Fulham fans produce a savage chant with a dig at Chelsea’s spending as pundits rip into the Blues after the drab goalless draw.
The £106.8m Enzo Fernandez impressed on his Chelsea debut, however couldn’t help his side find the net, while £88.5m Mykhailo Mudryk was taken off at half-time on his first Stamford Bridge appearance.
Kai Havertz hit a post but the draw means Chelsea are ninth in the Premier League table , but Fulham, who did enough to come away with a point, are up to sixth. Fans of the Cottagers could be heard cheekily singing “what a waste of money!”
Player ratings
Chelsea: Kepa (7), James (6), Thiago Silva (7), Badiashile (6), Cucurella (5), Gallagher (6), Fernandez (7), Mount (6), Ziyech (6), Havertz (6), Mudryk (5).
Subs: Madueke (6), Sterling (6), Azpilicueta (6), Fofana (6), Chilwell (N/A)
Fulham: Leno (7), Tete (8), Diop (7), Ream (8), Robinson (7), Palhinha (8), Reed (7), Pereira (7), Willian (7), Decordova-Reid (7), Mitrovic (7).
Subs: Soloman (6), Wilson (6), Cairney (N/A), Vinicius (N/A), Kurzawa (N/A)
Player of the match: Kenny Tete
Chelsea boss Graham Potter: “There was a lot of positivity and good feeling from the start of game but we didn’t do enough in terms of our attacking play to create more, which is something we need to do. Fulham defended well, they were well organised. That connection, understanding we need we lacked, which is understandable with players coming back from injury and new players.
“There were some positives for us, the effort and spirit was there, but as an attacking team we’d like to do more.
“I thought [Fernandez] handled himself magnificently. You can see his quality, what he’ll bring to the team. It’s not easy as he hasn’t been with us long. I’m excited with him.
“Mudryk has had a heavy cold all week. We thought 60 minutes would be his maximum but he felt heavy legged at half time and we’re still building him up with the break he’s had in his season.
“I’m confident with the potential we have, the quality in the group. What we need to do now is gel the team. There’s a lot of football to play.”
“Everything was really basic from Chelsea,” said Neville after the game. “I think it’s because Graham Potter hasn’t had time to work with them, he hasn’t had time to develop them.
“He’s going to need some time here. The front line needs to improve, the midfield needs to improve, so even though they’ve spent £600m, I looked at every department, I thought they need to get a lot better.
“I wasn’t that impressed. It’s going to take a lot of time for players to settle in.
“You can’t get away from the money. It’s jaw-dropping, staggering. £600m has been spent.
“They are going to need to be patient as no-one has done this before.”
Speaking to Sky Sports pre-match, Jamie Carragher said: “I think the reason you bring in Graham Potter is because he builds a club that’s his history in management and that’s why they’ve brought him in. But it feels like what they’ve done in the transfer market is the opposite of that.
“There’s no right or wrong way of doing things, we’ve seen Chelsea in the past under [Roman] Abramovich bringing lots of players in, changing managers all the time, but I don’t think that bodes well for Potter in the future in terms of the amount of money they’ve sent and players they’ve brought in. Because that’s pressure.
“I wouldn’t say he has to get into the top four because there’s such a big gap right now, but he’s going to have to get really close. I’m not saying he’ll lose his job if he doesn’t but there has to be an improvement.
“They made a great start under Potter but it’s really tailed off, this club are so ruthless, and yes it’s new owners but they changed their manager really quickly and spent £600m, so it’s like’s nothing really changed.
“It might be different going forward, but he must be sitting there thinking what is he going to do with 30-odd players.
“Don’t forget the two best managers we’ve had in this league over the last five years are Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola and they continually talk about having small squads. People get it wrong when they talk about City and say ‘the squad they’ve got’ quality yes, but in terms of numbers you’re talking about 20-21 players.
“They chose to have that because it keeps everyone believing they can play. The big problem Chelsea have is there’s players that know they are not going to play and what are they like in training and how does that affect the team. That’s the big problem for Graham Potter.”
😮💨 Fulham fans are not holding back!
💴 Lots of money spent since Fulham’s win at Craven Cottage but Chelsea could not find the winner tonight!
🎥: @jaikbfenton joins @joelbeya at Stamford Bridge post match 🤝 pic.twitter.com/iGjoHGGtBX
— FIVE (@FIVEUK) February 3, 2023
This is what fans said as Fulham fans produce a savage chant with a dig at Chelsea’s spending as the Sky Sports pundits rip into the Blues…
@OddAlerts: That’ll be a regular chant, me thinks! 🔊
@Car_list: Chelsea lost to Fulham at the start of the last month. Then they spent 300m to improve the squad and managed to draw against a team who are above the table. So don’t tell me money doesn’t improve the squad.
@fneitzke: You should try spending another £700M so you can score a goal
@desmondAlake: Potter should do something ASAP you can’t spent such amount of money and draw Fulham at home. It’s embarrassing like seriously!!!
@pbtffc: Still buzzing from last night. Fulham faithful in full voice “your fucking shit” & “what a waste of money” echoing round that library. Put some respect on king Kenny’s name 👑!
@BigusYidus: Got to love that chant from the the Fulham fans as £107m Enzo sends a shot just wide…”WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY” 😂😂😂😂
@BitaNick: Half a billion and we can’t beat Fulham 🙃
@ClaireDevine14: The Fulham fans chants are good value for money! #CHEFUL
@NafisahFareedx: fulham fans out singing chelsea fans at stamford bridge looool
@chrisberntsen4: The level of commitment from every player in white was unbelievable and Kenny Tete was on another level 👏🏻 you can spend £600m, we’ve got a “TEAM”!! 🤍🖤
@FinlaySamuel_: Money well spent 🫣🤥
@DerekSmalls13: LOL eat shit, Chelsea. Way to spend half a billion pounds and still be garbage.
@SheikhKhaledd: Fulham are seriously good, Tete played unbelievable. They press so good as a team and their work rate is 100%. Chelsea spending all that money and still can’t win. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. #CFC #CheFul #FFC
@IanWNUFC1892: Spent all this money to draw with Fulham 🤣🤣 #CFC are a shit team! #FFC
@AA_utd:
All that time to prepare after being knocked out of every cup
All that money spent
Can’t even beat Fulham at home
Can’t wait till that lot come to OT to put the FIFA kids to shame who were crying about Chelsea’s spend
@Aljeeves: That’s a lot of money to spend to get a draw against Fulham.
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