fulham 2-1

Independent:
Drogba's parting shot saves Chelsea
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1
By Mark Fleming

In the past month Chelsea have turned into football's equivalent of Gordon Brown – still leading the country but Lord only knows how. Ever since their emphatic 3-0 victory at Arsenal, Chelsea have turned into a one-man team.
Without Didier Drogba's timely intervention, which provided the spark for their second win in six league games, Chelsea looked to be heading to what would have been a crushing defeat. Instead, they head into the New Year five points clear.
Drogba, like Chelsea, was awful for the first hour of the game. The striker was at his melodramatic worst, rolling around in agony at the slightest touch. But he and Chelsea woke from their slumbers in time to win an entertaining London derby and secure three vital points. Jose Mourinho certainly picked his moment to return to Stamford Bridge for the first time since his dismissal more than two years ago. Mourinho's Internazionale side play Chelsea in the Champions League on 24 February, so the Special One took the opportunity to see his former club play before they lose Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel to the African Nations Cup. He will not have been impressed.
Sitting in the seat up in the West Stand, opposite the dugout he used to occupy with such a flourish, Mourinho watched as his former club continued their recent habit of looking like a team that rarely plays together. Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, made six changes from the side that drew 0-0 at Birmingham on Boxing Day, and it showed. Passes went astray and runs went unspotted as Chelsea floundered against their local rivals. It is customary to invite the neighbours round during the festive period, but Chelsea took their hospitality duties a little too seriously.
They were booed off the pitch at half-time after a dire opening 45 minutes. Fulham took the lead after four minutes when Chelsea failed to deal with Paul Konchesky's cross from the left. Ricardo Carvalho missed his attempted header and John Terry failed to stop Bobby Zamora steering the ball towards Zoltan Gera, who flicked the ball up before scoring with a bicycle kick.
Petr Cech tipped over a curling shot from Clint Dempsey as Fulham scented Chelsea were there for the taking. The Chelsea jitters were in full flow, and their goalkeeper also saved well from Zamora after a terrible back header from Carvalho.
Gradually in the second half Chelsea began to find greater width, particularly once Branislav Ivanovic replaced the ineffectual Paulo Ferreira. Drogba hauled Chelsea level with his 19th goal of what is becoming a prolific season. Ivanovic burst down the right flank and arrowed a cross to the far post where stand-in right-back Chris Baird was guilty of ball-watching and Drogba ghosted in at the far post to head the ball into the Fulham net. Baird had been forced into defence after the excellent John Pantsil came off with a twisted knee.
Victory for Chelsea came in the most fortunate of circumstances. Fulham had coped admirably without their towering defender Brede Hangeland, who twisted his knee ligaments in the Boxing Day draw with Spurs. Chris Smalling, who 18 months ago was playing for Maidstone in the Isthmian League, was thrown in for his first league start, and the 20-year-old coped superbly.
However, Smalling's day was ruined when Daniel Sturridge's shot was parried by Fulham keeper Mark Schwarzer and the England Under-21 defender could do nothing as the rebound struck him on the knee and rolled back into his own goal.
With their tails up, Chelsea were transformed and in the final moments their Ivorian front pair of Drogba and Kalou both went close.
Drogba dragged a shot wide, and Kalou struck the bar with a shot from the edge of the penalty area. At the final whistle, Drogba theatrically organised the Chelsea players into a huddle on the pitch and delivered a farewell speech to his team-mates, presumably something along the lines of, "you can do it without me". He then followed it by throwing his shirt to the crowd. The Ivorian flies off today for a month of African Nations Cup action, and Chelsea have to hope their title aspirations do not depart with him.

Chelsea (4-1-2-1-2): Cech; Ferreira (Ivanovic, 65), Carvalho, Terry, Zhirkov (A Cole, 84); Mikel (Sturridge, 70); Lampard, Ballack; J Cole; Kalou, Drogba. Substitutes not used: Hilario (gk), Alex, Belletti, Kakuta.

Fulham (4-3-2-1): Schwarzer; Pantsil (Etuhu 66), Hughes, Smalling, Konchesky; Duff (Riise 85), Murphy, Baird; Gera (A Johnson, 71), Dempsey; Zamora. Substitutes not used: Zuberbuhler (gk), Nevland, Greening, Kallio. Referee: A Marriner (West Midlands).

Booked: Chelsea Drogba; Fulham Baird.
Man of the match: Smalling.
Attendance: 41,805.

