Fulham manager Marco Silva hailed a “great night for the club and the fans” as his side beat 10-man Chelsea in a fiery west London derby at Craven Cottage.
Carlos Vinicius headed in the winner in the 72nd minute after Portugal winger Joao Felix was sent off on his Chelsea debut to level the score at 1-1.
Willian put the hosts ahead against his former side in the first half, before Kalidou Koulibaly equalized early in the second, but Vinicius’ winner saw Fulham move up to sixth in the Premier League.
“Chelsea is a super team, they are a big club and their budget is completely different from ours, you can’t compare,” Silva said.
“It was a great night for our fans and they deserved it. It’s special for our football club, for our fans and I definitely felt it at the final whistle – the way they celebrated. Celebrated that was a really important moment.
“Our players have been fantastic for the season so far but we know we are only halfway through the season and as a manager we have a lot of room for improvement.”
Chelsea’s defeat has increased the pressure on manager Graham Potter and the Blues have now won just twice in 10 matches in all competitions.
Joao Felix, who joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid on Wednesday in a £9.7m loan deal until the end of the season, was shown a straight red card after 58 minutes for a horrific lunge on defender Kenny Tate and now They will be suspended for three. Matches
Felix impresses with his red card before turning the match around.
Potter’s Blues side started brilliantly, but the hosts almost took the lead when Chelsea lost possession and Vinicius played a pass past Bobby de Córdoba to Reid, who fired against the crossbar with Capa Arrizabalaga beating him. What did
But Chelsea went behind two minutes later in the 25th minute.
It was poor defending from the visitors as teenage left-back Lewis Hall failed to clear, before Trevo Chalobah should have done better with his clearance.
The ball fell to Willian and the Brazilian midfielder, a two-time Premier League winner in his seven years at Chelsea, saw his strike take a wide deflection off Chalobah, giving Arrizabalaga no chance. Willian did not celebrate against his former team.
But Chelsea equalized within two minutes of the second half as Koulibaly reacted swiftly to force the ball over the line from close range after Mason Mount’s free-kick bounced off the left-hand post.
Joao Felix was the visitors’ best player before his dismissal left his side on the back foot and 10 men conceded the winner to Vinicius.
Fulham’s fantastic season continues.
At the final whistle there was a party atmosphere among the home fans at Craven Cottage.
It was just Fulham’s fourth win against Chelsea in 53 top-flight matches, and ended a run of 20 Premier League games without a win against the Blues since a 1-0 victory in March 2006.
Fulham have now moved up to sixth in the Premier League, although they have played two more games than Liverpool, the side they have climbed to.
Nonetheless, the result still continues an incredible campaign for Marco Silva’s Fulham, who secured promotion from the Championship last season.
In the build-up to the match, club captain Tom Cairney said the players were not at all thinking about the possibility of qualifying for Europe next season, but Fulham fans would be starting to dream of the rest of the season. What could happen. campaign
What made the result even more special for Silva was the fact that they were without 11-goal top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, but Vinicius proved a capable deputy and his goal delighted the Fulham fans. gave
For Chelsea, European football already seems a long way off. They have just 25 points from their opening 18 Premier League games this season, their fewest at this stage since 2015-16, the only season since 1996-97 that they have failed to qualify for Europe.
