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Half a minute. That was all the time Xabi Alonso needed to discover that managing Chelsea might be quite enjoyable, and rather less time than he needed to discover it would not be simple.
Joao Pedro put the visitors ahead after thirty-one seconds at Craven Cottage, the fastest goal ever scored on an opening weekend in the thirty-four year history of the Premier League. Chelsea eventually won 3-2. In between, they conceded twice to goalkeeping errors and spent the closing twenty minutes defending a lead that should never have been that fragile.
The front three all score
The most encouraging thing for Alonso is also the simplest. Every one of his attacking trio found the net.
Cole Palmer set up the opener, feeding Joao Pedro to flick the ball over Bernd Leno. Morgan Rogers, signed from Aston Villa for a reported £117 million and now Chelsea’s record purchase, scored the second in the forty-first minute after Maxence Lacroix drove down the right and cut it back. Palmer got the third four minutes into the second half, taking a lay-off from Joao Pedro and angling his shot through Leno’s legs.
Two summer signings combining for a goal on day one is exactly what a manager wants from an expensive rebuild. Chelsea finished with sixteen shots to Fulham’s nine and an expected goals total of 1.7 to 1.1.
Palmer, restored
The individual story was Palmer, who missed England’s World Cup squad after an injury-hit season and has spent the summer being written about in the past tense.
He was the best player on the pitch by a wide margin. His eleven involvements in attacking sequences, ten defensive actions and seven progressive actions were all match-leading figures, which is a rare combination for a player usually described as a creator rather than a worker.
“It was a difficult season with injuries and whatnot, but through the summer and since I’ve been back I’ve worked extra hard,” he said afterwards. “I know the talent I’ve got so I can put in performances like that.”
Where Fulham found their way in
Both home goals came from the same source, and it was not Fulham’s attacking play.
Josh King levelled in the twenty-fourth minute with a drive that beat Robert Sanchez at his near post. It was hit hard, but a Premier League goalkeeper expects to keep it out. Then in the fifty-fourth, Sanchez parried a Timothy Castagne shot straight into the path of Gonzalo Garcia, who headed in on his league debut following his move from Real Madrid.
Fulham had 61 per cent of the ball and a real chance to equalise in the seventy-eighth minute, Antonee Robinson chipping over a stranded Sanchez and seeing it go wide.
Alvaro Arbeloa, taking his own first Premier League match in charge and facing his former Liverpool and Spain teammate in the opposite dugout, was philosophical. “We played a good game, we deserved more, but football is not about what you deserve, it is about what you take.”
The view from Dhaka
Chelsea are one of the four or five clubs that genuinely own the Bangladeshi football audience, alongside Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and increasingly Manchester City, and Monday night was the first real look at what Alonso intends.
The kick-off at 20:00 UK time meant one o’clock in the morning here, which is the standing cost of following English football from this part of the world. Those who set an alarm were rewarded with five goals, the fastest opening-weekend strike in the competition’s history, and a Palmer performance that answered most of the questions asked of him over the past year.
There is a scale worth noting too. Rogers alone cost £117 million. Tottenham have spent past £300 million this window and Manchester City have agreed an £85 million sale of Savinho. That is a single English club spending more on one forward than most Asian leagues spend across an entire season, and it arrives in the same month that Bangladesh cancelled its own flagship domestic tournament over losses of roughly 400 million taka. The two facts sit oddly next to each other.
Two debuts, one dugout each
There was a symmetry to the night that will not have escaped either manager.
Alonso and Arbeloa played together at Liverpool and for Spain. Arbeloa briefly succeeded Alonso as Real Madrid manager last season. On Monday both took charge of their first Premier League fixture, in the same match, and the reunion went to the visitor.
Alonso was careful not to overstate it. “It was a really intense game. We know what it takes to win away games. We managed well to suffer, to compete, to do whatever it takes in certain moments.”
What comes next
Enzo Fernandez was booed loudly by home supporters when he came on in the second half, a response to ongoing speculation linking him with Manchester City. That is a story that will follow Chelsea until the window closes on 1 September.
Alonso is also waiting on Moises Caicedo and new full-back Marco Palestra, both injured, and both the sort of player who would give this side more structure behind a thrilling attack. Sanchez, meanwhile, may find Mike Penders breathing down his neck after the goalkeeper’s return from Racing Strasbourg.
Winning a derby away from home on the opening night with your front three all scoring is close to a perfect start. Conceding two goals you should not have is the reason nobody at Chelsea will be getting carried away.