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Guardian:
Didier Drogba sparks Chelsea fightback against Fulham
Chelsea 2 Drogba 73, Smalling (og) 75 Fulham 1 Gera 4
Kevin McCarra at Stamford Bridge

There was no sophistication to a Chelsea victory in which the uncontainable individualism of Didier Drogba brought an equaliser and the winner arrived through an own-goal from Chris Smalling. This type of win will not have been what Roman Abramovich had in mind when he hired Carlo Ancelotti as manager but it was still a heartening recovery.
A discordant Chelsea line-up who were booed from the pitch at half-time were not really brought into tune by tactical tweaks. Whatever took place, the seemingly composed Ancelotti contrived to bring an irresistible fury out of men who had seemed harmless. The reward is a five-point lead, although Manchester United, in second place, have a game in hand.
There will be no surprise that Drogba epitomised the mercurial nature of the Chelsea display. The Ivorian put his moodiness on show at first but subsequently collected himself to become a one-man onslaught.
Fulham could not afford the little piece of ill-fortune that afflicted them. The right-back John Paintsil had to be taken off with a knee injury and even more harm was done in the reshuffle. Chris Baird took over his duties and so went from telling midfield presence to uneasy defender. There were gaps at last and Drogba was full of intent. The substitute Branislav Ivanovic crossed deep and Drogba, for once unmarked, headed vigorously past Mark Schwarzer in the 73rd minute. It was virtually inevitable that Chelsea would go on to claim their second league win in six games.
Delusions of mastery seemed to dog the club when plans were being laid for this fixture. Only five members of the line-up who had drawn at Birmingham City on Boxing Day started here. Such a sweeping reconstruction suggested that Chelsea had the means to take such grand decisions with complete confidence. In practice regulars such as Ivanovic and, later, Ashley Cole could not be left to conserve their energies on the bench. Ultimately a piece of luck was as important to Ancelotti as the adjustments he made.
Two minutes after the equaliser Chelsea went ahead through an own-goal. Salomon Kalou crossed and the substitute Daniel Sturridge's effort was beaten out by Schwarzer, only for the ball to bounce off Smalling and into the net.
While that would have been poignant for anyone, the centre-back was even more seriously wronged because it was an incident for which he was blameless. This was his first league start, awarded because of a knee injury that left Brede Hangeland unavailable, and the 20-year-old had excelled.
Chelsea were entitled to claim that, in the second half, their insistent pressure had altered the nature of the game. The ball was certainly in the vicinity of the Fulham goalmouth more often, with Schwarzer having to parry after Drogba struck a shot on the turn in the 59th minute.
The Ivorian will be gravely missedwhile he is at the African Cup of Nations next month. Chelsea will hope Nicolas Anelka's return to fitness and form can be rapid but Drogba is like no other footballer on the Stamford Bridge books. The attacker's gift to the club is that five-point lead. Chelsea's programme is not all that severe, on the face of it, although the degree of difficulty will be connected to the side's capacity to maintain form. They have not looked intimidating since their 3-0 win at the Emirates on 29 November.
Chelsea have lacked zest and onoccasion they have looked like an ensemble in which too many members are feeling their age or sensing the lingering damage of all the battles of the past. They cannot count any longer on fortitude in defence. The goalless draw at Birmingham is their sole clean sheet in eight matches in all competitions since that trouncing of Arsenal.
Today's visitors had the lead after four minutes. Clint Dempsey found Paul Konchesky and his delivery was laid off by Bobby Zamora to Zoltan Gera. The Hungarian flicked the ball up to hook a finish beyond Petr Cech on the turn. If any criticism is to be made of Chelsea it was that they did not generate enough attacks thereafter to keep the opposition off balance.
Should anything have disturbed the watching José Mourinho, then it can only have been the unsettling lack of initial impact by his old team. The Internazionale coach would have found it impossible to believe that Chelsea can be so bland again when the two clubs meet in the last 16 of the Champions League. He would not have been surprised when his adversaries revealed their true character as the afternoon developed.
Man of the match Didier Drogba (Chelsea)


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The Times
Lacklustre leaders grateful to Chris Smalling’s ill luck
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1
Matt Hughes, Deputy Football Correspondent

