That’s it for tonight. I’ll leave you with Jacob Steinberg’s match report from Stamford Bridge – goodnight.
🗣️ "We can be very proud of coming away from here with a point and maybe disappointed not to have more."
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 3, 2023
Tim Ream discusses Fulham's performance after a goalless draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. ⚖ pic.twitter.com/XfQy2ImxN4
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Truths, darned truths and statistics
Chelsea have now scored five goals in their last 12 games.
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Fulham have taken four points off Chelsea for the first time since 1975-76. They deserved a draw in a game that was genuinely interesting despite the lack of clear chances.
Kai Havertz hit the post for Chelsea and David Datro Fofana’s shot was cleared off the line by Tim Ream. The record signing Enzo Fernandez had a mixed but largely positive debut. It’s pretty obvious that he’s a class act – Jorginho with younger legs, more forward passes and a few more goals.
Mykhailo Mudryk had a bad night and was substituted at half-time, though that might have been due to injury.
Fulham had no new signings, just the same old superbly coached XI. And they are now sixth in the table.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 19 | 29 | 50 |
| 2 | Man City | 20 | 33 | 45 |
| 3 | Newcastle | 20 | 22 | 39 |
| 4 | Man Utd | 20 | 7 | 39 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 21 | 9 | 36 |
| 6 | Fulham | 22 | 2 | 32 |
| 7 | Brighton | 19 | 10 | 31 |
| 8 | Brentford | 20 | 4 | 30 |
| 9 | Chelsea | 21 | 1 | 30 |
| 10 | Liverpool | 19 | 9 | 29 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 20 | -4 | 28 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | 20 | -9 | 24 |
| 13 | Nottm Forest | 20 | -19 | 21 |
| 14 | Leicester | 20 | -7 | 18 |
| 15 | Leeds | 19 | -7 | 18 |
| 16 | West Ham | 20 | -8 | 18 |
| 17 | Wolverhampton | 20 | -18 | 17 |
| 18 | AFC Bournemouth | 20 | -23 | 17 |
| 19 | Everton | 20 | -13 | 15 |
| 20 | Southampton | 20 | -18 | 15 |
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Full time: Chelsea 0-0 Fulham
Peep peep!
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90+5 min Chilwell’s corner is only half cleared by Fulham. Vinicius tries to run the ball to safety, the eejit, and is dispossessed 20 yards from his own goal. The ball comes to Sterling on the left side of the area, and he floats a curling chip across goal that is comfortably held by the leaping Leno.
90+5 min Thiago wins a corner for Chelsea on the right. One last chancee…
90+4 min: Fulham substitution The limping Andreas Pereira – it looks like tiredness rather than injury – is replaced by Layvin Kurzawa.
90+3 min Wilson is booked for a cynical tackle on Sterling.
90+2 min “On the question of one-footed players, I was struck by how many left-footers came immediately to mind,” says Geoff Wignall. “First and foremost of course, Maradona, whose right foot was just to keep his ankle off the ground. By repute Puskas was similar. Then in the English game my first thoughts were of Muhren and Brady. Is it just more noticeable with left footed players? Or is it just me?”
I had a similar thought, at least when I wasn’t thinking about Veron. I wonder if it’s an illusion because left-footed players are often more elegant.
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90+1 min Andreas’s dangerous free-kick is headed up in the air by Thiago. Chelsea can’t quite get it away, and eventually Palhinha twists his body to hit a shot that deflects off Azpilicueta and spins a few yards wide.
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90 min Reed is fouled 30 yards from goal in the inside-right channel by Havertz. That’s his last touch. Carlos Vinicius and Tom Cairney replace Aleksandra Mitrovic, who had a quiet night, and Reed.
88 min Fulham have defended brilliantly tonight, at both ends of the pitch. There’s so much to admire about their intensity, purpose and fearlessness. On Sky Sports, Gary Neville says “It’s one of the best defensive shapes I’ve seen. They’ve been perfect, inch perfect.”
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87 min Guardian exclusive: Chelsea’s next big signing will be a No9.
85 min “I remember Davor Suker being hilariously one-footed,” says Simon Dunsby.
I don’t know what you mean. He uses his right foot here.
84 min Marco Silva has been booked for something or other.
84 min: Chelsea substitution And a very popular one: Ben Chilwell, returning from injury, replaces Marc Cucurella.
82 min Palhinha, who has been really good, has a long-range shot blocked by the outrushing Fernandez.
