Bobb sinks West Ham as Arbeloa’s cup victories continue

Fulham claim 3-2 win but lose lead twice in busy game at the London Stadium

Another round, another victory for Alvaro Arbeloa as Fulham walk away from the London Stadium with a 3-2 victory over West Ham. Two leads were squandered and the defending needs a serious investigation again but our attacking football shone throughout the evening as Oscar Bobb’s first goal in white built on first half strikes from Muniz and Palacios to help the club qualify for the fourth round of the League Cup. Nuno Espirito Santo’s team might be in the Championship but they posed a serious obstacle tonight, and it took some fine play from the team to make their quality count across the game.

First Half

West Ham’s decade of discontent at the London Stadium caught up with them via last season’s relegation but our opponents fielded a side with familiar top-flight faces - we would have a sterner test waiting for us than our dominant victory over Wimbledon. Possession was our early ally, letting an almost entirely changed XI coast through the opening minutes on the ball. Kevin was busy, if a little clumsy, taking on full-back Morato along our right. An early corner won through his footwork saw Reed’s delivery find Smith Rowe in the box, but the playmaker’s effort was tame and comfortably cleared by the defence.

Offering so little only invites pressure though, and Nuno’s men soon met their consequence. A long string of passes unravelled West Ham’s set-up - from Andersen at the back, to Larsson moving the ball through the lines, Muniz shifting play wide and Kevin lifting the ball over Morato and the box to Robinson on the other flank, Fulham reached the box with West Ham unnerved. Palacios ran between an unaware Walker-Peters and Mukasa to penetrate the exposed flank and crossed the ball to an unopposed Muniz, who headed the ball into the gaping net. It was a reminder of the beauty and effectiveness of possession play. West Ham were made to look rudderless and passive through manipulating the ball, and the lead was ours…

…for a couple of minutes, as our wretched defending reared its ugly face again. A long ball from their goalkeeper led to a thoughtless Reed foul on Ajala, the free kick was cleared for a corner, the corner was cleared straight to Engels and at second-attempt the Belgian swung the ball to the far post, where Mavropanos leapt highest to knock the ball back across goal and Morato slammed his header into the goal. It was horrible to watch our defence abdicate any control of the game, letting West Ham swing deliveries into the box without a care until they found their goal, and be it Smith Rowe’s half-hearted attempt to intercept Mavropanos’s assist or the sleepy attitude of our centre-backs for the equalising shot, we’d blown our early advantage.

The ball was still ours, but with a lead squandered Fulham’s football without being ahead in the game felt more frustrating, cumbersome even. A shame, as there was still some nice football to watch, particularly with Palacios enjoying a lively evening. His work combining with Robinson on the left seemed fruitful, taking a Reed ball over the defence and turning into the box to curl a low shot that Herrick had to push out of the box. Another move saw him collect a forward ball from Larsson and drive at the defence with speed, his threaded ball through the centre-backs narrowly missing Smith Rowe. Yet small flaws, be it Kevin’s clumsy footwork or Robinson misplacing his crosses, kept us from restoring the lead. All the while, our vulnerability at the back lay in West Ham’s sights - a ball along the left collected by Ajala in the air was perilously close to producing a penalty, as Andersen barged the striker over on the cusp of the box.

Thankfully fate handed us a lifeline as Engels blasted his free kick over, and the danger seemed to pain Fulham enough to kick into action. Castagne dinked a ball over the midfield for Muniz, who laid it off for Reed; the midfielder took the ball to the box and knocked it forward for Palacios, whose effort was guided away by determined defending from a chasing Walker-Peters. But the route to goal was presented, and Andersen, perhaps seeking atonement for his near-miss, lifted an even deadlier ball over West Ham in entirety, Palacios storming beyond Walker-Peters and quicker than a trailing Orford to enter the box, poking his shot past Herrick into the far-corner.

2-1 could have been three, but for a painful few minutes for Smith Rowe. He’d given away a free-kick on the right in an eerily similar position to Andersen’s earlier, losing the ball to Kante and grabbing his leg in response. Engels kick, thankfully, was caught-well by Lecomte, and the subsequent counter-attack looked terrific, Robinson blasting into their half, playing a one-two with Palacios to overlap behind Walker-Peters and lifting the ball into the box… only for Emile, uncontested by a defender, to misread the bounce of the cross and swipe at thin air. Orford and Kante were not protecting their backline - another aerial ball was collected by Kevin behind them, slipped through to Muniz away from Morato, but the shot wasn’t accurate enough and Herrick used his body to block the shot well.