To borrow a phrase from the political lexicon, which may even apply to the Prime Minister at the moment, Chelsea are in government but not in power. Carlo Ancelotti’s side are five points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League, although it is difficult to see precisely why, and no one can say with any certainty how long their lead will last. Their authority of old is missing.
This was another wretched performance by Chelsea’s high standards, although by the end of the season their goals in the space of two second-half minutes may come to be regarded as the defining moments of the entire campaign. A defeat would have enabled Manchester United to return to the top by beating Wigan Athletic tomorrow, an unpalatable scenario that their misfiring players were unwilling to countenance.
The fighting spirit first instilled by José Mourinho, who returned to Stamford Bridge yesterday for the first time since his sacking in September 2007, remains as strong as ever, as Ancelotti acknowledged. “This reaction means the squad has a very good spirit,” the Chelsea manager said. “They wanted to win this game.”
Chelsea’s team spirit was epitomised by a post-match huddle in the centre circle led by Didier Drogba, whose loss during the African Cup of Nations in Angola, for which he departs today, will be incalculable. As if to prove the point, the Ivory Coast striker brought Chelsea back into the game with his nineteenth goal of the season, although it was another African who provided the turning point. Fulham had repelled Chelsea’s growing pressure with assurance while John Paintsil was on the pitch, but after the Ghana defender hobbled off with a knee injury in the 67th minute, the visiting team folded. The 28-year-old right back will have a scan this morning on a twisted knee that is likely to prevent him reporting for international duty in Africa.
Paintsil had combined well with Chris Smalling to subdue Drogba for much of the match, but Chris Baird, who was switched into Paintsil’s position, was found wanting. The Northern Ireland player was caught out of position by a right-wing cross by Branislav Ivanovic, a substitute, in the 73rd minute, leaving Drogba free to finish with a powerful header. Two minutes later, Chelsea struck again down Fulham’s right, with another substitute, Daniel Sturridge, eluding Baird to reach the byline. Sturridge’s cross was saved by Mark Schwarzer, but the ball struck Smalling on the knee two yards from goal and he could only look on as it crept across the goalline.
Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, could have gone farther than a mild claim that his side were hard done by, but he was more concerned with attempting to restore the confidence of Smalling, 20, who impressed on his Premier League debut in place of Brede Hangeland, who has a knee injury.
“For me there are own goals that are not own goals,” Hodgson said. “For me an own goal is where somebody commits some terrible error and puts it into his own net when he should have done something quite different with the ball. That one was just one of those things.
“Chris’s performance was excellent. I don’t think the fact that his name is down for an own goal tarnishes his performance today.” For much of the afternoon, Smalling’s physical presence had made it look as if Drogba would have preferred to be anywhere else, although he was not alone as the majority of Chelsea’s players seemed to be suffering from a Christmas hangover.
The goal they conceded in the fourth minute had Mourinho jumping in outrage out of his seat — or rather Roman Abramovich’s, as the former manager was accommodated in the Russian owner’s private box. Paul Konchesky’s cross from the left eluded Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry, with Zoltan Gera given huge amounts of space to chip the bouncing ball up to himself and finish with a neat bicycle kick.
Chelsea’s defending has been somewhat haphazard for much of the season, but the paucity of their attacking play in recent weeks is a graver concern, particularly as Drogba will be away for the next month.
Joe Cole was anonymous, Frank Lampard looked in need of a rest and Michael Ballack was one-paced and ponderous, with the Germany captain’s corner-taking in the first half nothing less than an embarrassment as he twice failed to beat Fulham’s first defender. Despite dominating possession, Chelsea’s threat was so sporadic that Schwarzer was not called upon to make a save until the 59th minute.
Ancelotti has stuck with his preferred diamond system all season, but may make a change in the coming weeks, particularly if the performances of key personnel do not improve. Deco and Cole have both failed to deliver on a consistent basis at the tip of the diamond, leaving Chelsea woefully short of creativity in a formation that is inevitably bereft of width.
“In some matches we can change the system,” Ancelotti said. “We’ve played the diamond with every match, but we can use our wingers in some matches if there’s no space in midfield. [Florent] Malouda or Sturridge can play. It depends on the match. It wasn’t a good December for us, but it’s finished. We have to look forward to January. We can do better and maintain our position at the top of the table.”
The curse of Christmas has done for several Chelsea managers in recent years, with Mourinho and Luiz Felipe Scolari fatally undermined by poor results over the festive period, but Ancelotti has survived without facing a challenge to his leadership.

Chelsea ratings
4-1-3-2 P Cech 6 P Ferreira 5 R Carvalho 6 J Terry 5 Y Zhirkov 5 J Obi Mikel 6 M Ballack 5 J Cole 4 F Lampard 6 D Drogba 6 S Kalou 5 Substitutes B Ivanovic 6 (for Ferreira, 65min), D Sturridge (for Mikel, 70), A Cole (for Zhirkov, 84).Not used Hilário, Alex, J Belletti, G Kakuta.

Fulham ratings
4-4-2 M Schwarzer 6 J Paintsil 6 A Hughes 6 C Smalling 6 P Konchesky 5 D Duff 6 D Murphy 7 C Baird 5 C Dempsey 6 R Zamora 6 Z Gera 6 Substitutes D Etuhu 5 (for Paintsil, 67min), A Johnson (for Gera, 71), B H Riise (for Duff, 85).Not used P Zuberbühler, E Nevland, J Greening, T Kallio.

