Peter Henry
Chelsea got back to winning ways after their humbling defeat to Spurs last weekend by beating West London rivals Fulham 2-0 earlier today at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues took the lead after just four minutes when Pedro finished cooly after being slotted through by N’Golo Kante.
Fulham, however, gradually began to get a foothold in the game and looked markedly more solid tactically then they have over the first couple of months of the season.
Any hope the Cottagers had of getting anything out of the game would finally be extinguished in the 82nd minute though when substitute Ruben Loftus-Cheek combined with Eden Hazard before slotting home from twelve yards out.
Sarri had insisted that he wanted to see a reaction from his players after last weekend’s no-show at Wembley and speaking afterward the Italian coach admitted he was happy with the win and the performance of his players.
”Today was about the result. We gave more attention to the defensive phase to win the match.’’ Sarri told Sky Sports.
“I wanted to be fresh on the pitch so I made changes. There was a problem to the ankle of Kovacic and Alonso had a back problem so I made changes, I didn’t want to take any risk.
“It was a very good reaction. Now we have to start to improve and play our football in a better way. Ranieri can have a very great impact at Fulham, in two or three weeks they will defend very well and to play against them in amonth will be a problem for any team.”
Chelsea move up to third in the Premier League table after Sunday’s win.