Graham Potter couldn’t have wished for an easier opening night as the new West Ham manager at the London Stadium. Fulham, on a nine-match unbeaten run, gifted the Hammers three goals in a comedic defensive display and failed to make their periods of dominance pay as they lost a five-goal thriller in east London. Potter’s new side made light of the lack of a striker as Carlos Soler capitalised on a dreadful ball across his own box from Andreas Pereira to give the hosts the lead against the run of play, Tomas Soucek punished some sloppy Fulham defending to make it 2-0 minutes later before Lucas Paqueta pounced on a poor back pass to restore the two-goal lead after Alex Iwobi had halved the visitors’ arrears.
It left Marco SIlva seething silently on the touchline – but, in many ways, this was the story of Fulham’s season. The Portuguese head coach has taken his side further than many would have imagined following the departure of Joao Palhinha, but faced with another winnable fixture that might have put them in the European conversation, the Whites wilted. All three goals were dreadful examples of Fulham’s failure to play the percentages, but the first arrived after the visitors had enjoyed more of the ball and spurned several opportunities to take the lead.
Silva’s side – showing five changes from the strong eleven that saw off Watford in the FA Cup last Thursday – began brightly and might easily have been ahead in the fifth minute. Iwobi floated a cross in from the left that Harry Wilson cracked against the crossbar as he found a pocket of space in a crowded penalty area. Robinson then found himself free down the inside left channel after a flowing Fulham break but his shot flashed across the face of goal and wide.
At that point, the Hammers hadn’t even touched the ball in the Fulham penalty area. When they did through, Max Kilman, the ball ended up in Bernd Leno’s net – but the goal was rightly ruled out for offside after a lengthy VAR check. Fulham still seemed in control and there seemed little danger when Pereira collected the ball on the edge of his own box, but the Brazilian aimed a risky pass across the area and, with Leno out of position, gave Soler the simple task of slotting a sidefooted finish into the unguarded net.
That miscalculation was bad enough, but things got even worse two minutes later. Mohammed Kudus latched onto a long ball, played in Solar and the Spaniard’s cross reached Aaron Wan-Bissaka at the far post. The full back’s cut back was side-footed home by a gleefully Soucek – and the Hammers suddenly had conjured up a two-goal lead. Fulham still threatened themselves and Raul Jimenez nodded against the bar at the back post after heading Iwobi’s cross towards the net before the half-time whistle.
The visitors, no doubt fired up by a blunt Silva team talk, reduced the arrears within five minutes of the restart. Iwobi linked up with Robinson down the left and whipped in a cross that eluded Jimenez’s attempted flick, beat Lukasz Fabianski in the West Ham goal and ended up in the far corner. That forced Potter to introduce Danny Ings, who had scored West Ham’s equaliser in stoppage time at Craven Cottage last year. Within moments, Ings pressurised Bernd Leno as the goalkeeper pondered how to distribute the ball at the back and the German’s uncharacteristic error saw him feet only the feet of Paqueta, who rolled the easiest of finishes into the net.
Fulham were still putting a ropey West Ham defence under pressure and made a game of it again with twelve minutes left. The hard working Iwobi worked the space to deliver another dangerous cross, which Wilson tried and just failed to flick goalwards with his head, but the ball beat a committed Fabianski and ended up nestling in the back of the net. That gave the visitors hope that they might nick something after all. Fabianski made a fine save to deny Jimenez and, two minutes into added time, substitute Josh King beat his man to deliver a cross from the by-line that was scrambled away from Jimenez and fell to Adama Traore at the back post. The Spaniard somehow blazed over from four yards out when it looked simpler to score – summing up a frustrating night at the Olympic Stadium for the Whites.
WEST HAM UNITED (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Wan-Bissaka, Emerson (Cresswell 81), Mavropanos, Kilman; Alvarez, Rodriguez (Scarles 81); Kudus (Ings 62), Soucek, Soler (Irving 72); Paqueta. Subs (not used): Foderingham, Coufal, Guilherme, Casey, Orford.
BOOKED: Paqueta, Soucek, Wan-Bissaka.
GOALS: Soler (31), Soucek (33), Paqueta (67).
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Leno; Castagne, A. Robinson, Andersen, Bassey; Lukic, Pereira (Cairney 68); Wilson (King 85), Iwobi (Muniz 85), Smith Rowe (Traore 68); Jimenez. Subs (not used): Benda, R. Sessegnon, Diop, Cuenca, Reed.
BOOKED: Castagne, Lukic.
GOALS: Iwobi (51, 78).
REFEREE: Craig Pawson (Sheffield).
ATTENDANCE: 62,456.
Pereira the game changer
Apart from his error l thought Pereira had an OK game but how many times must we wait for Traore to score… 3 1 on 1s ve Man city and how he missed last night l cannot accept. Yes he has pace and yes his cross for Muniz against Watford was a great assit. Like Pereira his assists are good but assits are not goals and both players do not score enough goals.
Disappointed last night beyond belief but onwards and upwards COYW.
Very disappointing evening and Dan’s report is remarkably measured here.