Referee: A MarrinerAttendance: 41,805
Star man
Danny Murphy The former England man did not deserve to lose as he controlled the midfield for long spells. Strong in the tackle and comfortable in possession, the 32-year-old is the league’s in-form midfield player.

Window watch
Chelsea’s need for new blood becomes more obvious with every match, although Carlo Ancelott is still a man in denial. While Chelsea continue to concede sloppy goals, their lack of cutting edge up front is more worrying. Fulham could do with greater strength if their excellent run is to be maintained, but Roy Hodgson will have to wheel and deal.

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Telegraph:
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1
By Jason Burt at Stamford Bridge

Jose Mourinho was back at the Bridge but it was a former Inter Milan manager, not the present one, who gave Chelsea greater cause for concern. In the end, it was only the cruellest of own-goals by a 20 year-old, making his full Premier League debut, and who was playing non-League football for Maidstone United just 18 months ago, that allowed Carlo Ancelotti the victory over Fulham that relieves the pressure which was inexorably beginning to mount around him.
Afterwards he spoke hopefully of how this could be a turning point, ridiculous perhaps when five points clear, but it has been some stuttering sequence of results.
“It is a victory that arrives at not agood moment for us,” he said, admitting he was glad to see the back of December and claiming this was one of the most important wins of the season.
Roy Hodgson, once of the San Siro, awarded Chris Smalling his first league start - in the absence of the sorely missed Brede Hangeland, who is nursing a knee injury - and he was rewarded with a towering performance and the cruellest slice of misfortune. Smalling could not prevent the ball from trickling in after Mark Schwarzer had palmed Daniel Sturridge’s cross-shot only for it to strike the horrified centre-half.
At the end, Didier Drogba, whose header had clawed Chelsea back into the contest, called his team-mates into a huddle. He will now depart, along with Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel, to the African Cup of Nations and how he will be missed. His importance is pivotal, his influence absolute. He even personifies the team - in the first half he rolled around, ineffective and frustrated, in the second he was driven and drove them on.
Ancelotti’s tie was at half-mast throughout this match but - having pledged to streak nude if Chelsea buy in the January transfer window - he can certainly expect to de-robe fully if common sense prevails.
This team desperately need reinforcing if they are to fulfil their owner’s ambitions and sporting director Frank Arnesen will be urging Roman Abramovich to acquire either Sergio Agüero or Franck Ribéry.
Mourinho, who sat in the box usually reserved for Abramovich, had his own battles with the Russian billionaire over money - it was a spat this time three years ago that helped eventually to force him out - and this was his first visit since his departure.
Ostensibly a scouting mission - Inter face Chelsea in the Champions League in February - it was also a high-profile home-coming judging by how he was mobbed outside the stadium although, tellingly perhaps, there were no songs for him inside.
There were jeers. Chelsea were booed off at the interval while Mikel was cat-called after slicing wide from the edge of the area. His substitution was cheered. Such were the frustrations of the home supporters who saw their side enjoy a ridiculous amount of possession but come up against a Fulham side so resolutely organised and committed, and intelligently marshalled, that they rarely looked like conceding.
In Schwarzer they had the better goalkeeper, in Paul Konchesky the best full-back, in Aaron Hughes the most assured defender and in Danny Murphy the most composed midfielder.
And yet they lost. In the pale sun, Chelsea were, at times, a pale shadow of the team that started the season so strongly. And yet they won. No one can doubt their commitment, desire, attempts to play attacking football, but, too often, Chelsea pass the ball in front of their opponents and lack the wit and guile to penetrate, even if Hodgson termed them “rampant”.
They certainly were not that at the start. Ancelotti had over-hauled his defence - only John Terry remained and it was he who was at fault as Fulham went ahead.
Bobby Zamora swept the ball out to Konchesky and with Paulo Ferreira out of position, the left-back charged forward and delivered a cross which Terry headed weakly. It struck Zamora and fell to Zoltan Gera, who took a touch and hooked the ball beyond Petr Cech. Hodgson sat impassive - there was a long time to go - but Chelsea were stunned.
Three times Drogba was denied - either by shooting weakly or having efforts blocked - while the striker got himself involved in a running dispute with John Pantsil.
Chelsea were equally lacking inconcentration and it was Fulham who went closest as Cech palmed over Clint Dempsey’s rising, side-footed shot before the goalkeeper reacted quickly to block from Zamora after he latched on to Ricardo Carvalho’s weak header.
By now, Chelsea were riled but Fulham remained resolute. After one passage of play three of their players lay prone on the ground, hurt, after throwing themselves into tackles, blocking shots, straining every sinew. It was an awesome effort and Ancelotti was becoming frantic.
Drogba twisted and turned and sent in a curler, but Schwarzer pushed it away before, finally, Chelsea had their first slice of fortune. With Panstil limping off with a twisted knee, Chris Baird was pushed to right-back but lost the flight of Branislav Ivanovic’s deep cross - Hodgson said he was dazzled by the floodlights - and Drogba stole in to thump home his header. Cue chaos.
Chelsea poured forward again and Kalou crossed low, for the ball to fall to Sturridge whose first-time shot was blocked by Schwarzer... only to strike Smalling.
Fulham rallied, with Dickson Etuhu heading over, but it was Chelsea who came closest to adding to the scoring with Drogba shooting just wide and Kalou turning nimbly and striking a shot from the edge of the area which hit the bar.
“We pushed Chelsea to the limit and can consider ourselves very unlucky,” Hodgson said. He was right on both counts. But there is little comfort in that.

