Comfortable stuff for Chelsea, then, who needed to reassert themselves after a couple of recent wobbles (that was their first league win for just about a month). And glimpses of the electric, pinball attacking play on which Sarri has forged his reputation, not least with that quietly glorious second goal.
As for its scorer, how long he’ll be content with his bit-part role at the club remains to be seen, but it was yet another cameo that demonstrated his class – and indeed the goal threat which marks him out from his Stamford Bridge competitors.
Plenty to enjoy there, if you’re a Chelsea fan. As for Fulham, they needn’t lose too much sleep over the result but they now enter a month that could well make or break their season. They are rock bottom yet only two points from the safety of 17th. And they play Leicester, West Ham, Newcastle, Wolves and Huddersfield – as well as a lethargic Man United – before the New Year. Time to find some form.
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“14 games in, and Now the system doesn’t suit them?” asks Benjamin Park. “What about that nice unbeaten run they had? Just a fluke?”
They’ve got better players than most teams. But they don’t have a reliable goalscorer up front or in midfield.
Full-time: Chelsea 2-0 Fulham
Chelsea move up to third in the table, two points ahead of Spurs and two behind Liverpool, both of whom play this afternoon; Fulham remain bottom.
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90+2 min Chelsea, meanwhile, are away to Wolves, and are in a fair position given that one or both of Arsenal and Spurs will drop points this afternoon. The problem I see with them is that it’s hard to see them getting very much better without buying players - the way they play doesn’t really suit them and doesn’t allow them to change things much when things don’t work.
90+1 min Fulham are at home to Leicester on Wednesday night, and will look to replicate the resolve they’ve shown today. If they’re going to stay up, then that’s the kind of game they’ll need to win.
90 min There’ll be three added minutes.
89 min Christie hangs up a cross that Mitrovic heads down, the problem being that he can’t do so to himself. Chelsea duly clear.
87 min Azpilicueta wriggles to the line and slides to cut back a cross. It’s behind all those in the middle, but Kante arrives at the edge ... only to miscontrol.
85 min So what does Loftus-Cheek need to do to get a start? Kovacic is not justifying his spot as far as I can see and there is a vacancy in midfield, especially for someone who is a goal-threat. His ability to protect the ball and knock defenders out of the way would probably be appreciated by Hazard too.
84 min Morata gets annoyed with Mawson so fouls him and kicks the ball away. He’s booked and nods sarcastically at the ref who should really remind him why he’s really all upset.
GOAL! A LOVELY GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Fulham (Loftus-Cheek 82)
Hazard gets the ball at inside-left and nips it inside to Loftus-Cheek, who lifts one leg, allows it to hit the other, and finds Pedro who squares back to him. Suddenly the path to goal is open, and he punches a confident finish past Rico at his near post, halfway up. Excellently done.
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80 min ...Hazard prevails, gently bending into Rico’s midriff.
80 min Christie fouls Hazard 25 yards out, dead centre, and yerman fancies the free-kick, as does Luiz...
79 min Zappacosta replaces Alonso to what sounds like booing from the crowd.
78 min Here’s what I’m not having about Sarri: the notion that if things aren’t working, it’s never the formation and can only be the players. Football is a brilliant game partly because nothing is unstoppable - add something in area, lose it in another; surpriser your opponent and you’ve a chance.
77 min Loftus-Cheek drives - he’s hard to stop when he gets going, a bit like Yaya Toure - and feeds Hazard out to his left, whose shot is saved easily enough.
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75 min Final change for Fulham: Kebano replaces Cairney, who’s looked decent. He’ll be Fulham’s main man in a few weeks, once he’s fully match-fit.
72 min Well that didn’t long: the first “Oh Alvaro!” of the afternoon. Hazard takes advantage of a bounce off Chambers to drive low from the edge of the box; Rico parries but the ball is still in play, and Morata times his arrival to perfection, panicking like a pro and shanking aeons over the bar when unmarked and from close range.
72 min If Fulham plays like this through the remainder of their games this season, they should be fine. They’ve struggled to get Mitrovic into the game, but they’re playing Chelsea; if they retain this solidity, they’ll have more opportunities to attack most of the rest of the time.
