Late Guehi goal gives Fulham another setback

Wilson wondergoal not enough to avoid 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace

Fulham fans may be casting envious aspersions glances across London tonight, as Crystal Palace climb into the top four of the Premier League with a well-fought 2-1 victory at Craven Cottage tonight. Despite several decent passages of football from us, goals from Eddie Nketiah and Marc Guehi in either half highlighted the gap that exists between us and the football teams truly realising their aspirations of taking the next step to Europe. It’s a tough result for Marco Silva and his team, who have been handed a second home defeat in a row, and the late winner for Palace leaves Fulham staring awkwardly at the rumbles of the relegation battle still too close to dismiss at this stage of the season.

First Half

Formations with three centre-backs are not my favourite, but you can see why Oliver Glasner enjoys it at Palace so much - his team are resilient and resolute, difficult to break down at any moment and well-equipped to stomach even the most fearsome moments in their own box. This squad in particular have physical, athletic and technical attributes in abundance, demonstrated early on through how confidently they dealt with our possession and the string of corners it won. As is the requirement in the modern Premier League, their distribution from the back was swift in response, playing quick passes through Wharton and Kamada to move the focus of play into their attacking pieces.

We had a warning for this before their opener - Guehi’s vision moved the ball to Kamada, who had space away from Iwobi to play a through ball to Mateta, who thankfully couldn’t quite evade Bassey enough to turn his shot into a real challenge for Leno. Unsurprisingly Palace stuck to their strategy, and a few minutes later had a lead. Wharton passed a diagonal ball across the pitch to Mitchell, deep on the left. With time away from Tete, he played the ball back to Guehi, who’d moved forward from the back. A quick pass to Wharton, breathing easily away from Smith Rowe, proved fruitful - the England international kicked a sharp pass into the box for Nketiah, bursting away from Wilson’s lacklustre marking, to take the ball into the space Andersen had left. A strong finish saw him guide the ball under Leno’s dive, and reminded everyone that limp defending would be punished by a team as competent as Palace.

To Fulham’s credit, they didn’t let the game lull. We’d been decent, though unspectacular, in possession prior to the goal, and the setback seemed to fire up the squad. Castagne tucked into the middle from LB to help Berge build up play - whilst not necessarily as dynamic as Sessegnon’s runs, it did help Smith-Rowe fizz around a bit, and produced a smart pass ahead of Lacroix that forced Dean Henderson to tip over Smith Rowe’s lofted shot. Our ball retention was good in this passage, forcing Mitchell and Clyne back alongside their backline, which in turn moved Wharton and Kamada back and isolated their three forwards - we were the team in control of the ball.

Palace resisted for what felt like an age - their defending in close moments is superb, and frequently proved the antidote to our offensive play. They, particularly through their quality defenders in Guehi and Lacroix, have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, draining the danger of Chukwueze’s speedy crosses or Andersen’s long passes. Indeed, they might have extended their lead - another long ball to Mitchell saw him whip a cross into the box. Castagne bolted into the centre to try and cut it out but missed the ball entirely, leaving Clyne completely free on the right. But for a poor first touch, Bassey would have been unable to block the former Liverpool man’s effort on goal.

We would need football of a higher calibre to unpiece a confident Palace defence, and thankfully the mercurial talents of Harry Wilson were on the pitch to do just that. A sequence of passes across the team moved play into Palace’s half, pinning them into their final third. Iwobi moved the ball to Tete, forcing Palace’s backline to move into their box and creating space for himself to receive the ball closer to goal. He spotted Wilson hungry for the ball and played an intelligent pass into the centre, through the midfield. Lacroix, sensing the danger, stepped out to try and deal with him - but he’d fallen into Fulham’s trap. The Welshman laid the ball off with the outside of his foot, the newly-liberated Jimenez took a single touch to play it back into Wilson’s path, and with the same bodypart curled the ball over Henderson to level the scores. It was a sensational moment, another pearl for Wilson to add to his growing collection, and fired up Fulham for the closing minutes of the half, confident at the Cottage.

