Match Report: Chelsea 0-0 Fulham

In the end, it was a match that flattered to deceive. A match that Chelsea should have won comfortably ended in a dull and listless 0-0 draw, leaving the Stamford Bridge faithful frustrated and ensuring that Chelsea will have to wait a little longer for their first League win under Rafael Benitez.

Barely a few minutes into the game, Hazard was brought down outside the area but nothing came of the free-kick. Ramires had a shot on the 6th minute but it was well wide. Despite having plenty of possession, Chelsea could do nothing with the ball as was proven by the fact that the first chance of the match came more than halfway through the first half. Torres turned and shot, but the attempt was a weak one and Schwarzer collected the ball comfortably. Aside from that, Fulham were content to sit back and let Chelsea play their game, which looked toothless most of the time. To put it politely, the half was far from entertaining. The only good thing about the first half: there was no injury time.

Chelsea started the second half positively, but it was Fulham who had looked likelier to score. First, Berbatov found himself offside when he received the ball on the edge of the area. Then Riise was put clean through on goal but missed his shot entirely. This was Fulham’s best chance of the game. On the other side, Ramires found the space to shoot but it wasn’t the most convincing one and didn’t trouble Schwarzer. Mata was brought on in the 63rd minute and the game livened up considerably, but Chelsea didn’t look like scoring. Fulham were defending well and Chelsea were unable to make the most of their possession. Torres had a chance to shoot and did, but his shot was cleared. Marko Marin made his Premier League debut for Chelsea, replacing Eden Hazard in the 83rd minute. While the German looked lively, his debut for Chelsea was one to forget as the match ended 0-0.

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30 thoughts on “Match Report: Chelsea 0-0 Fulham

  1. Anonymous

    benitez is just another bad coach,the match is so boring,romeu is not really ready to play the full duration of a match,i dont understand why benitez will bench moses when he is looking for win.

  2. Anonymous

    benitez is just another bad coach,the match is so boring,romeu is not really ready to play the full duration of a match,i dont understand why benitez will bench moses when he is looking for win.

  3. Anonymous

    I saw this coming if we decided to make the team look like Torres. The team is now on a barring run. Its clear that Benitez is trying to channel the entire attack through Torres. When you play 90% of our attack through Torres you reduce the chances of everyone else and besides, Torres lacks the deadly positioning and finishing. When we gave him 50%, at least others could help out with the other 50%. We had a good game play and so many players were improving and enjoying themselves, all we had to do was change the few who did not fit in but guess what, we changed everything else. Its a lose lose affair to wait for both Benitez and Torres to come to life. Xtian.

  4. Anonymous

    I saw this coming if we decided to make the team look like Torres. The team is now on a barring run. Its clear that Benitez is trying to channel the entire attack through Torres. When you play 90% of our attack through Torres you reduce the chances of everyone else and besides, Torres lacks the deadly positioning and finishing. When we gave him 50%, at least others could help out with the other 50%. We had a good game play and so many players were improving and enjoying themselves, all we had to do was change the few who did not fit in but guess what, we changed everything else. Its a lose lose affair to wait for both Benitez and Torres to come to life. Xtian.

  5. Yup is it look like that Benitez try to channel the ball all to Torres… but that is what we should as the midfield… support the striker whoever he is, either Torres or anyone else… and it is not all the ball be given to Torres, Hazard has his chance, Oscar has his chance and same to Ramires and Mata… what we lack actually is the midfield are not very creative, they keep the ball to long and slow down the game… all the commentator always say that, when we are going to attack, instead to run and pass to the front, our midfield stand for a moment and pass to the left or to the right… this give chance to the opponent defender to go down back and create solid wall to defence, just like what Fulham did last night… and after this, Benitez need to make sure that, when we attack, we attack, not keep the ball and wait anymore… we should attack to create and score goal…

  6. Yup is it look like that Benitez try to channel the ball all to Torres… but that is what we should as the midfield… support the striker whoever he is, either Torres or anyone else… and it is not all the ball be given to Torres, Hazard has his chance, Oscar has his chance and same to Ramires and Mata… what we lack actually is the midfield are not very creative, they keep the ball to long and slow down the game… all the commentator always say that, when we are going to attack, instead to run and pass to the front, our midfield stand for a moment and pass to the left or to the right… this give chance to the opponent defender to go down back and create solid wall to defence, just like what Fulham did last night… and after this, Benitez need to make sure that, when we attack, we attack, not keep the ball and wait anymore… we should attack to create and score goal…

  7. Anonymous

    Am still not impress by Benitez and Torres has a poor finishing which make all the team not having confidence in him.Benitez has done what he knows how to do best which is defence but the upfront look so slugish.

