Joao Felix sees red in his debut loss for Chelsea

Joao Felix tackles wrongly to receive a red card on his debut as Chelsea looses again at Fulham. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Life in the premier league went from bad to worse for Chelsea on Thursday as the club suffered yet another loss away at the Craven Cottage in their rescheduled fixture.

Graham Potter handed a starting role to club’s mega money loan signing Joao Felix and his first half performance warmed the hearts of even the neutrals but all the strands he raised on the fans of Chelsea soon turned into despair.

Fulham started Vinicius upfront in the absence of the suspended Aleksander Mitrovic and he was such a handful for the Chelsea defense. Nathaniel Chalobah struggled with the pace of the Fulham striker and Willian, an Old Blue eventually came back to haunt his former employers.

Jeers and boos were audible from the away section and it got worse even before the half hour mark. Willian received the ball in the Chelsea area, Chalobah couldn’t close him down and his deflected effort bounced off Tiago Silva and sailed past Kepa in the Chelsea goal.

The halftime break seemed to have brought reprieve to the Blues; Felix continued to trouble the hosts and it took just two minutes for the visitors to level. Khalidou Koulibaly got on the end of a loose ball and scrambled it home.

Chelsea hit an unfortunate new low moments later; Joao Felix got his marching orders after a mistimed high-footed challenge. Fulham took advantage of the numerical advantage of Felix’s early bath and Carlos Vinicius headed home what proved to be the winner in the 73^rd minute.

The win was Fulham’s fourth on the bounce for the first time since 1966; Chelsea remained in tenth, six points behind Fulham and now must press the panic button with players seemingly uninterested and the investment in Felix looking like another questionable one despite his lively first half.