Joao Felix sees red as Chelsea crash to Fulham in west London derby
LONDON: New signing Joao Felix was sent off on his Chelsea debut as they lost the west London derby 2-1 at Fulham. Defeat added to pressure on Blues’ manager Graham Potter.
The Portugal forward, who joined Chelsea on loan from Atletico Madrid, had played only 58 minutes when he was dismissed for a dangerous high-footed challenge on Kenny Tete.
The score was 1-1 at the time after Kalidou Koulibaly cancelled out Chelsea old boy Willian’s opener. Fulham capitalised on the advantage of the extra man when a header from Carlos Vinicius punished a misjudgment by keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Chelsea remained 10th with one win in their last nine Premier League matches, 10 points off the top four.
Victory lifted Fulham to sixth, four points off fourth-placed Manchester United, after a fourth consecutive victory.
Felix impressed throughout the first half but he will now miss three matches and join the lengthy list of unavailable players to Potter.
Chelsea dominated the early part of the first half, but it was the home side who came closest to taking the lead, when Bobby Decordova-Reid found himself unmarked in the box, and his strike rebounded off the crossbar.
Fulham broke the deadlock almost immediately afterwards when Willian, on the edge of the box, beat the defender and saw a shot deflect past Kepa.
Chelsea equalised early in the second half, when a Mason Mount free-kick was just bundled in by Koulibaly, with the technology confirming the ball had crossed the line before Leno was able to gather.
Felix’s debut came to a crashing end when he went flying into a challenge in the middle of the pitch, catching Tete mid-shin with his studs up, and was shown the red card immediately by referee David Coote.
Fulham took advantage when Vinicius beat the Chelsea defenders to head home an Andreas Pereira cross at the far post.
Vinicius had been brought into the side in place of the suspended Aleksandar Mitrovic – who picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Leicester in the previous Premier League match.
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