Chris Coleman admits the world wants to see Chelsea beaten and he may have solved the riddle of how to do it.
Jose Mourinho has only lost four league games since arriving at Stamford Bridge in 2004 but Coleman won their tactical battle on Sunday.
The Blues were beaten 1-0 in a stormy west-London derby and the Fulham boss hailed it the best result of his short managerial career.
Coleman said: “They’re the champions and no matter who they play, whether it’s a team at the bottom or one of the top teams, everyone wants to beat Chelsea now.
“Everyone wanted to beat Manchester United when they were bossing things and there was a lot of controversy in their games, I played in one or two myself.
“I understand that. They’re at the top, there’s a lot of pressure on them and everybody wants to beat them.”
Coleman’s players were outstanding but the manager’s masterstroke was to suffocate Chelsea’s supply-line from Claude Makelele, who likes to sit in front of his back-four and dictate the flow of the game.
Fulham reacted by sending Steed Malbranque to play in the hole behind the strikers, in the same area of the pitch as Makelele.
Coleman said: “Every time we play against Chelsea or every time we watch them play, everything goes through Makelele and he starts the attacks.
“Steed Malbranque loves playing in that position, he likes attacking from that position but he’s not very good at defending.
“We told him to go where he liked when he had the ball but, as soon as he didn’t have it, Makelele was his man.
“We wanted Petr Cech to kick it rather than pass it out and it worked very well.”
Coleman knew his gameplan was working when Mourinho abandoned his favourite 4-3-3 formation after 26 minutes and sent on subs Damien Duff and Didier Drogba.
The Fulham boss said: “He changed very early. He got Duff and Drogba on and tried to match us up through midfield which I thought was a compliment for our boys.”
Fulham condemned Chelsea to only their third league defeat of the season – the others came at Manchester United and Middlesbrough – but the Blues remain 12 points clear at the top of the table.
Coleman said: “I think they’re beatable. They’ve lost before this season but if I was a betting man I wouldn’t bet against them winning the championship again.
“They’re the best team and they’ll win the title again I’m sure. They’ll win it by a margin.”
Coleman’s relegation fears have been greatly eased by the win over Chelsea but his next tactical battle is to win a game away from Craven Cottage.
Fulham are the only team in the Premiership without an away win all season and they travel to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Coleman said: “We have to go away from home and play the way we did against Chelsea.
“You can’t just turn up away from home and expect to play. It’s about digging in, teaming up, fighting and if we do that we’ve got a chance.”