70 min Morata, indeed shorn, replaces Giroud.
70 min Chambers is doing well in midfield, and after Christie finds him inside the box, he wriggles between Azpilicueta and Jorginho with a lush backheel and drag. Nothing comes of it, but I wonder if he’s finding a new position.
69 min Azpilicueta is late on Cairney and is booked.
67 min “Think there has to be two handfuls at least,” tweets Paul Moody. “City, who I dislike, surely have one handful.”
I guess it depends how high you’re setting the bar. The only two I’d have without compunction are De Gea and De Bruyne; then there are variuos others who are good but may or may not make a World XI or second XI.
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67 min Here’s a change: Loftus-Cheek replaces Kovacic.
65 min Lovely from Fulham, Kamara smashing Alonso into touch and finding Cairney inside the box. Again, he protects the ball with his rotating body before laying back for Chambers, who carefully sidefoot towards the near post, but Kepa is there to parry.
64 min In a way, this reminds me of Chelsea’s home game with Everton, when it was similarly clear that things weren’t working for them, but Sarri waited bare time before making changes and even then they were of personnel, not formation.
62 min Eden Hazard, then. At his best, a brilliant player, but how often is he actually brilliant? He’s one of the best players in the league, sure, but the standard is not high. How many of the best players in the world are in England? Not even a handful.
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61 min Apparently Ozil has had a back spasm.
60 min ...but it’s Alonso with it, who bends around the wall but without any pace, and Rico catches easily.
59 min Alonso robs Christie and the ball pings from him to Kovacic to Kante, whom Christie then fouls. Free-kick Chelsea, 25 yards out, just left of centre, and Luiz fancies this one too...
58 min Jorginho, who’s been quiet today, shimmies on the edge of his own box and narrowly avoids a mugging before rolling back to Kepa.
56 min The Fulham fans are experience increasing excitement as their side visibly grow in confidence. Sarri really needs to make a change because momentum is with the away side.
55 min And the corner is a good one too, picking out Le Marchand at the near post; Kepa parries his header and Pedro nods up, then wears a studding from Odoi, who’s booked.
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54 min And there’s a warning, Christie exchanging passes with Kamara before drilling a fine low cross which Rudiger slides in to poke behind ... just.
52 min Given Sarri’s infatuation with 4-3-3, I wonder what he thinks about sticking an attacker in midfield, behind Giroud. Or at least an attacking midfielder, because his team should be doing much more than they are at the moment.
51 min News from elsewhere: Mesut Ozil isn’t even on the Arsenal bench for the North London derby. I wonder how whoever sanctioned his contract is feeling this fine afternoon.
49 min Pedro drives at the Fulham defence and looks set to shoot with his left before dipping inside to curl with his right, but too close to Rico who pushes away.
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48 min Fulham are pressingg higher up the pitch now, which is fine until Chelsea exploit the space this leaves in midfield, countering through Hazard. So Kamara pulls him down and avoids a booking.
47 min For the first time, Fulham pick out Mitrovic inside the box, Seri flipping a pass over the top and at his chest. He does well to control and hold off Azpilicueta, but Rudiger does just enough to draw the foul.
46 min Off we go again, and Claudio Ranieri has made two changes: Ayite and Kamara replace Johansen and Sessegnon.
“Handsome strikeforces,” begins Edward Ricketts. “Surely Iain Dowie and Dani up front for West Ham in 1996 is worth a mention here? I even remember Dowie amusingly addressing the question of the colossal handsomeness gulf between them during an interview...”
I dunno, he looks pretty suave here.
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Half-time email: Éanna Dowling gets in touch wondering as to the provenance of “nash” and “laif”. As it happens, they are near synonyms, the former Scottish and the latter Yiddish; both mean to move quickly, with purpose.
There wasn’t a load of great football to enjoy, but there’s the prospect of something acceptable in the second half - join me for it shortly.
Half-time: Chelsea 1-0 Fulham
Both sides will be satisfied with that. Chelsea are ahead and have last weekend’s capitulation out of their minds; Fulham are relatively comfortable and will fancy themselves to create something.
45 min There’ll be one added minute.