80 min On the flip side, were it not for Ream’s anticipation and determination, Fofana would have scored a memorable first goal for Chelsea, both quick-footed and quick-witted.
79 min: Off the line by Ream! What a wonderful piece of defending. Gallagher curled a pass around the defence towards Fofana, at which point Leno came haring out of his penalty area. Fofana went smoothly past him, then chopped back inside the covering Diop in the area.
Those bits he did brilliantly, but his eventual left-footed shot was slightly tame and that allowed Ream to charge back and clear the ball off the line. It was still outstanding defending, but Fofana had done the hard work by beating Leno and Diop.
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79 min: Just wide from Gallagher! Madueke’s low cross is half cleared by the stretching Ream. The ball runs towards Gallagher, 22 yards out, and he cracks a low drive into the side netting at the near post.
78 min Fulham have had four shots on target to Chelsea’s one, and I’m struggling to remember that one.
77 min “I’m at Southwark Playhouse for a version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie set in a New York BDSM club,” says Gary Naylor. “And there was I thinking that the pain was coming when Everton play Arsenal tomorrow...”
76 min Havertz is playing slightly deeper now, with the substitute Fofana up front.
75 min: Chelsea substitution David Datro Fofana replaces Mason Mount.
75 min: Double substitution for Fulham Manor Solomon and Harry Wilson replace Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Willian, who gets a standing ovation from both sets of supporters. He was brilliant.
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74 min “And I thought Mary Waltz’s origin story was going to involve this guy,” says Harriet Osborn. “And I started supporting... Liverpool because of club values/outreach. Goes to show ya...”
Why do you think I’m typing this in full Forest Green kit?
73 min Mount’s shot on the turn from about 15 yards is excellently blocked by Ream.
72 min: Just wide from Fernandez! That would have brought the house down. The sliding Reed intercepted a pass on the edge of the D but would could only push it towards Fernandez. He ran round the ball, 25 yards goal, and whipped a lovely shot that swerved just wide of the far post. I think Leno had it covered, though I wouldn’t be my last sliver of dignity on it.
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71 min To the delight of the Fulham fans behind the goal, Sterling slices an admittedly difficult volleyed cross straight out of play.
70 min Hello! Mitrovic, barely past the halfway line, spots Kepa off his line and drives a lofted shot towards goal. Kepa backpedals urgently, pats the ball away from under the crossbar and grabs it at the second attempt.
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69 min Reed clips a beautiful pass over the top to release Willian onto the left. Badishile comes across so Willian tries to wave a pass across the area with the outside of his right boot. He overhits it and the danger passes.
68 min “Watching that hilariously skewed shot from Ziyech just a few moments ago, I was thinking of some of the best two footed players I can recall watching (Santi Cazorla comes to mind),” says Saurya Chakraborty. “But leaning the other way, who do you think had the biggest difference in ability between their stronger and weaker foot? Just by the recent example I think Ziyech comes close.”
I’m thinking of only one man right now, a man who single-footedly introduced me to the concept of the love/hate relationship: Juan Sebastian Veron.
67 min De Cordova-Reid is booking for pulling Raheem Sterling back.
66 min He curls it out towards the penalty spot, where Thiago Silva’s under-pressure header loops gently into the arms of Leno.
66 min Both sides will feel, with good reason, that this game is there for the taking. Azpilicueta wins a corner for Chelsea, to be taken by Gallagher…
66 min “Alexandra Ashton is forgetting the one other Everton supporting American we do know about,” says Tom Stratford.
I’d love to hear his views on Everton’s transfer business.
64 min Gallagher is booked for taking out Andreas.
64 min Chelsea have played some nice football in the middle of the pitch, but the final pass (or Havertz finish) has been slightly overhit.
63 min “Here is a shortened version of how this real American chose Everton,” says Mary Waltz. “Without going into the gritty details I have personal and family history with depression. When deciding on a PL team to support I came across a Guardian article on EFC setting up a walk-in centre to help with mental health issues in Liverpool. That made me adopt the Blues.”
I’ll be honest, I expected the answer to be that you saw them beat Rapid Vienna in 1985 and fell in love with Kevin Sheedy. But I think this is even better.
60 min: Double substitution for Chelsea Cesar Azpilicueta and Raheem Sterling replace Reece James and Hakim Ziyech. Madueke has moved to the right wing.
59 min Willian, who is having a minor stormer, charges infield from the left, beating three players before cutting the ball back to Andreas on the edge of the box. His shot is well blocked and then Palhinha fires the rebound over from distance.
