Marco Silva reveals Fulham targeted two Chelsea players in Stamford Bridge win

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Marco Silva has revealed that Fulham looked to exploit Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto during Fulham’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day.

Enzo Maresca’s side remain second in the Premier League and four points behind Liverpool after suffering their first defeat in 13 matches in all competetions.

Cole Palmer’s excellent individual effort opened the scoring for Chelsea in the 16th minute but Fulham equalised with eight minutes remaining through substitute Harry Wilson.

Rodrigo Muniz, another second-half substitute, then scored Fulham’s winner in the 94th minute of injury time.

Speaking after the game, Silva revealed that Fulham had highlighted both of Chelsea’s flanks as potential weaknesses.

‘I expected that with Adama [Traore] knowing that Cucurella is going to be more inside, or Cucurella is going to be the second midfielder for them or play in the pocket, we wanted to play with a player like Adama to explore that space after when they are more exposed on that left-hand side and we wanted to explore that position of Cucurella, that was the reason behind [it],’ Silva told Amazon Prime.

‘The reason is that we wanted to explore the full-back [Cucurella] was more inside and we had the profile of Adama there. Of course, it worked really well.

‘It’s not a coincidence that we are the team in the Premier League who have score more goals with players from the bench, it means everybody is on the same page, everybody knows what we are doing as well, everybody fights for their position, I have to take decisions, sometimes they are happy, other times not happy, but the main thing is we are working as a group.’

Silva also explained how Fulham were also reliant on another impressive performance from Antonee Robinson on their left flank.

‘I said after the Liverpool match it’s going to be difficult to put into words the performance from him, he’s been unbelievable this season again,’ Silva said of Robinson.

‘Last season was a top, top season from him but the way he’s improving, he’s been fantastic. Not just on the ball but off the ball as well, his decision-making he gave a big step in decision-making.

‘When you have a player like him, even Timothy Castagne, when you have these two full-backs you are able to play with three at the back, they give you the support always.

‘We tried to explore, we knew Chelsea play would normally play with three at the back they go with the winger all the way. We tried to expose Robinson against [Pedro] Neto, we knew Madueke or Neto are going to do this, and clearly we tried to expose Neto against Robinson every time and we did it.

‘I think it was clear from the beginning of the game what we tried to do because we knew it was going to be Gusto with Alex [Iwobi], and we tried to explore that situation clearly.’

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