Cottage POV

Well, another fixture out of the international break and another metaphorical shitting of the bed. Going back to last season and having a break followed by a 3-3 draw at Sheffield United and a 3-0 loss at Nottingham Forest, Fulham have similarly been subpar this season with a 3-1 loss at home to Aston Villa; our previous worst performance of the season whilst West Ham nicked a point at the death at the Cottage. Fulham have squandered 3 home advantages after international breaks with sloppy performances and will be thankful there’s now not another until March.

Fulham actually started the game fairly decently, were the better side in the opening exchanges and would be forgiven for feeling a little hard done by to not be ahead at the half. Raul Jimenez struck the bar before Alex Iwobi’s terrific opener, a left footed curler that seemingly had Calvin Bassey shocked his left peg had that in its locker. Fulham were showing their typical impetus albeit probably lacking the intensity of Crystal Palace and Brentford but Mario Lemina picked out an inch perfect pass which was brought down by the brilliant Matheus Cunha and a composed finish had Wolves level at the break.

As I say, Fulham were good for the first 20 minutes or so but the game got very lacklustre, very quickly and Wolves had a couple of moments of technical excellence. The pattern followed in the second half, Fulham below par and the visitors pounced as the cool Cunha found Joao Gomes who slotted home with aplomb. Fulham huffed and puffed but never felt like equalising bar Harry Wilson’s effort from the edge of the box striking the bar taking Fulham’s woodwork tally to two for the afternoon. After Marco Silva rolled the dice and used all 5 subs, Joachim Andersen had to be subbed with some form of calf injury and had to go down to 10 men. Mateus Cunha then curled a stunner to send the away fans into rapture for Wolves to secure back-to-back wins and go 4 undefeated after a rough fixture list to start the season was met with expected results. They added a fourth and there’s not much to say really.

Wolves put in a picture perfect Premier League away performance. They shut us down completely helped by an imperious performance from former Fulham man Mario Lemina. Perhaps the most understated of the Scott Parker relegation squad when we talk about how talented that team was that went down with a whimper and didn’t try to attack games, Lemina was a solid player and has shown at Wolves that he is a quality Premier League footballer. Filling in at centre half, he was his typical combative whole hearted self with him, Joao Gomes and Matheus Cunha providing the spine and foundation that a terrific team performance was built upon. I’ve disrespected Gary O’Neil over the years and I’m still not totally convinced but they did do an absolute job on us today; fought and earned all 3 points.

Looking more at Fulham, Sander Berge was nowhere to be seen and I’ve not seen anything as to why he wasn’t in the match day squad. Sasa Lukic had to put in 90 minutes despite Marco Silva saying he may not be capable of it and seemingly he was playing midfield on his own with subpar performances from both Andreas Pereira and Emile Smith Rowe as Fulham struggled against Wolves’ defensive set up. It would certainly be too far to call him, or anyone, a man of the match contender though. Fulham struggled to create, were sloppy and got outfought across the fixture.

For Fulham, it’s a daunting run of games in December but more immediately the next 4 contain a trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before hosting Brighton and then Arsenal on a Thursday – Sunday – Thursday schedule rounding up the set of four with a trip to Anfield. All 4 teams sit in the top 6 and 3 won their most recent games this past weekend with Liverpool to play Southampton today. December will shake the table out and will decide what a lot of teams are playing for in the new year for the final half of the season. The overall performance this season suggests there’s reason to believe that yesterday was a one off; happy to write off and onto the next.

Here’s to December… Up the Fulham.