Fulham 0-2 Chelsea

Two goals in 82 seconds condemned Fulham to defeat in the SW6 derby on Monday night.

Immediately after Mykhailo Mudryk had opened the scoring, Armando Broja doubled Chelsea’s advantage in fortunate circumstances as Tim Ream’s attempted tackle hit the striker and flew into Bernd Leno’s net.

Fulham had more of an attacking edge in the second half, but failed to breach the Blues’ goal on what was a frustrating evening by the Thames.

Marco Silva made just the one change to the XI that started our previous Premier League fixture at Crystal Palace, with Harry Wilson preferred on the right wing to Bobby De Cordova-Reid.

Broja was leading the line for Chelsea and had what looked a glorious chance to open the scoring inside two minutes after rounding Leno. Somehow he managed to balloon his strike into the back of the Hammy End, but the offside flag went up to spare his blushes.

The visitors were transitioning quickly when they won possession, with one such moment leading to a 10th minute chance for Mudryk, but he couldn’t control his shot from the edge of the box, blazing over.

The Ukrainian was much more composed the next time he had a sight of goal, though. Two passes was all it needed to get him in, with Moises Caicedo springing Levi Colwill down the left, and the defender then clipping a smart pass over Issa Diop’s head to Mudryk who did the rest.

A catastrophic couple of minutes then saw Cole Palmer intercept Ream’s pass and feed Broja. Ream actually got back to make the tackle, but the ball hit the Chelsea striker and deflected into the back of the net.

Another loose turnover in possession could have made things worse just before the half hour mark, but thankfully Enzo Fernandez curled over when well placed.

Some neat skill from Raúl Jiménez then saw him dance into the penalty box at the other end, but as he cut back to Andreas Pereira, the Brazilian was closed down immediately to prevent him from getting a shot away.

Our first decent attempt on goal arrived five minutes before the break when Raúl showed good strength to beat Enzo to Andreas’ corner, but his header span wide of the far post.

Broja had enjoyed a lively first half, and he carried that energy into the second, nodding Palmer’s cross over inside the first few minutes of the restart.

After opening his account for Fulham last week, Alex Iwobi was introduced fairly early on in the second period, immediately making an impact when he got on the end of Antonee Robinson’s cross, just failing to direct his volley as he would have liked.

Carlos Vinicius had come on at the same time, and he made an intelligent run that was spotted by Timothy Castagne. The ball was then worked inwards to Iwobi, but his shot was blocked.

It was more positive play from Castagne that led to our best chance of the game. He did brilliantly to slide a square pass into Harrison Reed who then dinked a cross onto the head of Vinicius, who got under it and nodded over.

Robert Sanchez then had a let-off as his attempted clearance smashed into Andreas, but the Chelsea goalkeeper was very fortunate to see the loose ball come straight back to him.

With the tempo of the game increased, the Blues then had two golden chances to extend their lead. First, substitute Ian Maatsen sliced against the post, before a brilliant Leno save denied Enzo at the rebound.

Castagne had been a real threat in the second half with his diagonal runs, Ream picking him out again in the 74th minute. He played it back to Iwobi whose cross found Vinicius, but he headed straight into the arms of Sanchez.

Silva’s substitutions had made an impression, and two more combined to almost half the deficit when Tom Cairney slipped Saša Lukić in, but Sanchez made a fine save with his feet to deny the Serbian. The ball did eventual drop to Castagne, whose volley deflected behind.

Sanchez was having a much busier second half, but he wouldn’t have been unduly worried with his save from Willian’s long ranger that, while well hit, was straight at him.

An improved second period from the boys, but ultimately a disappointing night at the Cottage.