Mudryk and Broja goals lift Chelsea past Fulham

Mhykailo Mudryk's first league goal for Chelsea helped the Blues past Fulham on Monday. Chelsea won 2-0. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

It didn’t take long for Fulham to lose sight of Chelsea on Monday at Craven Cottage as the Blues recorded their second win of the Premier League season.

Mauricio Pochettino named Raheem Sterling on the bench after the forward reported sick to training last week, and Marc Cucurella was named at right back as Reece James continues to fight for fitness and Malo Gusto serves his three-match ban.

Fulham made just one change from the team that drew at Palace, with Thimothy Castagne coming in. Alex Iwobi and Vinicius were named on the bench as Mexican striker Raul Jimenez continues to search for his first league goal for Fulham in attack.

Levi Colwill’s delightful cross met Mykhailo Mudryk, and the Ukrainian took the ball gleefully to slide one past the on-rushing Bernd Leno for his first league goal for Chelsea since his big-money move from Shakhtar Donetsk.

It went from bad to worse for the Lilywhites just fifty seconds later. Tim Ream’s tame pass that was meant for Joao Palhinha was intercepted by Cole Palmer, and the former Manchester City striker played in Armando Broja, who was making his first competitive start in over ten months.

Ream attempted to clear the ball, but it met Broja and went past Leno for Chelsea’s second goal. It was only the second time Chelsea would score more than one goal in a game this season, and it was great to see Broja scoring after his lengthy time on the sidelines with a nasty injury.

Fulham didn’t have a sniff of the Chelsea goal in the first half, with the Blues defence combining well to repel everything Fulham threw at them, but Palmer could have made it three when played in by Enzo Fernandes, but he fluffed his lines.

The second half was more like it for Fulham. The hosts came out guns blazing but couldn’t make it count as Chelsea resulted in counterattacks. Alex Iwobi and Tom Cairney came on to inject some bite into the Fulham attack, and Chelsea had to regroup.

Sasa Lukic should have scored later in the second half, but his point-blank effort was repelled by a sensational save from Robert Sanchez. Chelsea moved into game management mode and saw off Fulham without conceding to usurp the hosts on the league table to move to 11^th.