Chelsea drop to 8th place as winless run extends to five games

McFarlane made several unexpected decisions, leaving out Joao Pedro and captain Reece James, while selecting Moises Caicedo and Andrey Santos in midfield. Chelsea’s problems began in the 22nd minute when Marc Cucurella pulled back Harry Wilson during a Fulham counter-attack. The Welsh winger went down and Cucurella was shown a straight red card.

Despite playing with 10 men, Chelsea managed to stay level until half-time, with the score remaining 0-0. However, just 10 minutes into the second half, Fulham broke the deadlock. From an early cross by Sander Berge, Raul Jimenez reacted quickest to score the opening goal.

Chelsea responded well and found an equaliser in the 72nd minute. After Fulham failed to fully clear a Chelsea corner, the ball struck the post and Liam Delap was on hand to finish.

Chelsea were unable to hold on, though. Harry Wilson sealed the win for Fulham with a powerful strike from outside the box, condemning Chelsea to their fifth consecutive Premier League match without a win.

Speaking after the match, McFarlane said: “I'm really proud of the performance but we have to talk about it in different ways. I thought Fulham started better, won more duels and second balls. We were too aggressive on the ball in the first 10 minutes., but then I thought we found our rhythm and we got into some good areas, even though they gave us a lot of respect in terms of their defensive structure in the 5-4-1.

“We had just got into our rhythm, had a couple of set-pieces, but we got countered and went down to 10 men. Then it’s about how compact we are, how we control our box and our final third. We did that really well until they scored the first goal. We had moments and I was really proud of the character to get back in the game. We didn’t look like conceding again until a bit of quality from Harry Wilson that decided the game. So we’re disappointed.”

The defeat marked McFarlane’s final match before Liam Rosenior takes over as Chelsea manager. Rosenior has signed a long-term contract until 2032 and is set to begin his tenure with an FA Cup third-round match against Charlton.