  8. Anonymous

    Am still not impress by Benitez and Torres has a poor finishing which make all the team not having confidence in him.Benitez has done what he knows how to do best which is defence but the upfront look so slugish.

  9. What a boring way to play the game, so we sacrificed a potent attack for a solid defence… Let me rephrase that, we are playing slow, boring, possesion based football in the hopes of winning what? We will be run over by other teams, we pose no threat to anyone playing the way we currently do. Forget the clean sheet stats, we were a feared force because we could always score at the beginning of the campaign. Every team knew that if they slacked in defence we would capitalize, no matter how many they tried to get past us they were too afriad to commit too many palyers forward because of th pace and potency of our total team attack.

    We had players like Ivanovic scoring during open play, running from defence to position themselves in the opposition boxto finish off team attacks. Now our defence is rigid AND OUR GAME DOESNT FLOW AS IT USED TOO.

    RAFA MUST GO!!!!

  10. What a boring way to play the game, so we sacrificed a potent attack for a solid defence… Let me rephrase that, we are playing slow, boring, possesion based football in the hopes of winning what? We will be run over by other teams, we pose no threat to anyone playing the way we currently do. Forget the clean sheet stats, we were a feared force because we could always score at the beginning of the campaign. Every team knew that if they slacked in defence we would capitalize, no matter how many they tried to get past us they were too afriad to commit too many palyers forward because of th pace and potency of our total team attack.

    We had players like Ivanovic scoring during open play, running from defence to position themselves in the opposition boxto finish off team attacks. Now our defence is rigid AND OUR GAME DOESNT FLOW AS IT USED TOO.

    RAFA MUST GO!!!!

  11. The only mistake was to bench mata and use Betrand on the left wing.interms of being solid Rafa has done it rightly.He has now to work on attacking and creativity of of the midfield trio.Its also implessing to see marin on the pitch.in the nxt game I hope w'll more chances.we all need to be patient and give Benitez more time.the stability of man u has taken more than 20yrs,Barcelona started building their squard from 70s,stability of chelsea will never happen overnight wish Abramovich acknowledges that.

  12. The only mistake was to bench mata and use Betrand on the left wing.interms of being solid Rafa has done it rightly.He has now to work on attacking and creativity of of the midfield trio.Its also implessing to see marin on the pitch.in the nxt game I hope w'll more chances.we all need to be patient and give Benitez more time.the stability of man u has taken more than 20yrs,Barcelona started building their squard from 70s,stability of chelsea will never happen overnight wish Abramovich acknowledges that.

  13. Anonymous

    How can you talk about stability when ROMAN IS not a man that waits for the stability of team play to set. He lacks the game's attitude and sense. IN fact he is CHELSEA'S GREATEST PROBLEM. I know without him today, Chelsea wont have been where there re now. Thanks for that, but he should give his coaches time to build and get him what he really wanted. What is Ray Wikkin doing?, people that knows chelsea in and out. He should have been the right man to take over for the main time. I wonder if his boards do really talk to him or afraid of him. Good and solid team doesnt come over nit. Allowing Mou and Carlo go was his greatest mistake. Thats where the whole tin started. Romeu is not ready yet. Still love the blues. From Arthur Osadebe

  14. Anonymous

    How can you talk about stability when ROMAN IS not a man that waits for the stability of team play to set. He lacks the game's attitude and sense. IN fact he is CHELSEA'S GREATEST PROBLEM. I know without him today, Chelsea wont have been where there re now. Thanks for that, but he should give his coaches time to build and get him what he really wanted. What is Ray Wikkin doing?, people that knows chelsea in and out. He should have been the right man to take over for the main time. I wonder if his boards do really talk to him or afraid of him. Good and solid team doesnt come over nit. Allowing Mou and Carlo go was his greatest mistake. Thats where the whole tin started. Romeu is not ready yet. Still love the blues. From Arthur Osadebe

  15. Oh my God! YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Romeu, Torres have to leave to team. But unfortunately Benitez decides to do everything else. unbelievable!

