Chelsea 1-0 Fulham

Cole Palmer’s penalty was the only difference between the sides on Saturday, as Fulham slipped to a frustrating 1-0 defeat by Chelsea.

The Whites grew into the first half at Stamford Bridge, with Harry Wilson nearly breaking the deadlock when he arrived at the far post, only to be denied by stand-in goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.

Arguably the pivotal moment of the afternoon arrived when Blues right-back Malo Gusto crunched Willian high on his ankle, only to escape with a yellow card.

Nonetheless, Fulham ended the first half the stronger, but went into the break behind when Palmer converted from 12 yards after an Issa Diop foul, with what proved to be the only goal of the game.

Marco Silva made three changes to the starting XI from Wednesday’s Carabao Cup match that had ended just a little more than 60 hours earlier. Kenny Tete – who was outstanding in this fixture last season – Tom Cairney and Wilson were all drafted in, with Timothy Castagne, Harrison Reed and Bobby De Cordova-Reid dropping to the bench.

After an opening 20 minutes in which an off-target strike from Conor Gallagher was the main incident of note, Armando Broja should have put the hosts in front when he headed the wrong side of the post from Enzo Fernandez’s pinpoint delivery.

Fulham’s first effort of the afternoon soon followed. Made by some industrious high pressing from Wilson, Andreas Pereira took aim from 20 yards, but Petrovic got down to hold his low effort into the far corner.

Another Petrovic save a minute later was far more impressive, making himself big to keep out Wilson’s connection from a dangerous Antonee Robinson delivery.

After Gusto was fortunate to escape his red card for a nasty challenge on Willian, Fulham ended the half strongly with a flurry of corners, making it all the more frustrating when Chelsea were awarded a penalty in stoppage time when Diop clipped Raheem Sterling. Palmer coolly sent Bernd Leno the wrong way to hand his side a perhaps fortuitous advantage.

Fulham started the second half on the front foot, but should have been 2-0 down when a Chelsea counter ended with a free header for Sterling six yards out, but the winger could only nod onto the post.

We responded with a blocked Willian shot and a Raúl Jiménez header over the bar, as the 3,000 Fulham fans in the Shed End tried to suck the ball in.

Petrovic had looked composed in the Chelsea goal, and he made another smart stop in the 73rd minute, pushing away Raúl’s placed effort at full stretch following good work from Andreas, before keeping out the Mexican’s volley seconds later.

With the Whites pressing, our hosts were still a threat when breaking forward, as evidenced by Gallagher cracking one against the post with the outside of his foot.

Rodrigo Muniz was sent on as we went with two up top, and he promptly won a free-kick on the edge of the box, which Willian fizzed a few inches over.

A number of late free-kicks threatened to the chance to claim what would have been a thoroughly deserved point, but unfortunately we could not turn any of them home, despite a number of dangerous Willian deliveries.