Second Half

Level scores at the break, then, with two sides exhibiting decent football on the whole. Fulham, perhaps still energised from being the most recent scorers, started quickly from the restart, using the energy we’d built to try and put their centre-backs under more pressure. A clever Tete overlap let Wilson feed him ahead of Mitchell, dragging Guehi out of position and into an uncharacteristically careless missed slide tackle - our right-back is not left-footed, though, and sliced his effort well off-target. Seemingly this early trouble for the visitors gave them their own energy burst. Following the same pattern as the first half, Richards played the ball swiftly into Pino on the left, who fed Mateta in the box, only for the striker to drag his shot wide of the post. Moments later, another pass from deep let Nketiah and Clyne unpiece Castagne on our left - Kamada needed to be much slicker pulling the trigger though, and put his shot straight into Berge.

It was a frenetic period in the game, and we sought to take advantage of the destablising effect this had on Palace’s defence. Lacroix got unnerved again trying to step out to deal with Jimenez, who got the ball to Smith Rowe under pressure. Dribbling forward, he shifted it wide to Chukwueze, who curled a brilliant cross over everyone that Iwobi latched onto, thundering a header off the crossbar. And amongst the chaos, with Palace struggling to work out where the ball was, popped Smith Rowe, perfectly positioned to react quicker than Guehi and tap the ball into the net. Yet VAR quashed our newfound lead - a tight offside for Chukwueze eliminated the goal.

Again though, Palace weren’t deterred, continuing to work the ball smartly and ask questions of Fulham’s defence. Bassey had a strong phase of the game, fighting off Nketiah and Mateta to keep Palace’s through balls from amounting to anything. Wharton, advancing further into Fulham territory, had more of an influence, moving the play out wide really nicely - Mitchell almost assisted another goal, firing the ball into the box so quickly that it caused a difficult bobble off the Nigerian centre-back - Pino flicked the ball towards goal but a block from Bassey prevented it from going in, and Tete was on-hand to clear the loose ball from Nketiah and Leno’s collision.

This burst of energy required changes for both sides, and after a Chukwueze cross fizzed narrowly in front of Jimenez at Palace’s end, they arrived. They were not what might have been predicted, though. Glasner withdrew forwards Nketiah and Mateta for Lerma and Uche, moving Kamada to the wings and switching into more of a 5-4-1, whilst the impressive Smith Rowe was taken off for Kevin by Silva, putting overt pace on both wings and moving Wilson closer to Jimenez. It proved an advantage for the visitors - with Lerma in, Wharton and Kamada had more license to think offensively, and spread the ball out to the wingbacks, who themselves had a quicker, fresher target in Uche to aim for. Conversely, Smith Rowe’s departure removed a key attacking piece from the central areas, for the far less precise Kevin.

The effect was clear - whilst Fulham’s chances became fleeting and snatched at, Palace’s moves gave us far more headaches and put more pressure on the defence. Wharton found Kamada on the left, who found Mitchell running down the wings, and his cross narrowly travelled away from Uche - it was a taste of things to come, and compared to Fulham pumping long balls that Jimenez didn’t have the energy to do enough with, meant Palace crept closer to winning the game. It was worsened with our next changes, King and Lukic for Chukwueze and Berge, which unsettled things further. King is great but Chukwueze was a player whose energy actually caused problems for Palace in a physical contest, and Berge was key in soaking up some of the danger lurking around our defence.

At the same time, Palace’s substitutes were shifting the momentum into their hands. Clyne, tired from the pace being thrown at him, was replaced by Canyot, who had the speed to shut down Kevin almost immediately. Our opportunities were now coming through speculative long shots - Wilson couldn’t replicate the magic of the first half with one such effort, assisted by Tete, that travelled comfortably into Henderson’s hands.

The pieces were in place for Palace to take the game from us, and the players - winners - that Glasner has across his team were sure to capitalise. Another smart ball from Kamada was too quick for Lukic, too slow to cut out the pass - Mitchell, once again, had space to take on Tete and navigate down the wing. His cross was really accurate, curled brilliantly around the defence towards Uche - Leno needed to come off his line to shunt the effort out for a corner. The first one, a low kick from Wharton that, after a Guehi dummy, Pino fired off Bassey for a second set-piece, was one last red alert that Fulham failed to heed. The second, taken from the other side by Pino, curled over everyone into the box; Guehi, too strong for King, too quick for Andersen, leapt highest to head the ball over Leno’s flailing arm.

