Fernandez debut fizzles, Chelsea held to scoreless draw by Fulham

LONDON (AP) — Enzo Fernandez’s debut for Chelsea fizzled out as Fulham earned a worthy 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge within the English Premier League on Friday.

Fernandez, the costliest participant in British soccer historical past, was largely saved subdued. Chelsea was left stranded in ninth and its detached type was prolonged to 1 win in six within the league.

Fulham proved it was not essential to spend 315 million kilos ($380 million) within the January switch window to sit down within the higher reaches of the top-flight. Marco Silva’s well-drilled group made the host look toothless at instances on the finish of per week during which it spent 106.5 million kilos to land World Cup winner Fernandez.

Chelsea hit the put up on halftime. Hakim Ziyech, contemporary from his failed transfer to Paris Saint-Germain on switch deadline day, clipped a looking ball in behind Fulham for Kai Havertz to run onto, however the makeshift No. 9 noticed his lobbed effort drift over Bernd Leno and again off the put up.

The second half continued in a vein during which Fulham greater than held its personal towards the host’s costly assemble.

Fernandez had his second 20 minutes from the tip when he whipped a spectacular first-time effort shot past Leno’s dive and fractionally previous the put up. The crowd rallied, and Chelsea began to take management.

Substitute David Fofana got here closest to profitable it for Chelsea, going via one-on-one towards Leno earlier than slipping past the goalkeeper and seeing his effort cleared off the road by the masking Tim Ream.