There was a fairly hefty inquest into how Fulham let a commanding position at Turf Moor slip from their grasp last Saturday. For seventy minutes, the Whites were controlling a fixture as well as they had done all season only to allow the Clarets back into the contest through a mixture of individual errors and collective collapse. Bernd Leno’s failure to collect a cross gave Vincent Kompany’s side the belief they required to keep pushing until the end but the shambolic nature of the second goal suggested the Whites might have forgotten how to win.
Their quest to get things back on track sees AFC Bournemouth, who handed out a drubbing on Boxing Day, visit Craven Cottage this afternoon. After a slow start, Andoni Iraola’s has moulded the Cherries into a cohesive unit, who play clever, attractive football, and taken his new charges to twelve in the Premier League table. They are defensively disciplined and devastating dangerous in the final third with Dominic Solanke, a regular thorn in Fulham’s side, enjoying a superb season – having hit 15 goals in 26 games. The former Chelsea centre forward is only behind Erling Haaland and Mo Salah in the Premier League goalscoring stakes.
Bournemouth are something of a bogey team for Fulham, with the Whites’ only victory in their last thirteen league fixtures coming after they had been relegated in 2019 when Aleksandar Mitrovic converted a second half spot-kick at Dean Court. The Cherries are unbeaten in their last eight visits to Craven Cottage – a run that stretches back in April 1992 when Gary Brazil and Sean Farrell were on the scoresheet. Fulham’s league form has nosedived since those two fantastic 5-0 wins over Nottingham Forest and West Ham United in December, winning just one seven league games since then. Just as worryingly, Marco Silva’s side have failed to find the net on five of those occasions.
It is clear that the Whites have sorely missed the influence of Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi, who have helped Nigeria reached the final of the African Cup of Nations this weekend. Silva confirmed that Fulham will have to do without Raul Jimenez for perhaps as long as a further ‘five or six weeks’ yesterday. Brazilian striker Rodrigo Muniz broke his Premier League duck at Burnley to put the visitors 2-0 up, whilst Armando Broja – a deadline day loan signing from Chelsea – made his first appearance off the bench. The pair will both be in contention to start this afternoon after Broja recovered from a knock he picked up last weekend to train all week with his new team-mates. There is better news on the injury front for Fulham too with Adama Traoré available for the first time in more than three months and Harry Wilson having recovered from the shoulder he injured against Newcastle United in the FA Cup last month. Kenny Tete, whose airkick gave Burnley the chance to build a crucial attack, is out with an achilles complaint.
Bournemouth will be without the suspended Philip Billing after his red card last weekend as well as Tyler Adams, James Hill, former Fulham full back Ryan Fredericks and Max Aarons. The Turkish centre forward Enes Ünal, who joined the Cherries on loan from Getafe on deadline, will be part of Iraola’s matchday squad. Bournemouth might have failed to win any of their four league games since they beat Fulham 3-0 on Boxing Day, but they have been excellent on the road this term – only failing to find the net once in eleven matches to date – and will provide stern opposition.
MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Castagne, A. Robinson, Adarabioyo, Ream; Palhinha, Cairney; Wilson, Willian, Pereira; Broja. Subs: Rodak, Ballo-Toure, de Fougerolles, King, Reed, Lukic, De Cordova-Reid, Traore, Muniz.
