5 Things we learned from Chelsea’s thrilling win over Fulham
Xabi Alonso has arrived in the Premier League. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Chelsea in pre-season which I was a part off putting them 2nd in my predictions for the league and we saw the good, the bad and the ugly tonight, it took just 30 seconds for the Alonso era to get underway as Cole Palmer slipped Joao Pedro in first time who coolly dinked the ball over Leno to put Chelsea 1-0 up. It looked like Alonso’s side would go on to grab a second and third soon after but it was Fulham who hit back in the 23rd minute when Castagne found Josh King in the box who fired the ball past Rob Sanchez at the near-post to equalise for Fulham, the goal didn’t stop Chelsea looking dangerous going forward and they retook the lead in the 40th minute when Lacroix turned brilliantly in the box and fired the ball across to Morgan Rogers who stayed calm to slot the ball into an empty net and score on his Chelsea debut. It took just three minutes after half-time for Chelsea to add a third as Joao Pedro was played over the top of Fulham’s high-line with the Brazilian waiting for Cole Palmer’s overlap which eventually came with the Englishman firing through Leno’s legs to give Chelsea a cushion on their lead, Fulham did hit back just four minutes later as Colwill’s poor clearance went straight to Castagne who’s shot was saved by Sanchez but just to Gonzalo Garcia who headed one back for Fulham on his debut. Fulham did have chances to equalise with the best one coming from Antonee Robinson who caught Sanchez off his line but the Americans shot went just wide of the post, from there Chelsea were able to see the game out and pick up their first three points of Alonso’s tenure.
Plenty of positives to take for Xabi Alonso in his first Premier League game. It’s pretty obvious but the main positive the former Real Madrid manager will take from this game is the front three of Palmer-Pedro-Rogers that looked dynamite out there at Craven Cottage in their first game playing together, I said in my Chelsea preview that I thought Alonso would stick with the back-3 at the start of the season and I think we saw why tonight. The narrow front 3 allows Rogers and Palmer to play in their best positions along with giving support to Joao Pedro up front who was amazing tonight, there were issues elsewhere on the pitch for Alonso with the biggest being Robert Sanchez who’s abysmal goalkeeping almost cost Chelsea the three points tonight. I’d be shocked if Chelsea didn’t at least try for a keeper before the end of the window as Sanchez is a complete liability in between the sticks, there was also poor performances from Colwill and Hato but I can give the Englishman a pass for tonight as he is coming off the back of an ACL injury which kept him out for most of last season. Hato was poor as well but I don’t expect his long-term to be wing-back under Alonso so again I can understand why he wasn’t great today, in the midfield I thought Chelsea were okay but Reece James and Lavia didn’t really get involved in the game too much which did allow Fulham to regain possession and build momentum at times in the game. I’m sure Alonso will be keen to get Moises Caicedo back in there sooner rather than later, whether he will be joined by Enzo Fernandez is a question that will be answered over the next week with the transfer window closing. I’m sure Alonso will be keen to keep him, but I wonder who his replacement will be if he does go to City?
A defeat for Arbeloa in his first official game in charge. Although they took no points from the game tonight I actually thought Fulham played pretty well for large parts of the game and easily could have grabbed a draw had Robinson kept his cool when Sanchez flew out of the box, the standout performer for Fulham today was undoubtedly Josh King who was absolutely brilliant and looked like a real leader in the midfield today which is crazy considering he’s just 19 years old. He scored a superb equaliser albeit it was poor goalkeeping from Sanchez but he was head and shoulders above any other Fulham player on the pitch today which I think is a positive for Arbeloa, the two new signings had up and down games with Cesar Palacios looking quite poor for a lot of the game if I’m honest but I think that’s what we can expect as he’s only made 7 appearances in his senior career so far so I don’t expect him to tear the league up this season anyway. For Gonzalo Garcia I think it’s quite simple, if you feed him chances he will score goals. We’ve seen it at Real Madrid last season that he is a ruthless finisher in front of goal but can go missing at times if the teams under pressure, I think if you can get the likes of Oscar Bobb, Josh King and Kevin in and around the Spaniard he will score goals and we saw an example of that tonight. Defensively there is clearly massive problems for Fulham with the first goal coming from the centre-backs splitting so far away from each other which left a massive gap for Joao Pedro to run into and have a 1 on 1 with Leno which he was never going to miss, the other two goals just come from the defence being too slow especially the third goal where Pedro is clearly waiting for the overlap from Palmer but neither Berge or Cuenca reads it which gives Palmer a free shot on goal. They were clearly missing Joachim Andersen who’s suspended for the beginning of the season but I’d be worried about the defence if I was Arbeloa going into the next few games, simply not good enough.
Is this the season Cole Palmer gets back on track for Chelsea? I said in my Chelsea preview before the season that I thought Alonso’s system was perfect for Palmer and I think we got to see that come to fruition tonight, last season was tough for Palmer playing under three different managers as well as dealing with different injuries which saw him left out of Tuchel’s World Cup squad but that could have been the best thing for his career. A summer to reset with a full pre-season to try and find his from again under one of the best managers in the world is just what Palmer needed and I think we’re going o see the best version of him again this year, some of his touches in the game were magical and had Antonee Robinson spinning around for much of the 90. To match that he assisted the opening goal with a lovely first-time pass through to Joao Pedro along with nut-megging Leno for the third which was the only way he was going to score from that situation, his personality shines through with every action on the pitch and I hope we get to see him fully fit and firing this season. Could that be enough to have Chelsea challenging for the title? Potentially.
Any more business to do before the window closes? For Chelsea I can’t help but imagine they’ll be looking for a first-choice goalkeeper before the window closes as Sanchez just isn’t reliable in there and gives no confidence to the back-line which Alonso cannot be happy with, the Enzo Fernandez situation is 50/50 whether he stays or leaves but I just don’t know who Chelsea can replace him with at this point of the window. It looks like Delap and Jackson are leaving as well so maybe they’ll look to bring in another attacker before the window ends next week, for Fulham I think they badly need a centre-back along with a right-back. I know it’s just one game but if Arbeloa wants to split the centre-backs they be quick and neither Cuenca nor Bassey are that fast so I’d be looking a player of that profile, for right-back I don’t rate Castagne highly at all especially defensively so I’d be looking a player that’s best attributes are defending if I was Arbeloa. Whether they are going to make any more moves or not I’, not so sure but I definitely think they need a couple, I suppose we’ll wait and see.