Patrick Vieira will have been one of the happiest men watching Chelsea struggle at Craven Cottage. His Crystal Palace side play the Blues on Sunday and he will be hoping they can pile further misery on Graham Potter's struggling side.
To make matters worse for Potter, who has now won just once in nine matches and lost eight of the last 11, he didn't just have the result go against him at Fulham. In a crazy two minute period that ultimately defined the match Chelsea lost their best performer in 2023 through injury as well as Joao Felix to suspension.
Denis Zakaria hobbled off, adding to the injury woes already marring the squad at the moment, before Felix lunged into a poor tackle less than an hour into his hugely exciting debut. Not only did the Blues lose Felix's creativity on the field for the remaining 35 minutes, they also lost his services for the next three matches.
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Such was the struggles of the attack going into the game Felix's impact and flair instantly stood out amongst a perennially profligate frontline. He may not have scored or assisted but his individual showing was a major improvement on that of other options called upon by Potter in recent weeks and it also got more from Mason Mount and Kai Havertz too.
Vieira's Palace side have been on a poor run themselves and have lost three of the four matches since the return of the Premier League after the World Cup and have won only once in six. They also have a terrible record against Chelsea in recent years too. Ian Wright has revealed the glee of the former Arsenal midfielder responded when seeing that the new Chelsea No.11 would miss the tie.
Speaking on the Wrighty's House podcast, the Match of The Day pundit said, "I've got to tell you, last night I was watching the game with Patrick Vieira and we were waxing [lyrical], waxing over Joao Felix, saying how well he was playing in his first game.
"When he got sent off Patrick literally got up and just went to the kitchen. Just to say 'yes! Yes!' He got up and looked at me, smiled at me. Went to the kitchen."
Chelsea paid Atletico Madrid £9.7million for his services on a six-month loan deal and also have to pay all of his wages too, as well as not agreeing any sort of purchase option for the summer. He will now miss the next three matches, starting with this match at Stamford Bridge and may prove to be a big miss already.
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