Completely dominated the first half and ended up 2-0 down. The terrible ball from Pereira set the tone for some very sloppy defending and I think we were the architects of our own downfall for all three goals (Leno’s ball was dreadful).
We also failed to take our chances – once again – and it is another game that we should have won and ended up with nothing. Probably shows how we fall short both in terms of quality and match management.
3-2 triller don’t make me laugh very poor game of football errors many from both sides. We’ve had good season so far but when we lose we’ve put in some poor performances . My big worry is smith Rowe getting in way of king’s development because we paid a lot of money for him, And Andersen who I like sadly looks poor after big money spent. Diop been much better this season. Pereira started rot
Total domination but zero cutting edge. How many times have we seen that?
It seems inevitable that our failure to make the most of our chances will come back and bite us.
And so it proved.
I am Pereira’s biggest critic but I thought he had been playing quite well, following an improved display against Watford.
His stuff up was, IMO, as much to do with Bernd Leno’s mistake for putting him in such a difficult situation.
It was ironic that, in a game where Leno, almost certainly, had less to do than in any other game, he, somehow, managed to have his worst game in a Fulham shirt.
He gets a pass in my book because he is, usually, so excellent.
But to focus on the errors that cost us dearly is only covering up the issues that we have and which really need addressing.
Firstly, almost exclusively, our attacking threat comes from the left via Robinson and Iwobi. On the right, Wilson, for all his running, is incapable of taking a fullback on and can only cut inside onto his left foot.
Castagne, for some strange reason, is reluctant to overlap and I lost count of how many times he passed back to Andersen when in a position to move the play forward.
This gives us a real imbalance.
Secondly, something needs to be done re the anonymity of Smith Rowe. Once again, he did absolutely nothing to aid the cause and his seeming reluctance to chase back or put in the hard yards is a real liability. I am of the opinion that he is going to prove to be a bad buy.
He might give us a half dozen decent performances in a season but he has had long enough now to show us what he is capable of and I’m fed up waiting.
When he is paired with Pereira in midfield, we are up against it from the get go.
Unfortunately, our manager is a very stubborn man and is not the type to admit that he has made a mistake.
Silva’s post match reaction when asked about Pereira’s error, clearly showed a dislike of the player being criticised.
Fortunately, we have Sander Berge to come back and replace one of these two.
Young King embarrassed all of the others by doing what none of them looked capable of doing -getting to the byline, dribbling past defenders on the OUTSIDE and creating a goal scoring opportunity that should have brought the equaliser.
Normally, we bounce back with a renewed purpose after a bad defeat so I am hoping that we put Leicester to the sword.
Oh dear here we go again total domination with no result and no points at this moment we are not good enough to qualify for Europe etc firstly Leno a bad mistake I have not been critical before of Leno but slowly in odd gams he’s made a mess of something The problem is he has no real competition we need another good goalie who going to give Leno some competition and Benda is not that
Anderson does not seem the same player since his injury and the Authoritve side of his play is not there now So Diop has the edge at the moment a really big worry is ESR i have given up on this player I cannot for the life of me see what all the hype was about Arsenal must be laughing there socks off the same with Perreira I am annoyed with Silva now for not getting rid of Perreira and a proven goalscorer which we are desperate for has never been addressed we cannot keep making errors like last night shows how much we miss Tete and Berge Silva must address three Priority problems Perreira,ESR,and a proven goalscorer or the second half of the season will be a none entity
Dan as someone who is at every game home and away I fail to see anything funny about our defending last night. Try schoolboy like, amateurish, inept but certainly not funny. A game we were totally dominating with the opposition penned in their own half wrecked by Pereira’s stupidity. Then when we get back in he game Leno throws it away.
Gutted and frustrated. Hoping for for a professional performance Saturday
As an Irons fan I can agree that you dominated large patches of th game and that defensive errors gave us scoring “opportunity s” which for once we took , however they still needed to be put away and they were… Clinically!
However I would add that both your goals were right at Fabiansky the first of which he managed to shape his body to avoid contact,on any other day it’s quite likely the gifts would have been easily saved by simply watching the ball. We have had several games this year where we have suffered the same,
C. B. – I used ‘comedic’ in the sense of dark comedy/humour. You have to laugh or you’ll cry.
Leno who really has done well this season probably had his worst match in a Fulham jersey
ESR does no even deserve to be on the substitute does nothing and very little effort it makes King in comparison look like an world better let him start. We need Berg back to partner Lukic. Castagne weak compared to Tete and I worry about Andersen who seems to have lost his mojo. Changes are needed for Saturdays match, we cannot be any worse surely!! AT least Perriera put in some effort
Although Pereira’s ball was suicidal, i feel he had a good game. I am still waiting for ESR to show we we invested so heavily on him. Yesterday our downfall was the display at the back, i agree Leno was at fault in both goals. Andersen seems to be out of form, i can’t see in him the commanding defender who made so little mistakes. I think we desperately need another quailty midfielder. When you are chasing the result you cannot look at the bench and see the likes of Reed and Cairney. I m sorry, i know they are club legends, but we need to give our gaffer better options when the result is not coming our way.