Marco Silva was delighted to end sixteen years of waiting after Fulham beat Chelsea 2-1 at Craven Cottage last night to win the first SW6 derby of the season.
Carlos Vinicius’ first goal for the Whites clinched a famous win after Joao Felix had been sent off for a terrible tackle on Kenny Tete. Fulham’s early adventure had been rewarded with Willian’s deflected drive opening the scoring against his old club, but the visitors rallied impressively with Kalidou Koulibably stabbed home an equaliser shortly after half time. But Silva paid tribute to the home fans who roared Fulham on to another three points, which lifted his side into the top six.
“Overall, it was a great night for our fans who really deserved it after 16 years without a win in this game. Chelsea’s superiority in this fixture has been huge and we know that they have different goals to ourselves. They are a massive club, but we knew that on the pitch, with our work, our strategy and our identity, we can balance it out and we did that.
Myself as a manager, I still see lots of room to improve but I cannot hide that we are all pleased with another win which is our fourth in a row in the Premier League. The players have been brilliant and we all have to keep working really hard. The run has been impressive but a bad run can always come and we must stick together.”
The Fulham head coach was delighted by how his side gradually assumed control after struggling to cope with Chelsea’s explosive start.
“We took some time to adjust because they started on the front foot and created a good chance within the first few minutes of the match. We took five to ten minutes to adjust and to control the position of João Félix and Mason Mount a bit better between the lines. After that I think we started to balance the game out more and it was a good first half. We had chances and we embraced the challenge. We matched them and we tried to press them. Of course, in some moments with their quality they beat our pressure and they can always create problems against every team in this competition.”
Silva was full of praise for Vinicus, who delivered his strongest performance in a Fulham shirt after replacing the suspended Aleksandar Mitrovic.
“It’s really tough when you arrive at a football club and the striker you are fighting with for a position is Mitrovi?. Mitro has been a key player for this football club which can be tough for other strikers. Carlos needs time to adapt and I think the World Cup break and the mini pre-season we had was important for him to understand better the identity and what we expect from him. I think tonight was his best performance so far, not just because he scored the goal but also the confidence he played with. To score a winner in a game like that will boost his confidence and he deserves it because it’s tough to be sometimes in the shadow of someone like Mitro.”
