Chelsea made it three consecutive Premier League wins on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over London rivals Fulham. Unsurprisingly, given his 18 goal contributions already this season, Cole Palmer scored a penalty as the only goal of the game to take the Blues up to eighth and relieve some of the pressure on Mauricio Pochettino.
The Blues are still nine points off the top four places but confidence will be increasing in west London that a European spot can be achieved this season. «Of course, the first half wasn't the first half that we planned,» Pochettino said when asked for his thoughts on the game.
«Something happened before the game that I cannot explain. I think that affected the team a little bit. We started the second half really good. I think we played really good football for 30 minutes and should score another goal or one or two and kill the game.
»When the game is open like this and you don't kill the game, always in the last minutes we concede a few actions, set pieces and wide free kicks and they have good potential in these situations. We defended well and I think it was good for us to suffer a bit at the end. I think this type of game will make us grow and to build confidence in the way we are working."
The focus for Chelsea will now be on overturning the first leg Carabao Cup defeat to Middlesbrough before another tie at Stamford Bridge, this time in the FA Cup against Aston Villa. Following that, the league fixtures become quite challenging for Pochettino and his players, with football.london examining each game and comparing it to the other teams pushing for a European place.
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