Fulham sixth after derby victory over 10-man Chelsea
Carlos Vinicius’ goal gave Fulham victory over 10-man Chelsea in the west London derby, piling more pressure on Graham Potter.
New signing Joao Felix was sent off on his Chelsea debut as they suffered a third consecutive defeat – and seventh loss in their past 10 matches.
Fulham, on the other hand, have won five in a row and moved up to sixth in the Premier League table – four places and six points above their SW6 neighbours.
Willian’s goal against his former club put Fulham in the first half and Kalidou Koulibaly equalised before Felix, who had looked lively, was dismissed and Vinicius netted the winner.
The result is bound to increase speculation over the future of Chelsea head coach Potter, whose team were poor for large spells of the game and were punished for some awful defending.
Just after Chelsea had a let-off when Bobby De Cordova-Reid hit the bar after a mistake by Trevoh Chalobah, Willian opened the scoring.
When Lewis Hall lost possession on the flank and De Cordova-Reid’s cross was not dealt with by Chalobah, the ball dropped to Willian and the Brazilian’s shot deflected off Chalobah and went in.
Chelsea hit back a couple of minutes into the second half.
Mason Mount’s free-kick struck the post after catching out keeper Bernd Leno, who then palmed the ball towards Koulibaly and the defender bundled in from close range.
However, Chelsea’s injury woes worsened when Denis Zakaria limped off in the 56th minute.
And worse followed for Potter’s side when Felix was red-carded a couple of minutes later for a crude challenge on Kenny Tete.
Their opponents took advantage and regained the lead – again after a Chelsea mistake, this time by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
The keeper completely misjudged Andreas Pereira’s ball into the box and Vinicius was able to head home his first Fulham goal.
Fulham: Leno; Tete, Adarabioyo, Ream, Robinson; Reed (Cairney 68), Palhinha, Pereira (James 90); De Cordova-Reid (Wilson 68), Vinicius (Chalobah 90), Willian (Solomon 83)
Subs not used: Rodak, Kurzawa, Diop, Harris.
Chelsea: Kepa; Chalobah, Silva, Koulibaly; Azpilicueta, Mount (Ziyech 80), Kovacic (Gallagher 79), Zakaria (Jorginho 56), Hall (Chukwuemeka 79); Havertz, Felix.
Subs not used: Bettinelli, Badiashile, Aubameyang, D Fofana, Cucurella.