44 min “When Snow White’s stepmom looks into the mirror and asks about the fairest strike force in the land,” recounts Ettiene Terblanche. “Ian Marshall and His Mullet, Oldham Athletic, circa 1992”.
Don’t forget Andy Ritchie.
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42 min Fulham have done well enough here, restricting Chelsea to little in the way of chances and not looking entirely impotent in attack. But her comes Azpilicueta, playing a one-two with Kane and streaking down the right ... his low cross is met by Giroud on the stretch, doing brilliantly to arrive at it before Odoi! But Rico spreads himself to save with his legs, and Fulham are still alive!
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40 min But here he is, taking a rolled-with-the-studs return pass of the increasingly influential Kovacic and jinking across the face of the box. His low shot is then blocked, and just as the rebound looks to be arriving nicely into the path of Luiz, his first touch ruins everything.
39 min I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Chelsea are an attacker light. You can get by with three attackers when they’re brilliant, but Hazard is the only one of theirs who possibly falls into that category, and even he is unreliable.
37 min Christie’s passing, dearie me. Again he gives the ball away, this time to Giroud, who looks to scoop over the back four for Hazard. Mawson is there to head away, but Kovacic retrieves possession down the right and knocks back for Hazard, whose cross finds Giroud at the near post ... but his flick is smuggled behind for a corner which comes to nowt.
35 min Cairney has been Fulham’s best player by far so far, and he wins a corner down the left ... which hits the first man. It’s remarkable how often this happens, given that making sure it doesn’t happen is a repeatable skill.
34 min Other brilliant Friday-night titles from the same era.
32 min As feared, this has been extremely genteel, a word which puts me in mind of this legendary theme tune.
30 min “Just by the way, Morata has just gone and got a buzz cut on Thursday night,” emails Tom Besley. “Also totally agree, Morata and Giroud are both good looking guys to be fair ... sometimes you just have to hold your hand up and admit that those two maybe <expletive> but very good looking.”
He’s got a buzz-cut? Oh no, like when Jonny in Big Brother 3 got upset.
29 min He makes decent connection with the side of his foot but clips the wall and eventually the ball goes out for a throw, which Chelsea waste.
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28 min Jorginho launches a pass to set Hazard away through the middle, so Odoi pulls him down and avoids a booking. Free-kick Chelsea, just right of centre and 25 yards out; Luiz fancies it.
27 min And the free-kick is a goodun, finding Odoi in the box, but he can’t get his head around it and can only not the ball to the nearest defender, who clears.
25 min It’s been a while since Fulham mustered anything noteworthy in the Chelsea half, but Cairney looks a different player today than he did a few weeks ago. He has a very smart way of protecting the ball with his body, and exactly that skill forces Kante into a foul.
24 min Nice from Chelsea, Luiz sweeping out to Hazard, who cuts inside and slides a reverse-pass in for Giroud. But the shooting angle is tight, so Rico blocks his low effort easily enough, and for extra nause the ball rebounds off him and behind.
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23 min “I think Fowler and Rush would take issue with your ‘most handsome strike partnership ever’, tweets Fabian Crusoe. “They were like Reynolds and Eastwood in City Heat.”
22 min As you may have guessed, we’re in a quiet period.
20 min “Re Morata and Giroud being the most handsome strike force,” emails Adam Kline-Schoder, “I’d say so, and at minimum they are the most well-coiffed. Continuing that train of thought, it has recently come to my attention that both Morata and Aaron Cresswell have basically the same hairstyle, and, no matter the weather, it never changes. Is it a coincidence that these two players with near identical hairstyles would probably enjoy playing together because their strengths would complement each other nicely? ...yes. Yes it is.”
I once bumped into Olivier Giroud in the toilet at a club. “You’re ... you’re...” began the attendant. “Olivier Giroud?” offered Olivier Giroud. “You can tell it’s him because he’s playing with his hair in the mirror,” volunteered your correspondent. Oh how they laughed, and he Robert Pires and Cesc Fabregas later complimented my wife’s handbag. Paramount have optioned the film right.s
18 min How do Chelsea get more out of Kovacic? He’s a lovely mover and plays with his head up, but flits about the edges of things. I suppose given how much of the ball Jorginho has and Hazard needs, it can be hard to do more, but he looks like a better player than he currently is.
