Fulham claimed a superb first win for Alvaro Arbeloa with a dominant 3-0 win over AFC Wimbledon in the League Cup tonight, featuring finely-worked goals for Emile Smith Rowe, Rodrigo Muniz, and a second of the campaign for new signing Gonzalo Garcia. Though the result was expected, Fulham’s manner of victory was terrific, capturing the positive attacking football Arbeloa’s approach aims to develop with us. One hopes the performance, however large the gulf between the sides is, kickstarts the league campaign - more outings like this will prove a huge lift for everyone at the club, and give the squad fresh energy for the season ahead.
First Half
You’d always hope to start strongly against League One opponents, but any Fulham fan can point to a history of miserable performances - or worse - in cup ties involving the lower leagues. Arbeloa’s side began positively, Sessegnon and Tete advancing alongside Kevin and Bobb to trouble their fullbacks and put considerable numbers into Wimbledon’s half. This ensured Wimbledon’s presence beyond their defence was limited - enabling the obvious pattern of Fulham possession would have minimal respite in the form of Wimbledon counter-attacks. Naturally, Muniz became our target in a packed Wimbledon box, with Sweeney taking charge of annulling the threat of our Brazilian forward. Chances flowed freely, right from the start. Kevin and Sess fired crosses into Muniz, though early efforts only managed a De Fougerolles volley into the stands.
Wimbledon weren’t completely subdued, though. Hippolyte offered some menace, using his speed to lift a ball over our defence for Maycock - Sessegnon’s quick-thinking diverted the attempted effort from coming close to goal, and an eventual Yiadom volley from the corner was caught by Lecomte. The dangers of giving incentives to opponents like this were clear - in a brief spell Hippolyte was involved again shortly afterwards, taking a ball from Seddon and whipping it through our defence into the box. He reacted quicker than De Fougerolles and poked the ball towards the goal, beating Lecomte’s dive but too wide to tuck into the far post.
Such worries sharpened our own approach. Smith Rowe had some sprightliness to his game, moving fluidly around the pitch and involving himself across several stages of play. A lovely pass from De Fougerolles across the defence let Smith Rowe move into the box dangerously. Like a gazelle he turned from Seddon in synchronicity with the ball’s bounce, defying the defender to get into shooting position - however, the centre-back had enough time to slide and deflect the shot wide. Intelligently moving into the space left by Muniz, he found another shot shortly afterwards; a Charles ball lifted into the striker was rushedly cleared by Sweeney throwing a foot up, letting Smith Rowe volley the rebound narrowly wide of the post. His Brazilian teammates might have scored from his creative abilities - a quick reaction from Sweeney’s clearance of a decent ball in from Reed was headed back into danger by the playmaker, Muniz defied again by Sweeney’s tireless efforts, and a pass fed to the striker from a deeper position met a similar conclusion.
This pressure was immense for Wimbledon, and the cracks in their back-five tipped the ship by the 37-minute mark. Bobb, lingering in midfield, unlocked the right flank with a nice pass to Tete, taking the full-back beyond Steven Sessegnon. His cross looped towards the far post, where Sessegnon’s leap offset Tilley enough to move the ball back centrally to the goal. Who should be there but Emile, darting into the box to head the ball into the net, too close for Bishop to stop. 1-0 gave Fulham an extra zip, passing their way towards half time - and a second goal was soon to come. A stylish turn from Kevin on the far-left saw him elude Tilley and Maycock, playing the ball back a few yards to the unmarked Reed perched on the edge of the box. His swinging ball in needed a diversion from Steven Sessegnon, winning yet another corner - through it, a nice piece of teamwork from Bobb and Tete let the fullback cross into the box again, curled onto the domineering head of Muniz and knocked beyond the keeper. 2-0; a good reflection of a solid half of football.
Second Half
What do you do when leading comfortably against third-tier opponents? You can’t expect to canter to a win, because the security of a two-goal cushion shrinks quite rapidly if your opponent sneaks a goal in. Indeed, a pull from Tete on Hippolyte earnt a booking, and a chance for Wimbledon to sting us early in the half - though their eventual set-piece was poor, producing an unthreatening offside and little else, the pathway was still there. Arbeloa chose to give a half to Macaulay Zepa, the latest from our excellent academy.
We’d actually had the first chance of the half, Sessegnong finding Muniz, who knocked the ball down for Smith Rowe, the Arsenal prodigy unable to keep his first-time shot from flying over the bar. Zepa provided the first “Hollywood” moment of Muniz’s season, stepping onto his left and curling the ball towards Muniz at the far post, but watching on as the striker’s overhead kick sailed into orbit. Hippolyte, starved of the action and perhaps inspired by Muniz’s antics took his own speculative effort, taking a long shot from considerable distance - a powerful, curly strike that looked decent but spun over the bar. Kevin linked nicely with Sessegnon to produce corners, and did force Bishop into a save at the near post, but he was upstaged - Zepa was the man making the moves, blasting along the wing with frightening pace and offering more of a threat to Bishop’s goal. A rapid bolt of a run took him away from the Wimbledon left-back, needing a low Sweeney block to be stopped, and the keeper did similar when threatened again moments later.
