What Chelsea’s madcap win over Fulham proves about new era of Premier League - and their title chances | OneFootball

Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa may know each other well but, even after a Chelsea win away to Fulham, the rest of us still don’t know much at all about their teams’ prospects for the season.

On a chaotic opening weekend of the 2026-27 Premier League, this simply took the mayhem to a maximum. Joao Pedro immediately scored after 31 seconds and it never really let up.

You could even throw into that Enzo Fernandez’s surprise introduction. He started his substitute appearance being booed from almost the entirety of Craven Cottage, and finished with his name being sung by the away end. Again, who’s to know what next in that saga, as Manchester City linger?

Who’s to know what next from Robert Sanchez? What might the discussion be if Antonee Robinson had done better with that inviting late lob, at 3-2?

It was a brilliantly enjoyable game for all that, if not one the most instructive. That was always going to be a case in a season starting with so many unknowns, but this match was even difficult to get a handle on as it went. It was exhilaratingly unpredictable.

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All three of Chelsea’s front line put in fine performances (Reuters)

Chelsea barely had any sustained pressure but still looked excellent in attack, hugely suspect at the back and held out for a 3-2 win. Fulham were so worryingly thin in midfield and yet offered a performance of substance, where they can be aggrieved at the result.

There was then the great variable of how the way these two teams played affected each other, and whether that is even repeatable. It was just transition after transition, a game where so many single touches were suddenly leaving players one on one - like a Bundesliga match on fast forward.

Maybe it was inevitable that Alonso ultimately came out on top, then, both due to mastering that league with a Bayer Leverkusen title… and having a much more expensive squad.

From a game with so little logic outside that, though, there are obviously two main questions.

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Fulham bounced back twice after going behind (Reuters)

The most pertinent is whether Chelsea can actually challenge for the title, for the first time in 10 years. The second is whether Fulham are actually as at risk of relegation as many predictions have had. And the answer to both is… it’s very difficult to say.

Chelsea’s counter-attacking at least looks top level, in the way you would expect of Alonso. All of their goals, which were scored by all three main attackers - Joao Pedro, debutant Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer - came from transitions. In those moves, Chelsea looked at their most convincing. The team was interweaving so brilliantly, with Palmer visibly enjoying being able to dictate every move. The pass around Rogers’s goal was especially good.

Even within that, though, how much of it was specifically because of how Fulham played? With only Sander Berge apparently able to get any kind of hold in midfield, it meant they kept losing the ball there, and every one of those balls seemed to immediately find their way to Palmer.

And yet there wasn’t any concerted spell of Chelsea pressure. Is that how they’re going to go through this season, or was it just a product of circumstance? Everything was on the counter, and that despite a defence that didn’t exactly look the most durable.

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Morgan Rogers scored on his Chelsea debut (Getty)

That area of the team really doesn’t look ready for a title challenge right now. It repeatedly creaked under fairly basic Fulham pressure, especially when Gonzalo Garcia was subjecting them to the pressing he is respected for in Spain. There were too many moments when the defensive structure was led astray, which is saying something when Fulham couldn’t really sustain that pressure for long periods. There were 20 minutes in the middle of the first half and then bursts in the second.

Such intensity required some big interventions to prevent this being worse for Chelsea. Joshua Acheampong was responsible for two, suggesting how the individuals themselves can at least grow, and come together as a unit.

That unit still looks as if it is especially loose in one key place. Sanchez lets too much through. Repeated Chelsea managers clearly see something in him, but it’s hard not to focus on the errors. For Fulham’s first, after admittedly lax defending in front of him, Sanchez just let Josh King’s shot through his arms. For the second, he did get his hands to Timothy Castagne’s well-struck effort but only to parry it into the path of the waiting Garcia, who scored on his debut.

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Robinson missed a huge chance to level things late on (Reuters)

Given how active Chelsea are still set to be in the market, it’s hard not to wonder why they don’t make a move. What about Emiliano Martinez?

And what about Fulham? The one main impression from this defeat is that there is a defiance there. Arbeloa sets up in a way that will at least make every game for them an event. They’re willing to have a go, to go at teams, despite the risk from gaps in the structure.

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Gonzalo Garcia scored the fifth goal of an end-to-end game (Reuters)

It made for a great game, even it’s hard to say what kind of season any of this will make for. Maybe we’ll all have to wait for that with most teams. This just took it to an extreme.

And perhaps that’s one lesson. For the moment, enjoy the ride.