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Mail:
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1:
Ivory towers - Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou deliver late victory after Africa Cup reprieve
Simon Cass

Never mind the ghost of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea came perilously close to coming unstuck against Fulham with The Special One looking down from Roman Abramovich's box. Chelsea's comeback never in any doubt? Not when Zoltan Gera's opener inside four minutes looked like earning Fulham their first win at Stamford Bridge for more than 30 years. That was until Ancelotti took a leaf out of the Mourinho handbook of inspired substitutions.
The former Chelsea manager is famous for his sweeping changes when things are not going to plan and having sparred with Mourinho in Milan, Ancelotti will have delighted in proving it is not only Inter's manager who can change the game from the bench. Ancelotti was not above jettisoning his diamond system in favour of Mourinho's preferred 4-3-3 to engineer the comeback that had more to do with hard graft than high class. Such tactical tweaks will have been noted by Mourinho on his first return to Stamford Bridge since being ousted by Abramovich in September 2007. Ancelotti's first roll of the dice was to bring on Branislav Ivanovic in the 65th minute, having strangely opted to start with Paulo Ferreira and Yuri Zhirkov as his full backs. Daniel Sturridge was next to be introduced in place of John Mikel Obi, who, on this evidence, will not be greatly missed when he departs for the Africa Cup of Nations. The changes worked a treat. By the 73rd minute Chelsea were back on terms when Ivanovic's deep cross cleared Chris Baird, allowing Didier Drogba to power a header past Mark Schwarzer.
Two minutes and 16 seconds later the turnaround was complete. Salomon Kalou, desperately ineffective as Drogba's foil for much of the game, wriggled into the box before driving a ball across goal for Sturridge. The former Manchester City player's strike was well saved by Mark Schwarzer but he could only parry the ball on to Chris Smalling's knee and the defender's attempt to prevent an own goal succeeded only in blasting the ball into the net.
It was desperately unlucky on Smalling, who turned in a magnificent display against Drogba as understudy for the injured Brede Hangeland on his first Barclays Premier League start. Much has been made of what will become of Chelsea during Drogba's absence with Ivory Coast. But Ancelotti, having joked he would run around the training ground naked if he went back on his promise not to sign anybody next month, may be hoping for an improvement in the weather. The ease with which Fulham nullified Chelsea's midfield diamond in the first-half necessitated the change after the break. It also demonstrated Chelsea's need for the marquee signing that eluded them in the summer, a player of Franck Ribery's guile and trickery to produce something out of the ordinary. A player in the Ribery mould would certainly have asked more questions of Fulham than Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack managed for large parts of this encounter.Having scored so early, when yet more uncertainly from Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry and Petr Cech allowed Gera time and space to turn and score from close range, Fulham were always going to face a tough task protecting their advantage.
Despite being on the back foot for most of the opening period, though, Roy Hodgson's disciplined troops never looked like caving in to Chelsea's constant if uncultured pressure. But with the half-time change in formation, the warning signs started to become more frequent for Fulham. Kalou's ball across goal which slid through Aaron Hughes's legs, with Lampard lurking, caused havoc until John Pantsil finally got the ball away. Drogba, poor but at least energetic before the break, forced Schwarzer to save at full stretch with a strike from the edge of the area. Fulham's defending became increasingly desperate as the sense of belief grew around Stamford Bridge. The quick-fire double from Drogba and Smalling thus had a sense of inevitability, although to their credit Fulham pushed forward as the full-time whistle approached in search of the point their performance probably merited. Kalou came close to adding a third in added time, his strike crashing off the top of the bar.
By then, Mourinho had left his seat, doubtless with plenty of information to digest about how best to unpick his former Chelsea charges when they travel to the San Siro to take on Inter in the Champions League on February 24. This performance is unlikely to have him quaking in his boots but he will have been impressed by Ancelotti's ability to instill a similar level of team spirit among his troops as he achieved during his time at the helm. As for the incumbent, the ghost of Mourinho was not exorcised by this display - not that Ancelotti seemed particularly concerned by that or the fact that a small group of Chelsea fans had chanted 'Come back Mourinho' outside the ground as their hero passed by before kick-off. With Chelsea's title challenge having faltered over the festive period in three of the past four seasons, of far more importance to the Italian was exorcising the ghost of Christmases past.

