Chelsea 2-0 Fulham, Premier League: Post-match reaction

Chelsea dominated the first half but had just the one early goal to show for it.

After a half-time tactical switch from Ranieri, the second-half was a less open affair and neither side produced anything consistently dangerous.

Kepa and Rico both made solid saves; Morata missed an empty net. Ho-hum.

Eventually, Chelsea’s individual quality came through, with a bit of slick passing through the middle, a bit of magic from Hazard, finding Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who finished sweetly to make the game safe for the Blues.

Solid win; nothing spectacular, but three points is three points. Obviously, this level of effort won’t do against Manchester City and perhaps Wolves either, even, but today, it was enough.

Carefree.

• Two changes for Sarri from the Spurs disaster, with Giroud keeping his place from Thursday and Pedro getting the nod ahead of Willian (and repaying it inside of 5 minutes with the opening goal)
• Loftus-Cheek (for Kovačić), Morata (for Giroud), Willian (for Pedro) the standard set of changes from Sarri. RLC taking advantage of a small knock to Barkley that left him out of the matchday squad. Zappacosta made a surprise appearance, replacing Alonso, and switching Azpilicueta to the left for the final 15 minutes.
• First game all season not to feature Willian in any capacity as a result.
• No homecoming for André Schürrle, who misses out with a hamstring injury
• Ranieri continues streak of no ex-Chelsea manager winning a PL match at the Bridge
• Chelsea back into third for the time being. Will stay there unless Spurs beat Arsenal.
• Next up: Wolves away on Wednesday
• KTBFFH

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