Liam Rosenior, Chelsea’s new head coach, received a swift introduction to the challenges awaiting him at Stamford Bridge after watching his new side suffer a 2-1 defeat to Fulham in the Premier League on Wednesday, with fixing Chelsea’s poor disciplinary record set to be high on his agenda.
Television cameras captured Rosenior sitting high in the stands, stone-faced, as defender Marc Cucurella left the pitch after being shown a red card for a foul on Harry Wilson just 15 minutes into the match.
The dismissal took Chelsea’s total number of red cards in the league this season to five — more than double that of any other team — a significant factor behind the club’s struggles to live up to expectations following their Club World Cup triumph last summer.
Chelsea have managed just one win in their last nine league matches and currently sit seventh in the Premier League table.
Fulham made full use of their numerical advantage, with Raúl Jiménez heading home powerfully in the 55th minute, before Wilson sealed the victory in the 81st minute, despite Liam Delap briefly lifting Chelsea’s hopes by scoring his first league goal for the London club.
Interim Chelsea manager Calum McFarlane — who was promoted from the club’s Under-21 side following Enzo Maresca’s departure on January 1 and oversaw the 1-1 draw with Manchester City last Sunday — said the red card proved to be a turning point in the match.
“Any red card has a huge impact on a game,” McFarlane told reporters. “I’m extremely disappointed because we were starting to find our rhythm, so the dismissal came at a very bad time for us.”
He also expressed concern over the three yellow cards shown to Chelsea players for protesting Cucurella’s sending-off. McFarlane, who himself later received a yellow card for arguing with the referee, said: “Picking up three yellow cards after that is something we need to look at.”
Chelsea supporters gathered at one end of Craven Cottage made it clear they believe the club’s problems run deeper, directing their anger at co-owner Behdad Eghbali, who was watching the match alongside Rosenior, as well as at the Clearlake Capital-led consortium that controls the club and was co-founded by the American billionaire.
Rosenior becomes the fourth permanent Chelsea manager appointed since the club was purchased by a consortium of investors in 2022, after the British government forced Russian owner Roman Abramovich to sell the club following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The 41-year-old coach, who joined Chelsea from sister club Strasbourg in France, will take charge of his first match on Saturday when Chelsea travel to face Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup. That will be followed by the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final at home against London rivals Arsenal next Wednesday.