Chelsea (4-1-2-1-2): Cech 6; Ferreira 5 (Ivanovic 65min, 7), Carvalho 6, Terry 6, Zhirkov 6 (A Cole 84); Mikel 5 (Sturridge 70, 5); Ballack 5, Lampard 6; J Cole 6; Kalou 5, Drogba 7. Booked: Drogba.

Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer 7; Pantsil 8 (Etuhu 67, 6), Hughes 7, Smalling 7, Konchesky 7; Duff 6 (Riise 85), Murphy 6, Baird 6, Dempsey 6; Zamora 6, Gera 6 (Johnson 71, 6). Booked: Baird.

Referee: Andre Marriner.
Man of the match: John Pantsil

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Sun:
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1
MARK IRWIN at Stamford Bridge

THE Ghost of Christmas Past came back to haunt Stamford Bridge - and leave Carlo Ancelotti quaking in his boots.
The very sight of Jose Mourinho nestled in the seat of absent owner Roman Abramovich was enough to give Ancelotti the willies.
Mourinho was making his first visit to Chelsea since being sacked in September 2007.
The Inter coach was on a scouting mission for his team's Champions League clash with the Blues.
And his mere presence was enough to lift his former players from their festive slump to ensure they go into 2010 top of the table.
Chelsea went into this West London derby having won just one of their previous seven matches.
Failure to beat Fulham would have equalled their worst run during Abramovich's reign - way back in May 2004, a week before Claudio Ranieri was axed.
So Ancelotti was under no illusions about the possible fate awaiting him if his team tripped up again.
Luckily for the Italian, they were handed a get-out-of-jail-free card by Fulham rookie Chris Smalling. The former Maidstone defender, 20, had been enjoying an impressive Premier League debut in place of the injured Brede Hangeland.
But his big day took a dramatic turn when keeper Mark Schwarzer pushed Daniel Sturridge's 75th-minute shot against his leg and Smalling was unable to stop the ball rebounding into his own goal.
It was desperately tough luck on the centre-half, coming just two minutes after Didier Drogba's leveller.
The Ivory Coast striker rose unchallenged to power in Branislav Ivanovic's 73rd-minute cross for his 19th goal of the season.
But Chelsea still look anything but convincing.
They fell behind after just four minutes when shaky skipper John Terry failed to deal with Paul Konchesky's cross.
Zoltan Gera could hardly believe his time or luck as he was able to bring the ball under control inside the six-yard box before hooking a shot beyond the static Petr Cech.
Chelsea were booed off at half-time by their impatient fans and appeared on course for their first home defeat since November 2008.
John Pantsil had successfully shackled Drogba - but the Fulham defender's exit with a twisted knee proved the turning point.
Chris Baird, deputising at the back for Pantsil, lost the flight of Ivanovic's hanging cross in the floodlights and allowed Drogba a free header to spark the comeback.
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson said: "Perhaps Drogba might not have scored if Pantsil had still been on the pitch but maybe he would have lost that cross in the lights as well.
"Pantsil is going for a scan on his knee and then we will decide when he joins Ghana for the African Nations Cup.
"If he's out for more than a month, he won't be going at all."
Drogba definitely will be going - along with his Blues chums Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien. And Chelsea must prove they can maintain their title challenge without their talismanic top scorer.
But the Special One certainly won't be losing any sleep over anything he saw at the Bridge yesterday.

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Star:

