Boring, boring Arsenal, and also now Chelsea. Enzo Maresca’s side stooped to the Gunners’ masterfully dull level to beat Fulham, and we suspect Marco Silva’s team won’t be the last to leave a game against the Blues this season wondering quite how they’ve lost.
After VAR decided what was a clearly deliberate two-handed push into the back of Calvin Bassey by Manchester United goalscorer Leny Yoro wasn’t a foul last weekend, Fulham will be crying Big Club Bias once again after defeat to Chelsea.
VAR was required to intervene and rule out Josh King’s goal after a Rodrigo Muniz challenge on Trevoh Chalobah, and again to award Chelsea a penalty for handball while dismissing a Chelsea un-handball in the build-up. Chelsea also opened the scoring with a goal in additional time on top of additional time. It did feel very unfair.
Muniz had no idea Chalobah was there, stood on the top of his boot by accident and it made no difference to the outcome – Sander Berge would have still played an excellent pass for King, who would have charged from halfway before showing quite brilliant composure to chop back onto his right foot and slide the ball through Tosin Adarabioyo’s legs and into the corner.
We know the intent or significance of the challenge didn’t matter and we also know that decisions can’t be made on the basis of who scores or the magnitude of a goal, but an 18-year-old being denied their first in the Premier League – the opener for the underdog away from home in a west London derby – makes us think that maybe a cruelty factor should be considered by officials making those calls.
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Marco Silva’s anger had turned to something approaching apoplexy by half-time. His side had given Chelsea nothing and looked far more likely to score than their more affluent neighbours. Only a timely intervention by Malo Gusto and a quite stunning block by Moises Caicedo stopped them taking the lead.
And yet, Fulham went in 1-0 down as Joao Pedro scored from Enzo Fernandez’s corner in the ninth minute of stoppage time after eight minutes had been signalled. A minimum of eight minutes, sure, but we were close to ten by the time the Brazilian nodded in from six yards out and Silva will have felt as though his side could so easily have been ahead at the break rather behind, maybe just with a different set of officials.
It’s the sort of run of misfortune in a game that will lead you to question every decision that comes afterwards, like the very clear handball against Ryan Sessegnon (just don’t put your arms up like that, mate), but even that big call offers opportunity for further Silva knicker twisting as Joao Pedro also handled it roughly five second before. The smirk on his face as Fernandez stepped up to convert the penalty suggests he thought he was lucky to get away with it.
Chelsea were far better in the second half, with Pedro proving to be a particular nuisance for the Fulham defence to further his claim as one of the best – or at least most influential – Premier League signings of the summer. Estevao and Pedro Neto were also a threat while Fernandez was as good as he had been bad before the break.
But goals change games, as they say, and Chelsea have uncovered the formula Arsenal have used so successfully in the last two seasons to take the lead in and win games of football when nowhere near your best: set piece goals and a miserly defence.
There’s certainly an irony to Maresca insisting on the need for a new centre-back after Levi Colwill’s knee injury in his side conceding just once in the first three games of the season – and that was an absolute howitzer from Lucas Paqueta which had little to do with the quality of their defending.
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Trevoh Chalobah was excellent again here and can count himself unlucky not to have been called up by Thomas Tuchel and is forming an excellent partnership with Tosin, with that pair helped immeasurably by the indomitable Caicedo in front of them. The guy never has a bad game these days.
And they were put under pressure, towards the end of the game but mainly in that first half, before Chelsea scored from their fourth corner already this season having scored from just 11 across the whole of last season.
There’s nothing particularly fancy involved in their corner routines. Much like Arsenal it’s either a delivery on top of the goalkeeper or to the front post with a view to a flick on. It’s essentially the most uninspiring way to score from a corner, which in itself is a dull way to get a goal.
But as Arsenal are testament to, it’s a hugely effective part of a football club’s armoury. And having been roundly terrible from attacking set pieces for far too long, Chelsea now appear to have mastered it to swat aside a sulking Fulham here, and we suspect several other opponents this season who will leave games against Chelsea baffled as to how they’ve lost.