By Habeeb Kuranga
Chelsea manager, Graham Potter had no complaints about the red card his new man, Joao Felix received on his debut.
Felix 23, whose signing was confirmed this week, was immediately thrown into action when Chelsea visited Fulham at the Craven Cottage.
The Cottagers ran out winners in a keenly contested London derby fixture. Former Chelsea winger, Willian opened the scoring against the Blues in the 28th minute. Kalidou Koulibaly restored parity for the Blues early in the second half. But, Fulham forward, Carlos Vinicius rose up to the occasion in the absence of Alexander Mitrovic to score a sublime header and ultimately gave Fulham a memorable win.
The defeat was slightly overshadowed by the red card Felix received for his lunge tackle on Fulham defender, Kenny Tete, which made the official of the day, David Coote, gave the Portuguese forward his marching orders. Felix was arguably the most bright player on Chelsea’s side throughout the encounter. With his strings of passes wreaking havoc in Fulham’s defence. He also had the most shots (six) of any Chelsea player in the game.
After the game, Potter was asked for his view on the red card by BT Sport. He said: “It was a forward’s tackle, there was no malice in it but I understand why it was a red. It is another blow the hits keep coming at the moment. He was really good you could see his quality in the game, so it is doubly disappointing for us.”
Potter, who also had another player Dennis Zakaria leave the pitch early as he sustained an injury, will be hugely disappointed that two of his new players will be out for a while.
The defeat on Thursday night was the third for the Blues in a week. Having won just once in their last 10 matches. Fulham is now six points clear of Chelsea who is tenth on the log.
Pressure is no doubt mounting on Graham Potter, who is running out of time to get Chelsea back on track.