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58 min Now Mount leaves a gratuitous one on Tete and is lucky not to be booked. When did Mason Mount become a tough guy?
57 min Mount nicks the ball off Palhinha, 40 yards from the Fulham goal, and is fuming when the referee gives a free-kick.
55 min “How hot would you say Potter’s seat would become if Chelsea can’t pull out a win today?” says Michael Weller. “To clarify: I don’t think he should be fired if the result isn’t good today, but then again I’m not the one who wrote 78 bazillion pounds worth of cheques in the window...”
I think that unless Chelsea descend into abject farce, Potter will be there at the start of next season. Partly because it’s the right thing to do, partly because the owners will lose so much credibility if they bin off another manager shortly after giving him a £300m gift.
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54 min: Fine defending from Tete! James plays a one-two with Gallagher and angles a terrific first-time cross towards Madueke at the far post. Tete gets in front of him to behind for a corner. That probably saved a goal.
52 min Madueke surges promisingly infield from the left but then slightly overhits a reverse through pass towards Havertz.
52 min The VAR check is complete.
51 min Andreas is booked for launching Cucurella up in the air. I think he got a bit of the ball but his studs were showing and he followed through into the ankle of Cucurella. In fact, there’s a VAR check for a red card.
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50 min A superb cross from De Cordova-Reid just evades Mitrovic, who is expertly blocked off at the far post by Thiago.
49 min It’s been a bit stop-start since the resumption.
46 min Willian has a shot at goal after 14 seconds. He beat three players on an excellent run before driving a low shot back across goal from the edge of the area. Kepa got down to his right to make a comfortable save.
46 min Peep peep! Fulham begin the second half.
Another new Chelsea signing is coming on. Noni Madueke, the winger they signed from PSV, has replaced the surprisingly anonymous Mykhailo Mudryk. Maybe he’s got an injury.
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“I always knew Mary Waltz was made up,” says Alexandra Ashton. “No American would willingly choose to be an Evertonian!”
Half-time reading
Aubameyang is the lead story, though his exclusion is no great surprise. What’s interesting is that Benoit Badiashile, who is playing tonight, isn’t in the squad either. I suppose Graham Potter had to include Joao Felix, Mudryk and Fernandez because of their fee or reputation, but it leaves them a bit short in defence.
Half time: Chelsea 0-0 Fulham
Peep peep! An interesting if relatively uneventful first half at Stamford Bridge. Kai Havertz hit the post and had a couple of other half-chances; at the other end, an Andreas rasper was well saved by Kepa.
Enzo Fernandez, Chelsea’s record signing, played some crisp early passes and put out plenty of fires in midfield, though he also lost the ball in dangerous areas a few times. Mykhailo Mudryk was anonymous.
45 min: Havertz hits the post! Fulham are ending the half on top, but it’s Chelsea who almost take the lead. Ziyech, in the centre circle, lofts a delicious angled pass to put Havertz through on goal. He lobs the bouncing ball serenely over the outrushing Leno, and it hits the near post before rebounding to safety. That could easily have hit Diop, who was running desperately towards his own goal, and gone into the net.
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44 min Kepa almost adds another beauty to his showreel, driving a clearance straight at Andreas on the edge of the area. Thankfully for Chelsea, the ball riochets to safety.
44 min A good stat on Sky shows that Fulham have won the ball six times in the final third to Chelsea’s one. They’ve played well, and they don’t look remotely intimidated by the challenge of playing at a ground where they haven’t won since 1979.
43 min “It’s been absolutely marvellous seeing Reece James back on the pitch,” says Justin Madson. “Cesar Azpilicueta has been one of my favourite players since he signed for Chelsea, but he has clearly lost a step this year and our play down the right has suffered when James isn’t available. Here’s hoping he can stay on the pitch.”
I think he’s looked slightly tentative, though that’s fair enough in the circumstances. At his best he’s a phenomenal player, one of the best right-backs in the world. His injury record is just about the only flaw in his game.
42 min New signingwatch: Badiashile and Fernandez good, Mudryk not so good.
41 min “Thank you, Havertz,” says Jeff Sax, “for another Nunez-like moment. Is he up for sale in summer? If not, he should be.”
I’m all for you giving it to us straight, like another man with the initials JS did back in the day, but I think that’s a bit harsh. The first chance was a really difficult ball to volley first time, and all he could really do was steer it on target, and the second took a vital touch off Ream.
39 min Tete’s sharp low pass infield is touched off neatly by Andreas towards Mitrovic, but he can’t take it in his stride on the edge of the Chelsea area. Fulham are playing well.
