PREM: Chelsea 2-0 Fulham

Chelsea comfortably beat Fulham

Chelsea comfortably beat Fulham 2-0 on Sunday afternoon to mark a disappointing return to Stamford Bridge for Claudio Ranieri on Derby Day.

Pedro broke the deadlock for the hosts in the fourth minute following a mistake from Jean Michael Seri as Ranieri experimented with a diamond midfield.

Fulham rallied in the second half with Calum Chambers coming close on a few occasions, but substitute Ruben Loftus-Cheek sealed victory for the hosts (82) after some fine combination play between Eden Hazard and Pedro.

After an encouraging opening from Fulham, their early momentum came to a halt due to a series of mistakes by Denis Odoi and Seri. Odoi's ponderous pass into Seri was picked off by N'Golo Kante, who slipped through Pedro to slot away Chelsea's 1000th home goal in the Premier League.

Fulham strung together their best move of the first half in the 17th minute with Chambers letting a shot go from range, but Kepa Arrizabalaga was equal to the effort.

Chelsea almost doubled their lead with less than ten minutes of the first half to go through Olivier Giroud after he met Eden Hazard's cross at the near post, but Sergio Rico did well to stop the first-time effort with a strong reflex save before the Spaniard made a similar stop with his legs to deny the Frenchman just before half-time.

Ranieri introduced Floyd Ayite and Aboubakar Kamara to inject some pace into his side at the start of the second half, but their an equalising goal nearly came through Chambers again. He rose highest to meet a floated corner by Seri, but his near-post header was expertly batted away by Kepa.

The Arsenal loanee then had another opportunity to put Ranieri's men on level terms in the 65th minute only for his swept effort to be clawed to safety by Kepa.

Just moments after coming off the bench, Alvaro Morata was presented with a glorious chance to extend Chelsea's lead in the 72nd minute but he blasted his rebound, following a strong save by Rico to deny Hazard, over the bar from point-blank range.

Fortunately for the former Real Madrid striker the miss did not matter too much as Chelsea extended their lead through Loftus-Cheek in the 83rd minute who finished off a flowing move, kickstarted by Hazard and Pedro, on his 50th Premier League appearance.