It was a nightmarish start to his Chelsea career for Joao Felix as he got sent off before the hour mark in the Blues’ Premier League loss to Fulham at the Craven Cottage in the West London derby.
Joao Felix, who only joined Chelsea on Wednesday in a £9.7m loan deal until the end of the season from Atletico Madrid, was shown a straight red card for a horrible lunge on defender Kenny Tete after 58 minutes.
Joao Felix had been the visitors’ best player before his dismissal left his side on the back foot, with the scores level after Koulibaly had canceled out Willian’s opener before Vinicius scored the winner later on.
Carlos Vinicius proved a very capable deputy in the place of the suspended Aleksandr Mitrovic.
This was only Fulham’s fourth win in 53 top-flight matches against Chelsea, and ended a run of 20 Premier League games without a win against the Blues since a 1-0 victory in March 2006.
Fulham now move up to sixth in the Premier League, although they have played two more games than Liverpool, who they now sit above.
Chelsea have now only won twice in 10 matches in all competitions with Joao Felix set to be suspended for three games.