The Tanner Report: Fulham 1 Chelsea 2
Fulham missed the opportunity to do the double over their SW6 rivals. We simply do not have the spending power of Chelsea and that shows on the bench. Fulham introduced Tom Cairney, now getting to the end of his contract and career; Harry Wilson who, despite a flurry of goals, looks a championship player and Adama Traore, who has pace and power, but no end product.
Sadly for us, both Émile Smith Rowe and Rodrigo Muniz were injured.
Chelsea – outplayed in the first half – introduced the teen Tyrique George and Jaden Sancho who brought the Blues back into the game.
Pablo Neto scored the winner in the 93rd minute.
Some have criticised Marco Silva’s game management but he can only work with what he has got and we did not possess any game changers on the bench.
My view of Silva is that, whilst his game management is suspect, he is a good team builder as Kenny Teté, Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi, Rodrigo Muniz and Raul Jimenez were fine acquisitions: he has good football values, he gets on well with the owner and does not rock the boat. He was not at Hull, Watford or Everton for long and he may think his coaching talents deserve a club with a bigger budget.