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16 min But here they come, Le Marchand taking up a good position on the left and squaring for Cairney, who shields is beautifully on the half turn before moving it on for Chambers. And suddenly the route to goal opens up, but the shot is straight at Kepa. That was nice play from the visitors, but.
15 min Fulham don’t look disheartened, but are struggling to get anything going at the moment. Their best hope looks to be hanging in the game and getting the ball out to Sessegnon whenever they can.
13 min Kovacic plays a one-two with Giroud, the flicked response over the defensive line forcing Christie into a last-ditch barge. It turns into a really good and important tackle that flattens his man into the bargain.
12 min Lovely interplay by Chelsea, catalysed by Hazard’s flick, and the ball goes wide to Alonso who overhits his cross.
10 min Have Giroud and Morata ever started together? If they have, or if they do, are they or will they be the most handsome striking partnership of all-time?
9 min Sessegnon wanders infield – I wonder if he’ll end up a number 10 or centre-forward – and Fulham win a corner, which Chelsea eventually clear. They set Pedro away and this time he crosses high, but can’t locate Giroud.
8 min Chelsea knock it about confidently and Pedro almost opens it up again when Le Marchand dives in on him. But Mawson quickly closes the door, so Chelsea start passing again.
6 min The thing is, they started well, so to fall behind in that context is going to sting. Chelsea, meanwhile, started so badly at Spurs and not especially well here, yet will have forgotten all of that already.
5 min Fulham are in trouble. I doubt that was in the gameplan.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Fulham (Pedro, 4)
Christie again, playing a risky ball into Seri in midfield; you can guess what happens next, Kante zipping in to tackle, coming away with the ball and feeding Pedro on the right. He feints, sells Le Marchand a bridge, cuts inside onto his left foot and places a confident finish into the far corner.
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3 min Chelsea attack for the first time, Kovacic finding Hazard on halfway, who spreads to Pedro. He laifs down the right and crosses low, seeking Giroud, but Sergio Rico is there.
2 min Fulham are moving with intensity, but then Christie plays a loose square ball to Seri that Kovacic intercepts. Fulham win it right back though, and Luiz has to clear Christie’s cross, then Cairney loops it back in from the other wide and Alonso is happy to let it bounce behind. Good start from Fulham.
1 min Christie nashes forward and has Johansen over on the left but given his prowess takes the entirely reasonable decision to shoot, an effort fielded on the dive but easily by Kepa.
1 min Chelsea set us away and kick for the corner, to no avail.
Sarri and Ranieri enjoy one of the oldest 45 degree handshakes ever. Why is that a rule in football? And why did the running handshake to celebrate a goal vanish?
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The players emerge! Fireworks! Smoke! Artificial excitement!
“Let’s not forget,” chides Richard Neville, “the 22 times Chelsea and Fulham played against each other in the 50s and 60s. Some of your readers are a bit longer in the tooth.”
No one’s forgetting, but I think it’s fair to say that the majority of vicious football rivalries were formed thereafter, and so few meeting since then is worthy of note.
The other problem Chelsea have is a lack of goals up front. I actually wonder if a 4-4-2 might suit them best - Kante can then do his running and recovering while protecting Jorginho, and two wingers supplying Giroud with Hazard running free would be tricky to defend. But, well, philosophy.
Graeme Souness is animatedly wondering where Chelsea’s goal are coming from, and I agree with him. I don’t think the balance is right – if they want to play a passing game, then I don’t really see how Kante can be part of it. He needs at least one more technical player, who also offers a goal-threat.
Mauricio Sarri says he wants a passer to control games in the middle – Jorginho – and that he doesn’t want to play with two midfielders. He says that the team haven’t spoken too much about the defeat against Spurs, which was just a “very bad performance”, but he expects to see a reaction today.
Players you know aren’t rubbish, but are somehow rubbish every time you see them: Aleksandar Mitrovic. Fulham will need to feed him today, because it’s hard to see who else might score for them. Sessegnon further forward will help.
“I was going to tweet some droll mockery regarding ‘Steve Bruce: Fashion Icon’,” emails Hubert O’Hearn, “until I remembered my first pornstache modelled on Ian Rush. Suggest we call it a draw and just move along, never to speak of these things again.”