DIDIER DROGBA'S LATE GOAL LEADS CHELSEA TO VICTORY
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1

Jose Murinho watched Didier Drogba prove there is still a Special One at Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho was back at his old stomping ground for the first time since his shock sacking in September 2007. And he witnessed a Blues comeback of epic proportions as two goals in two second-half minutes sank unlucky Fulham.
Trailing to Zoltan Gera’s early opener and hopelessly out of sorts, Chelsea were in a right old mess.
But just like he did so many times for Mourinho, Drogba led the charge to fire the Blues level with his 14th league goal of the season.
Fulham defender Chris Smalling handed them victory soon afterwards with a desperately unlucky own goal.
Smalling – on his first Premier League start – had been the game’s outstanding player until that mishap and it was cruel on Fulham, who deserved more.
So Chelsea bounced back from their recent wobble to stretch their lead at the top to five points.
But Mourinho will have seen little for his Inter Milan team to fear when the two sides clash in the last 16 of the Champions League in February.
Chelsea’s Carlo Ancelotti admitted his side were lacking confidence after their dismal 0-0 weekend draw at Birmingham.
But no-one was expecting him to ring the changes quite like he did – with SIX new faces from the team which drew 0-0 at St Andrews.
Then again, drastic action was clearly needed with just one win in seven games going into the west London derby. This time last year Chelsea’s title charge faltered as they gave up top spot and never recovered.
Ancelotti was desperate to make sure that did not happen again – and he had a big stroke of good fortune before kick-off.
The Blues won their battle to delay Drogba, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou’s departure for the African Nations Cup.
All three were in the starting line-up for their final match before jetting out to Angola.
But they barely had a kick of the ball before Fulham grabbed a shock lead in the fourth minute.
Paulo Ferreira was caught out down the left by Paul Konchesky, whose deep cross was headed back into the danger zone by Bobby Zamora.
Hungarian Gera was first to react, turning to fire home from eight yards out with Petr Cech hopelessly wrong-footed.
Three of the changes Ancelotti made had come in Chelsea’s back four – and he must have been regretting it because the Blues were a shambles.
The calamities kept coming when Yuri Zhirkov managed to accidentally kick team-mate John Terry in the face.
Terry was down for several minutes and when he finally got back up he was sporting a big cut under one eye.
Even though they were missing knee-injury victim Brede Hangeland, Fulham were comfortably on top at half-time.
And they were dreaming of a famous victory to go along with recent wins over Manchester United and Liverpool.
It could have been even better for them after the break when Ricardo Carvalho seriously undercooked a back pass and Zamora pounced.
But Cech was off his line like a shot and did enough to smother the Fulham striker’s close-range effort.
Mark Schwarzer then denied Drogba with a full-stretch stop.
But he couldn’t stop the Ivory Coast striker’s 73rd-minute header.
Substitute Branislav Ivanovic swung in a cross and Drogba buried it into the far corner.
Two minutes later poor Smalling forced the ball into his own net after Schwarzer palmed sub Daniel Sturridge’s shot on to the defender’s leg.
But even though Kalou hit the crossbar in the dying moments, Chelsea endured a tense finale with Fulham continuing to threaten.

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Express:

CHELSEA KEEPS WILL TO WIN AFTER MOURINHO
Chelsea has kept its will to win after Jose Mourinho
By Tony Banks
Chelsea 2 Fulham 1

JOSE Mourinho will not have been very impressed from his seat in the West Stand. But one thing he will have noticed has survived in this team from the time he was in charge – that will to win.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t even remotely fluent at times. But Chelsea somehow got over the finishing line for only their second win in six league games.
For 48 hours at least they will be five points clear again at the top of the table in this crazy league. And what a crucial five points they might well be.
Didier Drogba signed off for his sojourn in Angola at the African Nations Cup with one crucial goal and a hand in the winner – cruelly going in for an own-goal off the otherwise excellent Chris Smalling 15 minutes from the end.
As the game finished Drogba, who leaves for Africa today, led the entire Chelsea team in a huddle in the middle of the pitch.
There he appeared to give them a pep talk, before throwing his shirt into the crowd and leaving the pitch last, waving farewell.
Infuriating the Ivory Coast star may be – he was off the pitch three times for treatment in the first half alone – but how his team will miss him next month.
Mourinho was watching Chelsea in preparation for his Inter Milan team’s Champions League clash in February. He will have seen a side that is still fundamentally the one he left in September 2007. It was his first visit since then, and what an eventful couple of years they have been. The fans who spotted him cheered his name, and he will have noted how this team have advanced little since he left.
But then the Special One would have seen the momentum building and would not have been surprised at Drogba’s late, late intervention, and the eventual Chelsea victory.
After all, wins like this were par for the course under Mourinho.
It might be premature to call this a potential turning point in Chelsea’s season, but it could well turn out to be.
After 50 minutes of dreadfully sluggish, often sloppy football, Carlo Ancelotti’s team finally turned on the power, Drogba started to play, and they won.
Once again, though, Chelsea made it hard for themselves. It is all nerves and bitten fingernails down at the Bridge these days.
The opening was typical. No sooner had John Terry issued his usual rallying cry in the programme than Fulham were ahead. They went into this game with only one defeat in their last 12 matches, and when Paul Konchesky bombed down the left and opened up the Chelsea defence there was a clue why.
Terry failed to clear the cross and it dropped invitingly for Zoltan Gera, and the Hungarian slotted it into the net. Here we go again were the groans.
Chelsea were fuddled and sluggish, their delivery into the area poor, while Fulham were superbly organised.
Ancelotti had made six changes from the side that drew at Birmingham, and it looked like his tinkering might be backfiring.
Chelsea knew that dropped points could even have seen them drop to third place by Wednesday night, when both Manchester United and Arsenal next play.
That might have been a deeply wounding blow, especially with Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien joining Drogba on the plane to Angola today.
But the indomitable machine that Mourinho built still functions, and gradually they ground Fulham down. Chances came and went as Terry missed from close in and Mark Schwarzer saved brilliantly from Drogba.
But eventually the Cottagers cracked. This time the cross into the area was accurate from substitute Branislav Ivanovic and finally Drogba shrugged off the valiant Smalling to head home.
Two minutes later Kalou crossed, Drogba cracked the ball back in at the far post and it bounced in agonisingly off Smalling as he tried to hack clear. It was the last thing the former Maidstone player, making his first league start, deserved.
Kalou almost added a third with a shot that clipped the bar. Jose would have been spitting at some of the sloppiness, but he would have admired the spirit.