And at this moment in time, Arbeloa’s side cannot afford to waste chances. A hideous piece of defending between Cuenca and Robinson, in which a miscommunication turned Mukasa’s pass to Ajala into a shot at goal for the striker, needed a sliding block from the centre-back to keep from scoring, to say nothing of the good fortune in Kilman skewing his header from the set-piece wide. What should have been a composed final minutes of stoppage time turned into a farce, as several tame West Ham crosses were swatted away with abandon, Reed at one point slicing his clearance straight to an opponent. It let Nuno’s men set up base around our half, and with no defending to concern themselves with Walker-Peters etched forward for an overlap of his own. Mukasa fed the full-back, with acres of space away from Robinson he crossed the ball into the box, Kante’s flick goalwards was only marginally diverted from goal by Lecomte’s dive and Pablo was alert enough to slam the ball over the floored keeper for the equaliser, to dampen the mood right before the interval.

Second Half

A first half with four goals offered a lot for both managers to work with, but the game had an eerily familiar feel as the second half commenced, and the sight of Kevin fumbling possession against Morato soon stained the pitch. He had energy and pressed well, but his execution on the ball continually let him down, at one point smacking a pass to an unmarked Robinson straight out for a goal-kick. The control of the ball was not matched with a ruthless edge, and the chance to sculpt the half our way wasn’t taken.

Meanwhile, West Ham started to purr. Nuno had introduced captain Jarrod Bowen and former Fulham forward Manor Solomon at the break and after riding Fulham’s early waves their own attacking pieces started to click. Kante, popping up on the right, set the ball up for Bowen to swing a sharp ball into the box. Its bounce only eluded Pablo by a few feet - any touch would have rendered Lecomte unable to catch it. We fired back with another Andersen long ball, Robinson cruising into the box, playing a one-two with a delectable lay-off from Palacios and firing a missile with his weak-foot that Herrick had to tip over the bar. In response, West Ham dealt with our miserable corner and countered, Bowen running with the ball from his own half and needing Reed to track back with him to put the ball out of play.

Arbeloa made his own changes, refreshing his midfield with Charles and newcomer Manuel Angel entering the action, but West Ham’s striker swap saw Castellanos bolster the front-line, and the young Spaniard got a quick taste of life in England, barged off the ball by the striker. From it, a nippy Solomon propelled the hosts along the left, cutting into the box away from Cuenca and wrapping his right foot around the ball to shoot - Castagne slid well to block the shot. Bowen’s corner was good also, finding a lofty jump from Mavropanos, but his header bounced marginally wide of the post. The momentum was theirs, a more fearsome set of forwards prowling around in search of a goal, and with possession finally under their control the game looked likelier to fall to our opponents.

Of course, an advantage being a Premier League side provides is in depth. A bad Smith Rowe challenge on Kante earnt him a booking and a substitution, and with it Fulham’s A-team arrived: Oscar Bobb, Josh King and Gonzalo Garcia all on the pitch. It was as though a switch was flicked - we grasped the ball and the passing patterns reappeared, our energy revitalised with added quality and menace. Cuenca found Garcia in a patch of space and he moved away from Orford, holding off Walker-Peters to blast a show narrowly over the bar. Bobb wriggled along the right in style, linking with King to guide a ball across the box, Marvopanos on-point to stop Garcia’s touch manifesting into a shot. The pressure was mounting, possession winning territory, territory producing attacks, attacks earning set-pieces and the ball stuck in West Ham’s final third. Castagne found a right-sided Palacios on the overlap, the cutback was intercepted by Kante but King’s quick press won the ball back, and from it Bobb activated, dancing into the box with a string of deft touches, cutting onto his left foot to set up the angle and firing the ball at Herrick, unable to readjust his position quick enough to block the goalbound shot.

A third lead in the game as Bobb’s goal made it 3-2, but could we hold onto it this time? A through ball from Garcia to King into the box was shrugged off by Morato, dispossessing our young starlet, and at the other end Solomon’s quick thinking to lay a ball over-the-top to Bowen was spurned as the captain struck the ball into the stands. Nuno introduced Scarles and another forward in Piroe to turn the screw further, but our midfield refresh paid dividends - Charles was attuned to the heightened challenge, putting himself across the pitch with vital disruptions to play and keeping the play flowing for Fulham.

