Enzo Maresca’s team remains second in the Premier League, four points behind Liverpool, after experiencing their first defeat in 13 matches across all competitions.
Chelsea took the lead in the 16th minute through Cole Palmer’s brilliant solo effort, but Fulham equalized with eight minutes left, thanks to substitute Harry Wilson. ..Continue Reading
Rodrigo Muniz, another second-half substitute, then netted Fulham’s winning goal in the 94th minute of injury time.
After the match, Silva revealed that Fulham had identified the weaknesses of Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto.
‘I expected that with Adama [Traore] knowing that Cucurella is going to be more inside, or Cucurella is going to be the second midfielder for them or play in the pocket, we wanted to play with a player like Adama to explore that space after when they are more exposed on that left-hand side and we wanted to explore that position of Cucurella, that was the reason behind [it],’ Silva told Amazon Prime.
‘The reason is that we wanted to explore the full-back [Cucurella] was more inside and we had the profile of Adama there. Of course, it worked really well.
‘It’s not a coincidence that we are the team in the Premier League who have score more goals with players from the bench, it means everybody is on the same page, everybody knows what we are doing as well, everybody fights for their position, I have to take decisions, sometimes they are happy, other times not happy, but the main thing is we are working as a group.’
Silva also explained how Fulham were also reliant on another impressive display from Antonee Robinson on their left flank.
‘I said after the Liverpool match it’s going to be difficult to put into words the performance from him, he’s been unbelievable this season again,’ Silva said of Robinson.
‘Last season was a top, top season from him but the way he’s improving, he’s been fantastic. Not just on the ball but off the ball as well, his decision-making he gave a big step in decision-making.
‘When you have a player like him, even Timothy Castagne, when you have these two full-backs you are able to play with three at the back, they give you the support always.
‘We tried to explore, we knew Chelsea play would normally play with three at the back they go with the winger all the way. We tried to expose Robinson against [Pedro] Neto, we knew Madueke or Neto are going to do this, and clearly we tried to expose Neto against Robinson every time and we did it.
‘I think it was clear from the beginning of the game what we tried to do because we knew it was going to be Gusto with Alex [Iwobi], and we tried to explore that situation clearly.’
