THE ability to win games when you play poorly is the mark of a team that can compete for the Premier League title.
But Chelsea will need to improve quickly if they’re going to be anywhere near the top of the tree in May, as two hugely controversial VAR calls decided the early kick-off at Stamford Bridge.
After a morning that saw Nicolas Jackson jet off to seal a Bayern Munich move, Enzo Maresca lost another forward just 12 minutes into this game.
Liam Delap pulled up clutching his hamstring, with reports he could be out for up to six weeks.
Delap was replaced by Tyrique George, who previously looked set to follow Jackson out of the exit doors at Chelsea.
While Maresca may have been fuming, Fulham boss Marco Silva was left absolutely seething minutes later with a controversial VAR decision that left Joe Cole fearing the game has become irreperably “sanitised”.
As Rodrigo Muniz turned with the ball on the halfway line, he stood on the foot of Trevoh Chalobah, allowing Fulham to break.
Rising star Josh King, 18, took advantage to score his first Premier League goal with a superb solo run from the halfway line.
But he was then denied after VAR called in referee Rob Jones for a second look at Muniz’s clever spin, which was publicly declared a “careless challenge”.
Chelsea were let off, and fortunate not to be behind at the break – with youngster King running the show and Muniz causing a handful of problems for the Blues’ defence.
With both sets of fans subdued, the Stamford Bridge mood flipped on its head when Joao Pedro leapt like a salmon to head home an Enzo Fernandez corner right in the ninth minute of added time – after eight minutes had been signalled by the assistant linesman.
Bitter Fulham fans, who had been singing ‘we won a foul’ and ‘1-0, to the referee’ in the way of Jones, booed the officials off with a sour taste in their mouth when the whistle went.
Manager Silva was even more irate and even waited for Jones at half-time, only to be ordered down the tunnel.
Silva, who had been fuming for the entire game, was seemingly seething that Chelsea’s goal had come so late on.
It was a day that went from bad to worse for experienced official Jones when he was asked to go to the monitor after Ryan Sessegnon handled the ball in the Fulham box early in the second half too.
Sessegnon’s block was deemed to have been made by his arm in an “unnatural” position, but the ball had also struck Joao Pedro’s hand in the build-up.
Regardless, Jones and his team awarded the spot kick which was coolly dispatched by Enzo Fernandez in Cole Palmer’s absence to put the Blues 2-0 up.
Fulham gaffer Silva resorted to laughing at VAR’s latest blunder after using up all his anger at the first half controversies.
Stamford Bridge willed their latest Brazilian star Estevao, or as they call him, Steve, to get his first Premier League goal as the game progressed and Chelsea took charge with their two goal advantage.
The youngster looked hesitant to let fly on more than one occasion, though Sessegnon will be put off Churrasco for life after having to deal with the tricky winger for 68 minutes.
The Blues looked comfortable in the second half, with Pedro going close on the stretch and with a venomous volley in front of new signing Alejandro Garnacho, who watched on from above in a hospitality suite.
With an international break to follow, Chelsea will need to buck up their ideas at the start of games before they face Brentford two weeks from now.
