For forty five minutes, Fulham blunted Manchester City’s considerable attacking arsenal and looked to have given themselves a chance of escaping the relegation zone this evening. But, in the sort of implosion that characterised their disastrous start to the season, Scott Parker’s side conceded three goals in thirteen second half minutes as Pep Guardiola’s charges strolled to a comfortable victory at Craven Cottage and moved seventeen points clear at the top of the table.
The manner of Fulham’s meek capitulation after the break will have disappointed Parker, especially after their diligence and determination had stoutly kept the visitors at bay in the first half. Their hard won parity lasted just 76 seconds once Andre Marriner had harshly penalised a Joachim Andersen challenge close to the right touchline. Fulham’s high defensive line has served them well since Parker reshaped his rearguard, but it allowed a rejuvanated John Stones to saunter unimpeded onto Joao Cancelo’s cross and put City in front.
Another calamity wasn’t long in coming. Ivan Cavaleiro, deployed as a wide forward in a system designed to contain the champions’ elect, wandered aimlessly infield and towards a sea of opponents. His anxious pass played Andersen into trouble and the Danish defender’s desperate attempt at a clearance, cannoned off Cavaleiro and allowed Gabriel Jesus a clear run on goal. The Brazilian breezed round a stranded Alphonse Areola and rolled home his twelve league goal of the campaign. Tosin Adarabioyo then made the wrong sort of impression against his former employers, attempting a dragback on the edge of his own box and presenting the ball to Ferran Torres, before clipping the winger inside the area. Sergio Aguero, a regular scourge of Fulham, gleefully dispatched the penalty – scoring his first league goal in fourteen months.
The rest of the game was something of a training exercise, which would have suited Guardiola, who rested a number of key players ahead of their Champions’ League commitments against Borussia Moenchengladbach on Tuesday night. The visitors stroked the ball around confidently and might have added to their lead, with the hosts still guilty of overplaying in their own final third. Fulham flickered briefly with their three substitutes to the fore. Aleksandar Mitrovic produced a peach of a ball to free Josh Onomah, who was denied a consolation by a combination of Ruben Dias and Ederson. Antonee Robinson made a couple of threatening runs down the left flank, but barring one blocked Mitrovic shot there was little in the way of penetration.
Parker’s plan to outwit the runaway leaders had looked promising early on. Both Ademola Lookman and Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa got themselves into the space behind City’s three centre backs, but Fulham’s one concerted period of pressure ended in frustration – chiefly because a succession of crosses were aimed towards Lookman, who was outnumbered and hardly a towering presence in any case. Areola made a couple of smart saves at his near post from Torres and Aguero but the hosts were largely untroubled – even hinting at an attacking threat of their own when Kenny Tete almost sneaked onto a deep cross from the left, but the bounce proved unfavourable.
Parker will need to quickly switch Fulham’s focus away from their dreadful second half defending and onto a home meeting with Leeds United on Friday night. Their excellent recent run offers genuine hope that they can avoid the drop but they will need to offer more in attack, with Josh Maja – omitted in favour of a conservative approach this evening – likely to return.
FULHAM (4-3-3): Areola; Tete, Aina, Andersen, Adarabioyo; Reed, Lemina (Onomah 73), Anguissa; Loftus-Cheek (Mitrovic 63), Lookman, Cavaleiro (Robinson 80). Subs (not used): Fabri, Hector, Kongolo, Ream, Bryan, Maja.
MANCHESTER CITY (3-4-1-2): Ederson; Stones, Dias (Garcia 75), Laporte; Cancelo, Mendy, Rodri, Bernado Silva (Fernandinho 67); Torres; Aguero, Jesus. Subs (not used): Steffen, Walker, Zinchenko, Gundogan, de Bruyne, Foden, Mahrez.
GOALS: Stones (47), Jesus (56), Aguero (pen 60).
REFEREE: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).
VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREE: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire).
Easy to forget this game. Was always an unlikely source of points. Our fate will be decided in other games.
That said, if you overplay like that sooner or later you are going to make a mistake. Trying to ‘out football’ Man City from our own 6 yard box was suicide. No idea why we thought that was a good idea.
Plenty of chances to get the points we need coming up.
Didn’t expect to get anything from this game but hoped that we could, at least, give City a good game.
Much is being made of our first half performance but, in reality, we created absolutely nothing and Loftus Cheek was, once again, anonymous in a more forward role.
Hard to think that anybody could actually perform worse than him but, lo and behold, for the umpteenth time this season, Cavaleiro rose to the occasion and produced a performance that was truly, breathtakingly awful.
Therein lies our problem. Even if all of our loanees perform magnificently -as they have sone to date -for the rest of the season, it is the same players letting us down game after game and we have nobody on the bench that is capable of replacing them.
Even if we stay up and successfully turn loans into permanent deals, we still need to replace players like Cavaleiro who has consistently proven that he just isn’t up to Premiership standard.
We now need to cross our fingers and toes that other results go our way, put this game behind us and regroup.
We lost today because of individual errors and one young player-playing against his childhood club and wanting, obviously, to impress-having a nightmare. Such is life! Tosin has been magnificent all season so he just needs to dust himself off and go again-as does the rest of the team.
A Nightmare 15 minutes at the start of the second half. Toshin had his worst match for Fulham against his former club. We offered nothing up front. Forget about Loftus Cheek a continual waste of space. Until Cairney is fit play D Reed or Omaha in that position. Start with Mitro. When he came on at least he could hold the ball up. If he can score one goal it could help him to regain his confidence. not sure what Scottys love affair is with Cavaleiro, who may be OK as a substitute but nothing more. Maybe consider Bryan who can deliver a good cross. A few changes for the Leeds match and lets gets back to winning. Hopefully without Loftus Cheek and Cavaleiro starting.
City deserved the win, but once again a dodgy refereeing decision paved the way. The goal from that foul that wasn’t knocked Fulham sideways.
Agree that RLC and Cav should never be in another Fulham team. Parker has done a remarkable job turning Fulham around but seems to have a complete blind spot as far as those two are concerned.
I just wanted to add my total agreement that Loftus Cheek should not be in the team and Cavaleiro on the bench at best. One of the younger players should be considered as an option. Otherwise little else in the way of team selection should change, although personally I would like to see Mitro given another chance. Put it down to a bad day at the office which should be put behind us and not look forward to planning to beat Leeds.
Echoing the above, especially re Cav being at best a sub; re Tosin prob wanting to impress and re Mitro making a difference.
Mitro seemed to want to feed others not just glory hunt. Any defender looking at videos of Lookman, and particularly Cav, would see that the way to defend is not to worry about cut backs or crosses: that makes their chice of how to defend easier.