Maresca: Fulham defeat not a missed chance in Premier League title race
Chelsea suffered their first defeat since 20 October, and lost ground on leaders Liverpool after failing to deny Fulham a comeback victory.
Enzo Maresca says Chelsea's last-gasp defeat to Fulham was not a chance missed after they lost ground on Liverpool at the top of the table.
The Blues were stunned by two late Fulham strikes as substitutes Harry Wilson and Rodrigo Muniz cancelled out Cole Palmer's first-half strike to seal a 2-1 win.
The latter's 95th-minute strike (94:15) was the latest winning goal against Chelsea in the Premier League since Pedro Neto for Wolves in December 2020 (94:44), while it is the first time the Blues have conceded a 90th-minute winner at home in the competition since February 2003.
It is also the first time since October 1999 that Chelsea have lost a Premier League game in which they were leading as late as the 82nd minute when they lost 3-2 to Arsenal.
Chelsea could have moved within a point of leaders Liverpool with a win, but instead sit four points behind them in second, and Maresca admitted there are lessons to be learnt after their unbeaten streak was ended.
"The first 10-15 minutes of the second half, we conceded too many transitions," he told Amazon Prime. "We could control the second half much better.
"Then I think the game was there and, unfortunately, we conceded in the last minutes. We can manage better the game. We concede too many transitions second half. They are very good in transition.
"It is a game that we can learn many things from."
Asked if they had missed a chance in the title race, Maresca added: "No [not a chance missed]. This is just a game that unfortunately we lost. It is just a matter of: recover energy and try to go again in three days."
Meanwhile, Marco Silva was in high spirits after Fulham earned their first-ever Premier League win at Chelsea.
It was their first win at Stamford Bridge since October 1979, with Fulham failing to win any of their previous 17 trips to Chelsea in the Premier League (D6 L11).
After falling behind early on, Fulham kept the pressure on, having 14 shots worth 1.32 expected goals (xG) compared to 12 attempts for Chelsea, who created 0.95 xG.
"It is a privilege to give our fans this happiness," Silva told Amazon Prime. "I was questioning the length of time it has been since Fulham won here.
"We spoke before the match about why it is going to be important to give good feelings to our fans. Their happiness is everything.
"We deserved the three points. We want to finish top half of the table and improve on last season. Let's see where we are going to finish. That is clearly our aim. We are going to fight for it."