37 min: Chance for Fulham! Tete slips Fernandez confidently and charges down the right. Eventually he crosses beyond the far post, who decides not to head at goal and instead nods it back across towards Mitrovic. It’s slightly behind him and Chelsea clear.
At first I thought Willian should have gone for the goal, though maybe the original cross was slightly behind him as well.
36 min Another good early pass from Fernandez releases Ziyech on the right. He moves into the area but then, with Ream coming across, slices comically wide with his right foot.
35 min Mudryk is late on Tete, a tackle for which he might have been booked. He was sensational on his debut at Anfield but has so far struggled to get into this game.
34 min Havertz shoots wide from the edge of the area, though it might not have counted because of a possible handball in the build up.
33 min “Hi Rob,” says Norrie Hernon. “You said, ‘There are only three players over the age of 24… Whether it works or not, not even William Goldman knows, but the plan is pretty clear.’ Wasn’t this also the plan when they swept through Europe picking up Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic, Werner, etc?”
Yep, and when Arsenal bought Denilson, Aaron Ramsey, Bacary Sagna, Eduardo, Samir Nasri and the rest. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes a shocking tackle from a Birmingham defender propels you into a parallel universe.
32 min: Chance for Chelsea! Fernandez turns on the halfway line and lofts an early pass to Mount just outside the Fulham area. He controls it deftly and curls a left-footed cross towards Havertz at the far post. The stretching Ream gets a slight but crucial touch, and Havertz’s shot flies over the bar as a result. Without that touch, I suspect Havertz would have scored.
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31 min He’s fine. Mitrovic stood on his foot, that was all. It wasn’t a great tackle, actually, though not bad enough for VAR to get lively.
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30 min Gallagher has hurt himself while trying to challenge Willian and Mitrovic at the same time. He’s still down.
28 min Chelsea break dangerously, but Mount’s crossfield pass towards Ziyech is crucially intercepted by Robinson.
26 min “Rob, you cannot know how much pride fans on this side of the pond feel when they see A, Robinson (cue Bowie, Young Americans) jet down the wing past defenders and track back and muscle the ball away for throw-ins,” says Mary Waltz. “It’s tells us we are growing up a bit.”
The hosts’ story is always usually one of the most fascinating things about a World Cup, and it’ll be no different in four three years’ time. I’ve never been to a World Cup so I might start saving £20 a week or whatever it will take.
25 min: Good save from Kepa! That’s the closest we’ve come to a goal. Palhinha robbed Mount in his own half and fed a sharp pass into Andreas on the edge of the D. He took a touch on the half turn and then laced a shot across goal that was pushed round the post by Kepa, diving low to his right. Good save.
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24 min Chelsea win their first corner, on the right, and nothing happens. It’s been an okay start for Chelsea, no more or less. Fulham look really well organised defensively.
23 min “Wait, you’re Scott?” sniffs Ian Copestake. “What have you done with Rob? Was there ever a Rob or is he more of a vibe?”
He was made up, along with Gary Naylor, Mary Waltz, Didier Baptiste and cake.
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22 min Palhinha is booked for a lunge at Mason Mount.
21 min De Cordova-Reid gets the wrong side of the last man Badiashile, 45 yards from goal, but he doesn’t have the legs and is eventually dispossessed by a combination of Thiago and Badiashile.
20 min Leno makes a really good save with his legs to deny Havertz, who ran onto a beautiful lofted pass from Thiago and flicked a first-time volley towards goal. It was given offside, though it was pretty tight and would have gone to VAR had he scored. I think he was just off.
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18 min Mount takes a return pass from Cucurella and hits a long-range drive that is blocked by Diop. The ball spins into the area, where Ream almost gets himself in trouble. Eventually Fulham clear.
17 min See 15 min.
15 min Though the pace is good and both teams look full of good intentions, we haven’t had any clear chances yet.
13 min Gallagher uses the overlapping James by not using him and lofts a deep, curling cross that just evades Mudryk at the far post.
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13 min Mitrovic gives the assistant referee a right mouthful over something or other. He might have been booked for that.
12 min We haven’t seen much of Fernandez yet – a few good interceptions, one dodgy pass and a wrestle with Mitrovic at the aforementioned corner.
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12 min “For no reason whatsoever, I recently went down a rabbit hole of sports franchise values,” says Joe Pearson. “Forbes ranks Chelsea at No50 worldwide, behind a lot of NFL and NBA teams (including my hometown, and dreadful, Colts), and several Premier League teams. Chelsea’s January spend of £300m on my keyboard) is more than a tenth of the value of the entire franchise! That is insane!”