  16. Oh my God! YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Romeu, Torres have to leave to team. But unfortunately Benitez decides to do everything else. unbelievable!

  17. Anonymous

    Soon we will realise that every point counts for the tittle until they start counting for the top 4. We are lucky we don't have Arsenal or Tottenham ahead already.

  18. Anonymous

    Soon we will realise that every point counts for the tittle until they start counting for the top 4. We are lucky we don't have Arsenal or Tottenham ahead already.

  19. As simple as that let us get falcao in january. I believe money can buy everything

  20. As simple as that let us get falcao in january. I believe money can buy everything

  21. Anonymous

    Dis Benitez is something else using 90 persent balls 2 Torres is not all dat good at least 50 to torres ad 50 for hazard Mata Oscar dis guys re chelsea helpers ad again he is a Spain man he is trying 2 bring back Spaniards in chelsea(remeu torres) as Mata has settle already ad d funniest find Der is dat torres is helping him. Do u guys no dat torres now works 4 d team Dan before for mi ray Wilkins or wilikins(i hope i spelt his name correctly) should have been given d job instead of Rafa. For me a true blue fan Rafael benitez should have not been given d job, a player coach ad a coach is different wil or rdm ad Rafael re different
    Rafael Benitez MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  22. Anonymous

    Dis Benitez is something else using 90 persent balls 2 Torres is not all dat good at least 50 to torres ad 50 for hazard Mata Oscar dis guys re chelsea helpers ad again he is a Spain man he is trying 2 bring back Spaniards in chelsea(remeu torres) as Mata has settle already ad d funniest find Der is dat torres is helping him. Do u guys no dat torres now works 4 d team Dan before for mi ray Wilkins or wilikins(i hope i spelt his name correctly) should have been given d job instead of Rafa. For me a true blue fan Rafael benitez should have not been given d job, a player coach ad a coach is different wil or rdm ad Rafael re different
    Rafael Benitez MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  23. Lol do you have sources to back up your theory? True,Benitez was possibly appointed to try and bring Torres' confidence back but I think it's more than that. Benitez has a credible CV and was available. His defenses are always tight and we needed a coach with a good defensive system to fix the leaky defense problem we had in recent weeks under Di Matteo. Two games in a two clean sheets,things are looking up in that part of the pitch. A good coach or manager always start from the back and that's what he is doing. Besides,Torres looks more lively now. Let's just hope Benitez gets the attacking side of the team playing good footy again in the coming games. The Japan trip could be a blessing in disguise. Those teams are much weaker than those we play week in week out. Getting a run of wins with lots of goals and a strong possibility of brining the Club World Cup trophy home will definitely boost the overall team morale. It's something we desperately need in December going into the new year.

  24. Lol do you have sources to back up your theory? True,Benitez was possibly appointed to try and bring Torres' confidence back but I think it's more than that. Benitez has a credible CV and was available. His defenses are always tight and we needed a coach with a good defensive system to fix the leaky defense problem we had in recent weeks under Di Matteo. Two games in a two clean sheets,things are looking up in that part of the pitch. A good coach or manager always start from the back and that's what he is doing. Besides,Torres looks more lively now. Let's just hope Benitez gets the attacking side of the team playing good footy again in the coming games. The Japan trip could be a blessing in disguise. Those teams are much weaker than those we play week in week out. Getting a run of wins with lots of goals and a strong possibility of brining the Club World Cup trophy home will definitely boost the overall team morale. It's something we desperately need in December going into the new year.

  25. I hope he brings it back, he is taking our entire first team over there. So maybe he'll use it as an oppertunity to figure out his attack pattern, coz right now it sucks.

    You can't play such negative football at home, when u have the attacking options sitting on the bench. No matter who you are resting! We have enough back up for almost every position! If not, pull someone up from our youth ranks!

  26. I hope he brings it back, he is taking our entire first team over there. So maybe he'll use it as an oppertunity to figure out his attack pattern, coz right now it sucks.

    You can't play such negative football at home, when u have the attacking options sitting on the bench. No matter who you are resting! We have enough back up for almost every position! If not, pull someone up from our youth ranks!

  27. Anonymous

    no one is talking about how marin is going to have a positive impact on the team when given the chance. HE knows how to cut in well and shoot

  28. Anonymous

    no one is talking about how marin is going to have a positive impact on the team when given the chance. HE knows how to cut in well and shoot

  29. Positive impact marin.

  30. Positive impact marin.

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