea, and either side of Liam Delap’s first Premier League goal for the Blues they scored through Raul Jimenez and Harry Wilson.
It brought the McFarlane caretaker reign to a losing end and earned Fulham bragging rights in a local derby where Chelsea huffed and puffed but were punished for going down to 10 men.
Rosenior well involved already
This was the fifth home league game against Chelsea in which Marco Silva has led Fulham and a different man has been in the away dugout each time.
Here it was McFarlane, but Chelsea’s new permanent head coach still made his presence known, albeit from the stands.
Rosenior arrived at Craven Cottage on the team bus and sat next to co-owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting director Paul Winstanley, with whom he could be seen in deep conversation whenever Chelsea missed a chance.
First, though, he agreed to do an interview with Sky Sports, where he said he “can’t wait” to get started at Chelsea. He’ll no doubt have seen plenty in their performance he’ll feel he can improve.
Food for thought: Liam Rosenior in discussion with Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali at Craven Cottage
Getty Images
Indiscipline still a major issue
Youngest squad in the Premier League or not, the indiscipline at Chelsea is still a serious problem and something Rosenior must sort out fast.
Chelsea are bottom of the Premier League fair play table, and watching them at Fulham, it was easy to see how they’ve ended up there.
Cucurella brought down Wilson in the first half, and, while it was just outside the box so Chelsea escaped a Fulham penalty, they did not avoid a fifth red card of the season as the Spanish left-back was given his marching orders.
Within three minutes, Enzo Fernandez, Tosin Adarabioyo and Cole Palmer had all been shown yellow cards for remonstrations to the referee – something which feels like a worryingly common reason for Chelsea bookings this term.
One small silver lining was that Chelsea were always in the game after the red card, even if on the ropes and hanging on for periods.
The biggest cause for optimism for Rosenior and his newly-formed coaching staff when they review this defeat, though, will have been the fact Delap notched his first Premier League goal for Chelsea and asked constant and varied questions of the Fulham defence all evening.
He did not always get the rub of the green, spent plenty of time on the deck calling for free-kicks that seldom came, but was on his toes, battled with Fulham’s back three, and showed the handy and markedly different option he offers Rosenior compared to Joao Pedro, who came on only for the final 15 minutes.
Chelsea were beaten, but McFarlane’s decision to start Delap was rewarded.
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