It is now!
11 min Tete’s cross hits Thiago at the near post and goes behind for a corner. Pereira plays it short and the whole thing fizzles out.
9 min “Hey Scott!” says Bill Preston. “I think this is going to be one of wild swings. Fulham are going to start strongly, and get a proper stomp on through the first half, wanting to show the style and panache they have. Chelsea, on the other hand, do have decent strength, and youth! However, despite the wily plays they will put together, and a last ten minutes of thrilling heroics, they won’t steal this one. It’ll be 1-1.”
8 min Mount loses Reed in midfield, via a one-two with Ziyech, and tries to slide Mudryk through on goal. Tete comes across to make a fine interception on the edge of the D.
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7 min Robinson storms away from Ziyech and then James on the left, but he can’t quite keep the ball in play. Still, promising stuff from Fulham, who have come to play.
5 min I’m not sure Fernandez has touched the ball yet. Has he taken Chelsea as far as he can?
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4 min “Since I believe in miracles (cue Hot Chocolate),” begins Richard Hirst, “may I be the first to say that when Fulham win it will have been the SW6 points derby.”
3 min Gallagher and Mount work the ball promisingly to Mudryk on the left edge of the area, but his attempted return pass to Mount is overhit.
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2 min “Speaking of Jedi and his mind card tricks,” begins Harriet Osborn. “If memory serves, the last time Fulham were flying this high, they had an American international in the form of his life - and this squad has two! I’ve got them for Conference League qualification this time round. Maybe I’ve lost it?”
I mean, most of the world has in the past seven years, so you might as well. It’s not beyond the realms but I suspect they’ll finish below Chelsea, Brighton and probably Liverpool.
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1 min It does look like a 4-2-3-1 for Chelsea, or 2-4-1-3 if you prefer. Gallagher is playing deeper alongside Fernandez.
1 min Peep peep! Mason Mount gets the game under way. There’s a cracking atmosphere at Stamford Bridge.
One aside on the Chelsea XI. There are only three players over the age of 24: Kepa, Thiago Silva and Hakim Ziyech. Whether it works or not, not even William Goldman knows, but the plan is pretty clear.
MBM regular Peter Oh has a simple take on all this
OMG have CFC made a joke of FFP. So forgive me for wishing that FFC win tonight FFS. TY, Peter.
My eyes are getting a bit fuzzy, so I’m going to have a quick screen break before the actual football starts.
“Having observed Liverpool’s cycle of season-up-season-down for the past four campaigns, it’s been bizarre how overlooked injuries have been in the NARRATIVE,” says Scott Masse. “Everyone gets injured; crisis at Liverpool! Everyone stays relatively fit; they are historically good. I know it’s nearly as boring as VAR discussions for journalists and podcasters, but injuries, or lackthereof, are highly consequential.
“Some American Football programmes have installed medical/physio experts as part of their panels - I was sceptical at first but have grown to find it insightful/informative in understanding player and team performance.”
Though I agree with you about the importance, I’m also sceptical about having Dr Michael Mosley on Match of the Day (much as I love him). A spin-off of this discussion is teams who win the title despite a raft of injuries and suspensions, which is almost doubly impressive. Arsenal 2001-02 are the obvious example, when every Tom, Dick and Stepanovs had to play at some stage in the run-in. I’m sure it’s happened more recently but my memory stopped working some time around 2009.
“This recent transfer window wasn’t scattergun,” says Timour Gregory. “It only looks that way because the previous five years have seen terrible recruitment, chickens that eventually all came home to roost at once. Despite shelling out millions under Conte, Sarri and Tuchel, there’s been no elite ball-playing midfielder to replace Fabregas, no consistent winger to replace Hazard, and no goalscoring forward to replace Costa. Koulibaly was a dud and Silva’s 40, so we needed two new centre-backs. All the signings in this window make sense. If anything it was the summer window overseen by Boehly that was totally nonsensical.”
Yeah I’d largely agree with that. There was a clear plan this time; it’s just that they had to overpay for a few players. I’m not sure the summer window was that nonsensical, it just looks that way since Tuchel was sacked.
“Greetings from California, it’s good to see PL MBM back,” says Mary Waltz. “Chelsea’s spending obscene? The FFP rules are so byzantine but I have not seen anyone show that Chelsea has cheated. And there has always been massive budget differences between the top and the bottom of the PL teams so Liverpool and City griping over Chelsea’s spending is rich. And my Everton spends and spends and are headed to the Championship. Sigh.”
