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Joao Pedro followed up his goal in the thrashing of West Ham United with the opener at Stamford Bridge, heading home from Fernandez's left-sided corner nine minutes into first-half stoppage-time.

A lengthy period of additional time came after referee Robert Jones had overturned Josh King's breakaway strike after a video assistant referee (VAR) review, in what would have been his first goal for Fulham.

Rodrigo Muniz's foul on Trevoh Chalobah in the build-up was spotted after a VAR review, and another similar intervention brought Chelsea's second goal after 56 minutes.

Fernandez converted from the penalty spot after Ryan Sessegnon was deemed to have handled Chalobah's attempted cross, but Fulham felt Joao Pedro had also used his arm moments before.

Joao Pedro and Estevao both went close to a late third goal before the former cleared off the line from Sander Berge in the closing stages.

A first home win of the season moved unbeaten Chelsea top of the table, at least temporarily, on seven points, while Fulham is 14th on two after its first defeat of 2025-2026.

Fulham boss Marco Silva fumed at the decisions made by VAR.

"I love football. Of course, I am here as the Fulham manager, but for someone who loves football as a manager, as a former football player, and sometimes as a fan, when I come and watch the game, I feel sad," Silva said.

It is the second week the Cottagers have been involved in controversy surrounding VAR, having given away a penalty against Manchester United while also having a spot-kick appeal waved away for a similar reason.

"It is clear. It is a special game for everybody. It's the best competition in the world with millions of people watching," Silva continued.

"I saw my team play outstanding football in the first half, playing football, not trying to be fake or going in the direction of coming here to park the bus.

"We know the difference on the pitch from the financial point of view. They are on a different planet, but on the pitch we know what we are capable of, and I think we showed that.

"After what happened last week with us, all of that controversy in the game against Manchester United and all the decisions from VAR, people cannot understand.

"One time it goes in one direction, and then the other it goes in a different direction. Similar things for the opposition and for us as well. We are here to learn and help our players understand things, but if there is no direction, it is impossible to feel that it will be balanced.

"Performance-wise, outstanding first half. All the decisions by VAR and the referee made a massive impact on the game. And the second was not at the same level.

"I told them we cannot control the decisions because they were against us. But how you disallow a goal like that is unbelievable. We have meetings with the people in charge and one of the main things is that VAR is not here to referee the game.

"It is to help see things clearer. There was not something unbelievable to rule out the goal. I prefer not to talk about it any more because I will be punished, and I want to be on the bench on the next game. I don't want to be fine. I want to help my players."

For Chelsea, it was another impressive showing for summer signing Joao Pedro, who got the scoring underway with a header from a corner in first-half stoppage-time.

"I am very happy, but I think I need to keep working hard to help this team," Joao Pedro said. "I need to improve every day to keep what I am doing.

"Now is a break and I go to the Brazil squad. I need to keep working hard.

But the forward acknowledged the difficulties his team were under against Fulham, which more than played its part in the opening exchanges. 

"The gaffer told us Fulham were a good team. If we won the first and second balls, we had a good chance to win the game," Joao Pedro added.

"We didn't start very well, but we scored and had half-time to organise the team. When I scored, the team had more time to organise and then go to half-time."

It was not all smiles for Chelsea, which was forced into an early change after Liam Delap appeared to injure his hamstring when chasing a ball in behind.

"Liam Delap is expected to be out for six to eight weeks because of this type of injury," Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca confirmed.