At the back, De Fougerolles impressed with his game-reading, staying alert to ward the quiet Sasu from getting through on goal and sliding brilliantly to cleanly swipe the ball from Hippolyte’s feet - yet he hurt his hamstring in the process, and was duly substituted. Bassey having already swapped for Andersen meant Charles moved to centre-back, giving Reed greater responsibilities in midfield with Nwoko taking a more attacking position. It didn’t disrupt the flow of our attacks - we were confident, moving the ball elegantly with sharp interplay and boasting speed and verve as we moved around the pitch. Whatever response Wimbledon’s substitutes offered was undercut by our own changes, Palacios and Garcia joining the action to sustain the quality in the closing stages of the game.
Nwoko started a rare counter-attack for us by releasing Smith Rowe, who needed a quicker response from Zepa on the ball - his eventual pass to Tete led to Sessegnon getting the angle wrong from his header. The winger’s control was better shortly afterwards, enjoying a nice exchange with Tete and curling an effort narrowly wide of goal. With Charles providing visionary passes from deep, Palacios linking intricate passes to his attackers and Garcia adding some gusto to our attacking movement, the third goal came closer - a Smith Rowe shot from a Garcia knock-down was denied by the arm of Yiadow, a Zepa lay off to Tete sailed wide, a multi-pass move in the box was sidefooted wide by the Spanish striker and Nwoko’s drive and shot into a crowd all came close to making the difference.
But it was Wimbledon’s roll of the dice that made the difference. They’d thrown attackers on, full-back Tilley departing for the more offensively-minded Nkeng and Wimbledon breaking from their defensive rigidity more. Steven Sessegnon had bent a shot wide and a Stockley shot forced Lecomte into a save for a corner, putting Wimbledon bodies across our final third… but such a situation can be fatal when against players of our talent. Zepa, ever the runner, collected a loose ball, feeding the ravenous Garcia; he cruised through a depleted half, moved beyond Sweeney, knocked the ball past a hapless Bishop surging from goal and accurately guided it into the open net from a tight angle. At last, 3-0 - almost four, if a delectable move through Nwoko, Garcia and Palacios had been converted by Zepa, but a Bishop save ensured the score remained the same.
Free-flowing Fulham
We’ve lived through enough dismal evenings in this competition to celebrate this one. Smith Rowe, perhaps threatened by the continued growth of Joshua King, had an evening in the spotlight, taking chances, pulling the strings and moving nicely around the attack to make himself key to our attacks. He’s never quite established himself as a key player for us but in this new era the breeziness of this performance has to be maintained across more of his outings. The same goes for Muniz - perhaps behind Garcia in the pecking order but clearly still a menace in these fixtures for defenders, and with time to refine his finishing a source of many a goal.
The wingplay was stupendous. Tete demonstrated his capabilities in attack with an inspired evening working around Bobb and Zepa; Castagne will have to work hard to keep his place ahead of the Dutchman, however successful his World Cup was. Sessegnon, on the other hand, may wonder when he will get a chance starting at LW for us - with fewer defensive pressures his pace unlocked the defence frequently with Kevin, and given the Brazilian’s struggles to connect his on-the-ball footwork with killer passes and shots one wonders if Sess and Robinson could be an option worth trying on the left flank. It was really refreshing to see Zepa do the same off the bench - there will be plenty of time to refine his finishing, but the raw pace should be something that gets him around the squad for these cup games, and he linked well with his teammates when called upon.
Possession was a staple under Marco Silva, and Arbeloa looks to be advancing this. I was impressed by Reed, who led the team well in midfield, and moreso of Charles, distributing possession with a liquid smoothness, even when asked to sit at centre-back. Regardless of the opposition having confidence in the patterns of play builds nicely for the future, and players capable of filling these roles will help consolidate our control and foothold when taking the lead. It is a shame De Fougerolles hurt himself in the second half - his passing vision gave us a route to goal from the back, and he exorcised any lapses in concentration following the Maycock first half chance that might have given Wimbledon the opportunity to strike a damaging blow. We should stress that Wimbledon were not bad competitors by any means, and gave a valiant effort given their disadvantage in the game; Sweeney gave a good account of himself, Hippolyte gave Tete a few things to consider and the substitutes like Nkeng and McCoy-Splatt had more of a threat for us to manage in the closing stages of the game.
Ultimately though it was Fulham’s solid work that produced the victory and should leave us excited going forward. I will reassert the importance of winning these games convincingly - it bestows positive energy upon the team, gives crucial minutes to squad players in situations that let them play progressive football over desperately seeking a win (doubling as a rest for first-team starters) and critically puts Fulham one small step closer to that elusive search for a trophy. Sunderland will be a major step up in quality, but why go into the game fearing the worst? If we can play like this, a world of possibility lies at our doorstep. I am starting to believe Arbeloa can be the one to unlock it.
Great report and encouraging