“Fulham are actually quite good (or is that Brighton?),” says Ian Copestake, “and if they play as a team then this is their chance against a squad of sums of cash. I say, do it for the underpaid strikers (the other kind)!”
“As a Chelsea fan I must admit to slight embarrassment after the last two transfer windows,” says Brendan Large. “Scattergun is a generous summation I would say. But even after all these signings the thing I am most dreaming about is that we can get the big injured players back and keep them fit.
“James, Chilwell and Kantè have been missed hugely both by Tuchel and Potter. If those three stay fit and Joao Felix and Mudryk carry on as they have (barely) started I do believe Chelsea have a (very outside) chance of top four.”
It’s a good point, and it’s interesting how often we overlook the impact of injuries – not so much at the time, but when history is written. For example, there’s little chance Chelsea would have won the Champions League in 2021 without those three.
On the other hand, they were right in the title race last season until Chilwell and James were injured. It’s one of the most decisive factors in who wins trophies.
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Graham Potter is being interviewed on Sky. I was typing up the team news so I’m not entirely certain but I think he dodged a question about whether he had personally signed off on all the transfers.
I don’t want to overplay it, and he said all the right things about buying young players and the club being aligned, but it got the Spidey senses tingling ever so slightly. It might just be a semantic thing though; the days of a manager taking care of all recruitment are long gone.
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Team news: Fernandez, Mudryk and James start
Enzo Fernandez goes straight into the Chelsea team, with Benoit Badiashile and Mykhailo Mudryk also in the starting XI. Hakim Ziyech, who was a signature away from joining PSG, plays as well.
There are three changes in all from the 0-0 draw at Liverpool a fortnight ago. Fernandez, Mudryk and the fit-again Reece James replace Trevoh Chalobah, Jorginho and Lewis Hall.
Fulham are unchanged from their last league game, the 1-0 defeat at home to Spurs.
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Kepa; James, Thiago, Badiashile, Cucurella; Gallagher, Fernandez; Ziyech, Mount, Mudryk; Havertz.
Substitutes: Bettinelli, Azpilicueta, Chilwell, Chalobah, Koulibaly, Chukwuemeka, Madueke, Sterling, D Fofana.
Fulham (4-2-3-1) Leno; Tete, Diop, Ream, Robinson; Palhinha, Reed; De Cordova-Reid, Andreas, Willian, Mitrovic.
Substitutes: Rodak, Kurzawa, Tosin, Duffy, Cairney, Wilson, Solomon, James, Vinicius.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
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I’ve not had chance to read this yet, but a) it’s a Don McRae interview and b) Gary Naylor sent it to our Nessun Dorma WhatsApp group with a glowing note, so it’s pretty much unequivocally recommended.
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“Have a great weekend,” says Jeff Sax. “This obscene spending at Chelsea will get them nowhere …”
I’m torn on this. It worked from 2003-05, though that was primarily because of Jose Mourinho. Even so, I would trust Graham Potter and Paul Winstanley (who was Brighton’s head of recruitment when they bought Moises Caicedo, Kaoru Mitoma, Leandro Trossard and Marc Cucurella for a combined fee of about 40 quid) to know what they’re doing.
If the owners and the board keep their nerve, and that’s a sizeable if, I think they’ve every chance of succeeding. But it’ll take time, at least in the Premier League. They’ve already shown they can win the Champions League in defiance of all logic.
479 in 25 won’t go
Preamble
Right, this is the real quiz. Graham Potter’s first five months at Stamford Bridge were understandably messy, but now Chelsea have drawn a £300m line in the sand. Potter has eight new players, two old full-backs (Reece James and Ben Chilwell, arguably Chelsea’s most important players, are back from injury) and fewer excuses than he had a month ago.
This is still a medium-term project for Potter, but for the first time it feels like his squad – a group of promising young players (even if some of them cost eye-watering amounts) who have the potential to become world-class in the next few years. They’re copying the Arsenal model, essentially, except they’ve squashed multiple transfer windows into one.
Chelsea lost 2-1 at Craven Cottage back in the dark days, just over three weeks ago to be precise, and Fulham have the chance to do the double over Chelsea for the first time in their history. Marco Silva’s team have had a couple of frustrating defeats since then – this does not slip, etc - but they are still seventh, and top of the west London mini-league. Chelsea start in tenth, though a win would lift them to sixth, even if it’s just for one day.
Kick off 8pm.
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