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Mirror:

Chelse 2 Fulham 1
Martin Lipton

When a win takes a side five points clear, it is hard to get your head around the idea that it might have been a decisive turning point.
Yet for Carlo Ancelotti, a victory chiseled out of the rocks of a potentially crushing defeat, with arch-nemesis Jose Mourinho watching on, could prove to be precisely that.
With 17 minutes left and Chelsea still trailing to Zoltan Gera’s early opener, Ancelotti’s side were suddenly facing crisis point.
Not only would it have been one win in six and 12 points dropped from 18.
But at that point, they faced the prospect that the next time they kicked a ball in the Premier League - with Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien all out in Africa - they would have been third behind Manchester United and Arsenal.
Chelsea managers have been sacked for less, even ones recruited at Roman Abramovich’s insistence, and as James Bond fan Ancelotti decided diamonds were for 45 minutes rather than for ever, the Italian was genuinely under pressure.
His side, even with Kalou and Joe Cole playing as auxiliary wingers, were getting frustrated by Fulham’s stoic resistance, desperation efforts from distance hinting at their lack of conviction, too many moves petering out before getting a sight of Mark Schwarzer.
But out of nowhere, Ancelotti’s changes worked their magic to transform the mood of the afternoon, the confidence of the Chelsea dressing room - and perhaps the tide of the season.
First Branislav Ivanovic, thrown on and asked to bomb down the right, delivered Chelsea’s first decent cross of the afternoon, which found Drogba soaring behind Chris Baird to power home his 19th of the season.
Baird had moved there when John Pantsil was forced off with a potentially season-ending knee injury.
And then three minutes later, the pivotal moment, a heartbreaking one for Fulham’s rookie centre-half Chris Smalling as the Northern Ireland international was again caught out of position.
Smalling, drafted in for his Premier League bow to replace Brede Hangeland, had been outstanding and was in exactly the right position when Schwarzer parried unmarked substitute Daniel Sturridge’s cross-shot.
But it meant Smalling could do nothing as the ball rebounded goalwards off his knee, his desperate efforts to recover only succeeding in ensuring the ball ended up, cruelly, in the back of his own net.
Suddenly, an afternoon which could have begun the real problems for Ancelotti - bringing a smile to Champions League rival Mourinho’s face from his berth in the West Stand - was transformed, even though there were still moments of doubt in front of a hesitant Petr Cech.
Ancelotti knew it could have been very different and the jeers that had thundered round the Bridge at half-time may have been repeated and intensified had Bobby Zamora capitalised on Ricardo Carvalho’s woeful back-header two minutes after the interval.
At that stage, no question, Fulham were value for their advantage.
The goal could not have been more simple in construction, as Ancelotti’s decision to change half his outfield side, including three of the back line, left Chelsea disjointed and behind.
Ancelotti was still screaming at Paulo Ferreira for not blocking off Paul Konchesky’s run down the left when the full-back’s cross was headed against Zamora by John Terry.
But what followed was criminal, a complete lack of reaction from the Blues' defence, allowing Gera to run back, turn and hook past the laboured dive of Cech.
Chelsea looked to respond but it was all one-paced, with no penetration down the flanks and Drogba having one of those halves when he spent more time off the pitch requiring “treatment“ than actually looking to expose Hangeland’s novice stand-in Smalling.
Frank Lampard tested Schwarzer from distance, while Drogba - who became embroiled in a running spat with John Pantsil - fired at the keeper.
Those two moments apart, though, Chelsea did not look like breaking Fulham down and had Cech not flipped Clint Dempsey’s side-footer over the bar it might have been beyond salvation.
It surely would have been when Zamora wasted his opening and while Chelsea, now operating in a 4-3-3, dominated, they were running out of ideas when Drogba produced his going away present.
Kalou was the width of the bar away from claiming a third but despite a few edgy moments at the back, Chelsea clung on to put the ball firmly back in United and Arsenal’s court.
Unconvincing, but top and with clear Blue water between them and the pack.