Izuchukwu OkosiChelsea beat Fulham 2-0 to win the inuagural edition of the Premier League Summer Series on Sunday evening at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, USA.
Starring a lot of youngsters from kickoff barring captain Thiago Silva and goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, the Blues shoes plenty of promise albeit news broke during the game of the club’s acquisition of Axel Disasi, the AS Monaco centreback of African descent.
For Fulham, Nigeria international, Calvin Bassey made his debut for the Cottagers as he came on in the second half.
After Aston Vila’s 3-3 draw with Brentford earlier in the day, Chelsea knew only a victory would be enough to be crowned champions due to Villa’s stronger goal difference.
But a much-changed Chelsea team took control of a west London derby on US soil thanks to first-half goals from Thiago Silva and Christopher Nkunku.
Thiago Silva’s goal was a header from a Ben Chilwell corner, while Nkunku’s came from close range after Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno could only parry Carney Chukwuemeka’s shot into his path.
It was Nkunku’s second goal of the tournament and his third since signing.
Chelsea started 19-year-old American goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina but Fulham could not seriously test him or substitute goalkeeper Lucas Bergstrom, managing only one shot on target all match.
There was a welcome boost for Fulham fans, though, as Raul Jimenez and Calvin Bassey both played for the first time following their arrivals from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ajax respectively.
However, both teams suffered injury blows, with captain Tom Cairney going off for Fulham with a suspected hamstring injury, while Trevoh Chalobah only lasted 15 minutes having come on as a second-half substitute.
Chelsea’s win means they end the tournament with two wins and one draw, and remain unbeaten in pre-season under Mauricio Pochettino. They have one match remaining, against Borussia Dortmund on 2 August, before their Premier League opener at home to Liverpool on 13 August.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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