Literally modelled on Ian Rush? Incredible scenes!
Other matters of importance today:
🏳️🌈 We're proud to support @stonewalluk's #RainbowLaces campaign. 🌈 pic.twitter.com/PfP2LMH33L
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) December 2, 2018
Which leads me to a pose, I’m afraid. My mate Naj literally led his team out at Wembley on Friday night!
The draw for Euro 2020 continues apace - in its own special way.
Leisurewear latest: I’m not sure I’ve ever recovered from my parents’ cold-hearted refusal to buy me every piece of tat I wanted, such as a t-short modelled by Steve Bruce that read “When the going gets tough United get going”.
Warm-up time. 💪 #CHEFUL pic.twitter.com/WPUiyRBgDd
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 2, 2018
Fulham at home is one of those games for which Chelsea might not need Ngolo Kante. Or at least might need Cesc Fabregas who, though he lacks the same pace he always did, it still one of the sharpest minds and passers in the league. I’m guessing, but I bet Hazard and Giroud would fancy him behind them.
Having another look at that Chelsea squad, the absence of Callum Hudson-Odoi is noteworthy. At discussed in the story above, he’s not going to hang about forever.
Claudio Ranieri – who apparently used to manage Chelsea and, I understand, led Leicester to the league title – makes one change from last weekend’s win over Southampton. Andre Schurrle, of Chicken McNugget lookalike fame, has a niggle, so Stefan Johansen has his spot.
Chelsea make two changes from their shaming at Spurs: finally, eventually, blessedly, Giroud is in for Morata, while Pedro replaces Willian. The midfield, though, remains the midfield with Kante and Kovacic accompanying Jorginho. Barkley isn’t on the bench, so presumably he’s injured.
Teams
Chelsea (4-3-3 implacabilmente): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, David Luiz, Alonso; Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic; Pedro, Giroud, Hazard. Subs: Caballero, Christensen, Zappacosta, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek, Willian, Morata.
Fulham (4-2-3-1 sperimentale): Sergio Rico; Christie, Odoi, Mawson, Le Marchand; Chambers, Seri; Johansen, Cairney, Sessegnon; Mitrovic. Subs: Bettinelli, Ream, Bryan, Cisse, Kebano, Ayite, Kamara.
Referee: Craig Pawson (Sheffield)
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Preamble
Football derbies run a strange gamut – no great surprise, given that football is strange on account of people being strange. You have derbies that were never derbies that people have started calling derbies like Liverpool v Manchester United, derbies that aren’t derbies that are apparently derbies like the Fordshire derby between Luton and Watford, derbies that are derbies that aren’t really derbies like Arsenal v Charlton, and local derbies that are absolutely derbies but, well, y’know, like Chelsea v Fulham.
In terms of geography, there is very little to match this little tussle. The respective grounds are just 1.4 miles, or a Morata or Mitrovic finish away – only the Merseyside and Nottingham clubs are closer. But though proximity usually breeds animosity, it is not quite so in this case. Which is not to say these teams like each other, just that they haven’t played each other that often – eight times in the 70s, seven times in the 80 and not at all after 1985, and not at all the 90s. That leaves a lot of catching up to do, especially given the number of other rivalries Chelsea nurtured in the meantime and, let’s be real, the genteel nature of Craven Cottage in particular. (I was once chased up the road outside there, but that probably says more about me than it).
And the early start is unlikely to give today’s row its best foot forward, but there are still decent footballing reasons to expect something decent. Just last weekend, Chelsea were dealt a brutal place-putting by Spurs: there was a suspicion, shared by Mauricio Sarri, that the points they’d accumulated prior to were greater than their quality, and everything we saw at Wembley supported that. With Arsenal on their tails, they’ll be looking to reassert themselves quicksmart.
Fulham, meanwhile, have started the season far more miserably than anyone expected. The problem for them has been an attack of insufficient quality to compensate for a defence of little quality, and as a consequence they are in serious danger of relegation. But they now have a new manager – incidentally, Claudio Ranieri once managed Chelsea, and also won the league with Leicester! – got three points last week, and will be feeling better about themselves than for ages. Let’s see how we get on...
Kick-off 12pm GMT
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