2-1, with minutes to play, and Fulham’s best players of the night were largely on the bench. Cairney and Traore trudged on to try and save the game, but it was far too little to seriously threaten Palace - indeed, once they’d seen off the slow, predictable possession-turned-crosses that Fulham defined the closing stages of the game with, they came closer to extending the lead themselves, as Fulham struggled to muster up anything resembling the energy we had for City in the closing stages. It was a mediocre end to a game that could have been much more, and another defeat to add to the list for Fulham this season.

Foolish Fulham

Where do we start with Marco’s men? Defensive mistakes have really hurt us at times this season, and whilst individually players like Bassey and Tete can point to some really excellent moments across the game, as a team we were far too timid in far too many moments. Fulham fell behind because they didn’t have a grip on what Palace were doing on the ball, and when our possession stopped being as effective, the same areas were causing us problems in the second half. I don’t even think we can pin this on Castagne being unsuited to left-back - whilst there were a few nervy moments from him, more of the danger came from Mitchell on Palace’s left, supplied by Kamada just behind him, which points to poor tracking back from Wilson and flimsy work in midfield particularly when Iwobi and Lukic were there. It caused several near misses across the second half, and led to the late corners (also defended horribly) that Palace won the game with.

Offensively we undid the good work we saw in the first half with some poor tweaks to the system. Chukwueze had a quiet start and probably didn’t benefit from having Berge and Castagne hovering in areas of the pitch Sessegnon would usually be occupying, but he was flying early in the second half and should have been left to continue laying waste to Clyne with Smith Rowe pulling the strings around him. Instead ESR was taken off for Kevin, Chuk was forced to the other wing against the far quicker Mitchell, and shortly afterwards the Nigerian left the game himself.

It massively dented the flow of our game - the obvious change for me was Jimenez, who had worked hard but (understandably) didn’t have the energy to challenge Palace any further and could have been swapped out for Kusi-Asare, who looked promising against City and might have done more in the final stage of the game. Certainly more than Lukic, Cairney and Traore, who took Fulham’s football back a step or ten and almost shot ourselves in the foot towards the end of the game. King, unsurprisingly, was the only one who seemed to understand the requirements of the situation, with the speed and guile to take the ball forward (infuriatingly, the free kick he helped win was squandered by dithering to put the ball in the box!)

Palace for the Champions League?

Compare this to Palace, who had a coherent game plan, players confident enough to stick to the approach even when they made mistakes, and substitutes that reacted to the state of the game. Nketiah was a little out of position on the right but still worked hard and earnt a goal for the team, with a strong finish. Pino played on the left and the right and put insightful passes into dangerous areas, rewarding him with an assist towards the end of the match. Wharton dominated midfield, outlasting everyone we had in the same areas, and worked brilliantly with Kamada and later Lerma to bolster their defence whilst feeding the ball into dangerous areas.

On the topic of the defence, what a setup to have to try and get around - it took a world class move, assist and finish to score just one goal against them, and whilst we did unnerve them for our (ruled out) second they regrouped, sharpened up and shut out any more chances from that point onwards. I often wonder whether Guehi really is as good as the staggering transfer fees linked with him, but he is a colossus for Palace, and his powerful header at the end is a reward for the defensive acumen he exhibited today. His teammates Lacroix and Richards are not far behind him, and whilst they were a little less polished the three work together very well to ease the intensity of the pressure they face.

Mitchell is the unsung man for me though - a terrific left-back (with somehow only two caps for England, keep your eye on him Tuchel) that cruised down the wing all match, against arguably our best defensive player in Tete, and also shut out Wilson, Chukwueze and Traore late on in the game. I was quietly impressed by Canvot, too - the Frenchman was left a minefield to sort out with Clyne facing the heat, and turned it on its head to put runs and energy down the right for Kevin to have to track back and sort out. It’s telling that Fulham’s crosses from the left were taken well outside the box, and were subsequently easy to deal with for Henderson and his teammates.

Palace had too strong a spine for us to overcome over 90 minutes, and much like in the FA Cup last season have three points at the Cottage as a reward. It leaves us in a nervous situation - despite some good performances recently, we are four points above the relegation zone, and play the teams in 17th, 18th and 19th over our next three league fixtures. With two of them enjoying bounces under their new managers (and one the club of former Fulham man Scott Parker), there’s every reason for Silva to drill the importance of this month’s games into the players. It feels unlikely, even now, but you can never take for granted your place in the Premier League, because if the quality present in flashes across the match today doesn’t translate into consistent results, the tendrils of relegation are all too eager to drag your season into the abyss.