In the 18th round of the Premier League, Chelsea faced Fulham. As usual, Cole Palmer shone with a great goal in the first half to help The Blues take the lead. However, Chelsea surprisingly let their opponent score 2 consecutive goals after the 85th minute, thereby accepting a 1-2 loss to Fulham.
With this result, Chelsea is still ranked 2nd (35 points), 7 points behind the leader Liverpool. But if Arsenal (33 points) wins the late match, the blue half of London will fall to third place.
Against Fulham, Chelsea did not show good control of the game. They had 47% possession and had fewer shots than their opponents. The game somewhat showed the loss of momentum of The Blues players.
This comes from some surprising decisions by coach Enzo Maresca. During the 90 minutes, Chelsea only replaced 1 player, compared to 5 substitutions by Fulham. In the last 3 matches, the Italian coach only replaced 4/15 players at most. This is even more confusing, when The Blues own an extremely thick squad, with many quality reserve stars such as Nkunku, Joao Felix, Madueke,...
After the match, coach Enzo Maresca was not happy with his players. He pointed out Chelsea's worst moment of play, according to Sky Sport: "Yes, there was a bit of disappointment, especially the way we conceded at the end of the game. It's a bad feeling, also because I've said many times, when you don't win, at least don't lose.
“I think the first 15 or 20 minutes of the second half was the one I didn’t like, because we let them create too many counter-attacks. We know they are a team that builds on transition, with Iwobi, Adama Traore, Robinson and Jimenez.”
