Premier League: Fulham 1 – 2 Chelsea Match Review

Enzo Maresca’s Blues took a important step closer to securing qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League with a victory against West London rivals Fulham on Sunday afternoon.

A long standing rivalry was renewed once more on Easter Sunday when Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea took the very short trip across West London to Craven Cottage, with the Blues taking on Marco Silva’s Fulham in a crucial game in the current 2024/25 Premier League season with both clubs looking for their own qualification for European Football next season.

Chelsea are currently among the front runners to secure one of the five qualification spots for the UEFA Champions League, and they knew that a victory against the Cottagers away from home would not only earn them some local bragging rights but also bring them another crucial step closer to realising this ambition.

Victory would also see the Blues leapfrog Unai Emery and his Aston Villa side in sixth place, putting themselves to within just two points behind Newcastle United and just three points against surprise package Nottingham Forest. These sides currently sit in 5th and 4th place respectively as of the time of writing. The Blues are also now no less than 8 points clear of 8th place Bournemouth and 9 points clear of Fulham.

In the end, it was to be a superb and crucial 2 – 1 in the end for Chelsea, but it was not a straightforward victory for the Blues, with this game being tight and competitive, but thankfully for the Blues, they were able to come out on top at Craven Cottage in the end.

Match Highlights

Here, you can take a look at the highlights from this match and re-live Chelsea’s deserved and dramatic 2 – 1 victory against their West London rivals Fulham in their latest match of the 2024/25 Premier League season as they make their continued bid for a place in the UEFA Champions League for next season.

Match Review

Now onto the game itself, and it was the visitors Chelsea who would have the first great opportunity of the game to open the scoring, and it came through England International Cole Palmer with ten minutes gone. Palmer forced a great save from Fulham Stopper Bernd Leno with an effort coming from long range from outside of the box (10’).

Then came another effort on goal in what was another great chance for Chelsea. This time it was right back, whose effort from just outside of the penalty area also drew a great save from Fulham’s German Goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who is formerly of another one of the Blues’ London rivals – Arsenal (14’).

Unfortunately for Chelsea, Fulham would score the opening goal of the game, taking the lead when their forward Alex Iwobi placed the ball into the bottom right corner thanks to a powerful shot that gave his side the advantage. It had been a ball into him from former Spurs player Ryan Sessegnon (20’).

Chelsea’s Levi Colwill and Fulham’s Kenny Tete were both unable to find in the back of the net to add to the scoreline for both respectively, but it was to remain with Fulham still holding what was a slender one goal advantage over their rivals. Colwill had his effort fly just narrowly wide of the goal (25’), whilst Tete’s shot was blocked well by the visiting defenders on that day (26’).

Just after half time, Nicolas Jackson had a shot get blocked well by the Fulham defenders (34’), and by half time the scoreline remained at 1 – 0 in favour of the hosts and Chelsea’s West London rivals Fulham heading into the crucial second half of the game.

Chelsea began the second half as they needed to with them looking for the equalising goal in this game. Levi Colwill had a very close range shot blocked (48’) before the French right back Malo Gusto had an effort on goal saved very well by Bernd Leno early on into the second half of this enthralling and very competitive game (53’).

Portuguese international forward then had an effort of his own for Chelsea to get saved well by Leno before Fulham’s Kenny Tete had another chance, but this effort on goal also missed the target, with the game remaining at 1 – 0 for Fulham (58’).

Jadon Sancho then had an effort strongly saved by the hosts’ German Goalkeeper with just under half an hour of the game remaining (61’), with their Spanish left back Marc Cucurella also coming close to finding the net and restoring parity in this game for this Chelsea team (62’).

Cole Palmer then narrowly missed the target with barely more than twenty minutes remaining in this match at Craven Cottage in West London (69’).

It took until less than ten minutes were remaining in the ninety for Chelsea to finally find their thoroughly deserved equalising goal, and it came through their Academy Graduate Tyrique George, with the 19 year old forward finding the back of the Fulham net thanks to a calm and composed finish into the bottom left corner (83’).

The winning goal then soon arrived through the aforementioned Portuguese international forward Pedro Neto, who this time was able to find the back of the net, scoring the dramatic winning goal against Fulham to make it 2 – 1 deep into stoppage time thanks to a powerful and close range shot from the centre of the box, having just received the ball into his feet from midfielder Enzo Fernandez (90+3’).

The full time whistle was then blown just five minutes after that, with that being confirmation of Chelsea’s crucial 2 – 1 win against Fulham at Craven Cottage in the Premier League. This was even more crucial for the Blues after one of their rivals for UEFA Champions League qualification, Aston Villa, had beaten Newcastle United 4 – 1 the day before.

Match Stats

In what was a tight and a highly competitive game away from at home at Craven Cottage for Enzo Maresca and his Chelsea side, and it was the Blues who dominated possession with no less than 59.3% of the ball, compared with 40.7% for Fulham.

Chelsea also had the most shots and shots on target. The visiting Blues side had a total of 13 shots, with 8 of these finding the target, whilst Fulham had 6 shots overall, with only one of them finding the target which was for their goal late on in the second half.

What Enzo Maresca said

Following this crucial and competitive contest in what was an important 2 – 1 win for Chelsea against their fierce West London rivals Fulham, Chelsea’s Italian Head Coach Enzo Maresca had the following to say following the match (via the Official Chelsea Website):

‘To be honest I was quite positive (that we’d get back into the game) because the team were creating chances, and we were doing well,’ Maresca said of our second-half performance at Fulham.

‘Sometimes you also have to have a little bit of luck go your way, and I think Tyrique’s goal gave us that extra energy, an extra boost. Like I said, I was quite positive because the team was performing well.

‘It was a fantastic goal from Pedro, as it was from Tyrique, but I think the entire team played well. Trevoh was good, Levi was good, the ones in the middle – Moi and Enzo, Cole was better. So I was happy for all of them.

“It was a fantastic moment for Pedro – and the rest of the team – to score and celebrate with the fans in that way.

“I was very pleased with the goal. There are many different ways to score but when it is in that moment, and a really well-worked goal from the team in the style we want then of course it is very pleasing.

“It’s good for the player to score this goal and enjoy that moment but overall, it was just fantastic for the whole team to share this joy with the fans too.”

Excitement and anticipation is now building ahead of Chelsea’s continuing battle for UEFA Champions League Qualification via the Premier League with a game against mid table side Everton, who are led currently by their Head Coach David Moyes. It will be taking place at the historic Stamford Bridge in what is going to be a 12:30pm kick-off in West London on the afternoon of Saturday 26th April 2025.

Then comes the first leg of the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League Semi Final tie against Djurgarden away from home in Sweden at the 3Arena in what is going to be an 8pm kick-off on Thursday 1st May 2025. The tie will then resume when the two meet again in the second and final leg at Stamford Bridge on Thursday 8^th May 2025 (8pm KO) in what is going to be an enthralling match and tie as a whole with the Blues looking for a place in the Final.

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