Craven Cottage erupts. Referee David Coote has blown the final whistle and with it an end to almost 16 years of purgatory. Fulham supporters have waited so long to beat Chelsea again that initially it is bewildering. Not only have Fulham defeated their disliked local rivals, but they are six points clear of them in the Premier League table.
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It is the stuff of dreams but that is what Marco Silva has taught Fulham to do over the past 18 months. From storming to the Championship title to record-breaking scorelines and goalscorers, Fulham’s success has felt like a whirlwind.
Yet for all the milestones ticked off, this result carries greater significance — Fulham served up the result their supporters craved the most.
“It was a great night for our fans,” said Silva. “Chelsea’s superiority has been huge in these games. They are a massive club. Their budget is completely different, we can’t compare. But we knew that with our work, with our strategy, our identity, we can balance things.
“And we did it.”
…And not a clapper in sight 😉
Party time at Craven Cottage! pic.twitter.com/Rc6ZpcNPXl
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 12, 2023
Fulham’s record against Chelsea has been nothing short of abysmal. Heading into the game, no fixture played more than 50 times in the English Football League has seen a worse win rate than that of Fulham against Chelsea.
The last time Fulham won, substitute Luke Harris had not celebrated his first birthday. Since that day, when Silva’s assistant Luis Boa Morte scored the only goal in a 1-0 win on March 19, 2006, Fulham have tried and failed 21 times.
That solitary success is the only win in all competitions from 40 matches since 1979, when both teams were in the old Division Two. At the same time, Fulham have watched Chelsea win every trophy available, ascending to greater heights and drifting further away.
For supporters, then, while Brentford may have muscled into the top-flight conversation and QPR pop up from time to time, it is this frustrating fixture, against the team who are based a miledown the road and who share the same postcode, that matters most.
A belated victory tastes all the sweeter.
Sat outside The Boathouse pub in Putney, the Ventoms are nursing a drink and calming the nerves.
It is 90 minutes before kick-off and the family are mulling over the possible teamsheet. There is Caroline, 58, and Mark, 61, and their children, Michael, 25, Liam, 23, and Laura, 22, as well as Mark’s brother Gerard, known as Tigs, 59, and his daughter Becky, 23. They are all Fulham fans and are all decked out in the colours. Caroline has her scarf on. Mark has his up-to-date training jacket. Liam is wearing the Puma shirt worn between 2003 and 2005 and Laura has the 1997-98 edition.
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They all have season tickets in the Hammersmith End, where they sit in a row together, with Laura on a seat behind and Michael on one in front. Going to Fulham allows them to meet up each week and share a common passion.
“This game feels like we could actually win,” says Michael.
“You’re jinxing it!” interjects Liam.
Mark and Tigs first started going to matches in the 1960s. They lived in Barnes and could see the floodlights across the river from the end of the street. Sometimes, you could hear the crowd from Craven Cottage from the garden.
Tigs on his way to Craven Cottage for the Chelsea match
“My first game was in 1968,” says Mark, who is retired and works part-time as a tour guide at Craven Cottage. “I was 7. It was a pre-season friendly against Manchester United. They had just won the European Cup. It was Bobby Charlton and Dennis Law. My dad took me. I think he thought I’d fall in love with Man United. I’ve been a Fulham fan since.”
The rest of the family were drawn to Craven Cottage more regularly at different stages. Liam’s first memories are of Steed Malbranque, while Becky’s first match was the Europa League semi-final against Hamburg in 2010. The family live in Motspur Park, near the club’s training ground, and sometimes attend under-21 matches. Liam used to play alongside former academy player Jerome Opoku at school.
When it comes to the rivalry with Chelsea, they offer different perspectives. Tigs was there when Fulham last beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in October 1979, with Gordon Davies and John Beck on the scoresheet. “I was in the Shed End for my own safety!” he says.
The rivalry is not a mutual affliction. Historically, Chelsea’s formation is said to have begun when Gus Mears approached Fulham about playing at the Stamford Bridge Athletics Ground on Fulham Road. They declined, so he decided to form his own team. Chelsea was born.
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The teams competed regularly with each other in the interwar years but between 1968 and 2001, they were only in the same division five times and they did not play each other between 1986 and 2001. Rarely have they competed for similar honours and the rivalry lacked that edge. “There is a rivalry, but it’s not United-City, or that we are a divided borough,” says Mark. “We are the poorer cousins. But when people ask who Fulham’s biggest rivals are, I will say Chelsea.”
Tigs agrees. “Fulham see it more as a rivalry than Chelsea fans do. They don’t see it as a rivalry at all.”
“It’s little brother and big brother,” says Caroline.
There was a time when fans would attend the other’s game if one was not playing. “In the early 1970s I went to see Fulham play Oldham and Chelsea were due to play United,” says Mark. “The Chelsea game was called off so the United fans went to the Putney End to support Oldham, and the Chelsea fans came and stood in the Hammy End. There were massive amounts of them.”
The modern era feels different, though. Fulham returned to the top flight in 2001 and the two sides have locked horns frequently. But with one-sided outcomes.
“It was always Chelsea,” says Liam. “It’s the game I would look out for in the fixtures, the first one we’d try to get tickets for the away game. It’s the biggest one.”
Recently, Brentford’s success means they have competed for similar things; promotion to the Premier League and top-flight stability.
“There have been tense battles with Brentford,” says Michael. “We don’t sing about Brentford. But Chelsea…”
“I knew about the rivalry but I hadn’t been to Fulham-Chelsea,” says Laura. “But the first games I went to, fans would sing about Chelsea. Even if we weren’t playing them. It came up every game. It stuck.”
The thought of predictions for the game evokes a sharp intake of breath and leaves Tigs with his head in his hands. With Chelsea in crisis mode, opportunity knocks and Fulham fans know it.
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“I’m really nervous. It’s like going to watch your children play,” says Caroline.
“All my Chelsea friends are saying we are going to do it,” says Liam. “They are not confident. This is the chance.”
Without Aleksandar Mitrovic, the stage was set for Carlos Vinicius. And, with one twist of his neck muscles, he etched his name into Fulham folklore.
His winning goal, from an inch-perfect Andreas Pereira cross, secures a victory that has felt intangible for so long. The celebrations match the achievement. Vinicius is swamped by his team-mates and coaching staff, not least Boa Morte who embraces him; two Fulham heroes of this fixture.
No Mitrović, no problem 😤
Carlos Vinícius heads Fulham back ahead in the West London Derby… pic.twitter.com/SuEVu184J6
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 12, 2023
In the stands, the scenes are joyous.
“Pereira was man of the match,” says Caroline at full-time. “We’re so pleased for Vinicius. Leno was amazing.”
“The fans were so up for it from minute one,” says Liam. “Every tackle, every loose ball was cheered.”
For Chelsea supporters filtering out onto Stevenage Road, the thought of losing to Fulham will not carry much significance in comparison to their anxieties about a season of struggle.
But for Fulham, who are now sixth, this all feels unprecedented. They have broken the hoodoo and bloodied the noses of their so-called big brother. They have also now won four games in succession for the first time since April 1966 and are the first newly promoted team to achieve 31 points at this stage since Wigan Athletic in 2005-06.
Avoiding relegation remains the key target, but if they keep setting standards like this, they may even finish above Chelsea.
And for those unaccustomed to this fixture, that conveys the most un-Fulham reality.
“Becky and Laura have never been to a Fulham vs Chelsea game before,” says Mark. “They now think we win it all the time!”
(Top photo, from left: Caroline, Tigs, Becky, Liam, Michael, Laura, Mark)