It helped limit the number of opportunities West Ham could forge in the closing minutes, a crucial fact given how close they came to scoring. A Bowen overlap away from Robinson let Walker-Peters play it through to him, moving into the box and playing the ball in front of the exposed defence to an unmarked Castellanos. It was a golden opportunity, but the shot was languid, and Castagne reacted excellently to stick a foot out and block the ball’s path. Indeed, it was our side with the greatest chance as the game reached stoppages, Mavropanos losing the ball with a bad pass to Herrick and needing a fast recovery to stop Palacios pulling the trigger until too awkward an angle to steer it on-target. As one last corner was headed clear, the game came to an end, and progress to Round 4 had been secured.

Promising attack, painful defence

Fulham are in the Premier League and West Ham are not; the quality of the attacking football demonstrates the gulf between the two sides. Cesar Palacios is a player Real Madrid had on their books and it showed - the swift, pacey play along the left, the ease at which he moved into the centre when the opportunity called for it and the fluid nature of his execution contributed to a fine evening of football, setting up Muniz’s goal delightfully and taking Andersen’s pass to make his own one afterwards. If he can build on this performance, he has a lot to offer the team in a number of positions; a MOTM performance.

Of course, the game did need the regular starters to seal the deal, so what about the rest? Muniz has a second goal in as many cup games, and one can never fault his enthusiasm and graft around the pitch, but it is also true that his header was fodder for any striker, and the other chances he had might have been a truer barometer of his finishing. Still, his link-up play was far better than Kevin or Smith Rowe, who endured difficult evenings. An evening of fast feet followed by little else is not only disappointing, but sadly far too frequent for our Brazilian winger. Emile, meanwhile, had a horrible evening, by far the least productive of the attacking unit whilst actively costing Fulham with his tackles at the back. The pair are Number 1 and 3 on our all-time transfer record list; nights like this make it very difficult to write positively about the pair, and though I genuinely believe a world where their enthusiasm, talent and application melds together and makes an interstellar attack for Fulham to unleash exists, it feels increasingly distant when their evenings frequently look like this.

The aforementioned bench did very well though. Bobb has his long-awaited goal and can hopefully use it to embellish his own football - the technical skill that can only come from training sessions with Pep Guardiola was on full display for his goal, and the chemistry he seems to revel in with King and Castagne along the right is surely worth a hatful of goals. I really like seeing Charles in a Fulham shirt - the man lives to stop and own the ball, and seems to be a critical player for us in midfield already. King is obviously brilliant, and Garcia’s energy makes him at worst a workhorse and at best a stallion on the hunt for a goal at any moment. Even Angel, who looked comically outsized early on, grew into the action, and with a little conditioning will be interesting to watch.

Further back, it’s a mixed bag. Larsson was quietly effective, linking play together nicely from deep, and for all Reed’s limitations his graft and determination when he puts on a Fulham shirt is priceless, quite literally keeping the scores level at times tonight. On the other hand, Robinson continues to blow hot and cold, linking really nicely with Palacios but scarcely able to find an attacker in the box, and the ramshackle defending from Andersen and Cuenca all evening made the game far harder than it needed to be. It is quite amazing to be praising Castagne as the best defender of the night but here we are - twice his blocks stopped goals in the second-half, both times covering his teammates’ blushes. If we are going to play the attacking football Arbeloa wants us to the defending has to be more competent, and the players have to be capable of keeping pace with the game - Cuenca and Andersen are a long way off providing that for us at this moment in time.

Instant return for West Ham?

What of West Ham? They provided a contest, and there’s a reason they’re top of the Championship - the team have a lot of quality left over from their Premier League days, and have enough all-round attributes to make the most of any situation. The set-pieces were a constant menace, the pace on the counter was dangerous, and with players like Bowen and Solomon on the wings it only takes a pocket of space for a player to cut-inside and curl the ball into the net. I’ve no doubt the team will be in the running for an instant return to the Premier League - few Championship sides look as well-stocked as West Ham did tonight.

Of course, it is worth tempering this with the fact that we should have gone two goals up on a fair few occasions over the game, in both halves, and put in a comedy of errors to gift an equaliser twice, despite there being feasible routes out of both situations. It was a competitive 3-2 but there was a gulf between the two sides, and Fulham should not let West Ham’s name distract from the fact their performance could have sent them out of the cup with fate landing another way.

I think, therefore, we can be pleased with the result tonight, but curious about the future. On the plus side, Arbeloa has navigated two cup victories, utilising his squad to get gametime for a lot of players and settle into his way of playing, all whilst having the team score numerous goals and look attractive in the process. On the other, the team needs some consistency to fix the litany of defensive errors happening in each game, and will need the whole squad to pitch in if it wants to find victories outside early round cup games against second-tier opponents. It’s a positive result tonight though, and we shall have to see if a tougher test lies next when the draw is made.