Chelsea player ratings vs Fulham: Cole Palmer back to his best but Robert Sanchez dreadful

Chelsea made a winning start to their first season under Xabi Alonso with a thriller at Craven Cottage.

Joao Pedro, Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer all found the net in a 3-2 win over Fulham to gift Alonso victory in his first competitive game.

But goals from Josh King and Gonzalo Garcia included errors from Robert Sanchez and exposed defensive weaknesses.

Dom Smith was at Craven Cottage to rate the Chelsea players’ performances…

Saved from King unconvincingly in the first half and then conceded at his near post to King before palming back out to Garcia for Fulham ’s second. Very poor.

A couple of last-ditch tackles and blocks helped to clear the danger for Chelsea, but there were nervous moments in there too - including a poor back-pass to Sanchez.

A fine debut for Lacroix, who defended well and produced a great and unexpected run to assist Rogers for the second.

Didn’t have the best game at the back for Chelsea, and wasn’t alert as Fulham scored their second.

Had limited influence from wing-back on a game won and lost in different areas of the pitch from where the Frenchman was operating.

One effort on goal forced Bernd Leno into a decent save but was otherwise quite quiet. Booked for fouling King.

Had a big impact in the middle of the pitch for Chelsea, starting ahead of Moises Caicedo who was injured.

Quite good on the ball but sloppy when he took too long to take a throw-in and it was then handed to Fulham instead.

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Alonso explains why Chelsea will not be built around Palmer and Rogers