Positives and Negatives: Fulham 0-2 Man City

Our favourite end-of-season fixture returned to haunt us again as City put in another dominant performance to secure their expected Champions League ambitions in the Premier League.

Ending the season with a respectable 11th place finish, Fulham had already secured their highest ever points tally. With this match signalling the end of some Premier League greats, it was a special occasion that we should view as the marking of a bloody entertaining season with some incredible days out given to us fans. Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of our last match of the season.

Positives

Captain Tom

Ah… seeing Tom Cairney come out onto the Craven Cottage pitch as club captain in the starting XI sent shivers down me. A final game to celebrate his incredible 10-year Fulham career in style? Or one last opportunity to showcase his current skills to the Fulham higher-ups in one last plea to get the contract offer he desires with Marco Silva’s backing.

Regardless of the outcome, this was a really special occasion, and it was so good to see cool-headed Tom hungry for the ball as always in the centre of the park. His desire to be in possession in high-pressure situations was outstanding and he was such a calming presence in a high-intensity game against an always-threatening City press. He did himself proud, while it wasn’t perfect, it was Tom Cairney class. Brentford was the final time I saw him, and he made that day so special for us all with that wonderful headed goal and brilliant performance. Today also saw us depart with Stuart Gray, also marking a 10 year career as part of the Fulham coaching staff through all of the highs and lows of our club. Whatever the future holds, thank you Tom and Stuart.

Outstanding outings

Some players really raised their game to another level today, one in particular who I admit to criticising on many occasions this season, was Alex Iwobi. I think this may have been my absolute favourite display of his. The way he was fearlessly taking on City players, using skill to slip through two opposition defenders on more than one occasion, really showcased him at the best of his ability. His all-around game off the bench was ferocious, consistently positive with excellent distribution. Our main superb display of the day has to be Harry Wilson. It’s almost a shame the season has to end here because he has been finding his feet more and more each match. Following up from that worldie last weekend, Harry’s pace and dynamism against City was excellent. He always look dangerous and aggressive, as if something positive would happen with him in the attacking areas of the pitch. He nearly nicked it past Ederson in the first half who was forced to make a parrying save down low. His resurgence almost feels like a new signing and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can bring next season.

Negatives

Deja vu of wastefulness

I’m not sure if the big occasion against city shirts gets to the Fulham boys, but both fixtures this season could have been killed by us… if we were able to capitalise on key chances. At the Etihad we had the hat-trick of high-XG Adama chances we couldn’t take. Today there were some key moments that we lacked that killer instinct. Andreas Pereira hitting the side-netting from close range was one thing, but later in the match when he had a beautiful setup at the edge of the area, he hacked at the chance forcing the ball to limply go wide with no pace on it, when it should have broken the hammy end net. To be honest that typifies Andreas’ shooting this season from open play. Then Raul breaking through one-on-one with Ederson far out of his area. He did so well to get in that position only to smack it completely out of sight… a bit of composure and a gentle chip would have done the job. It’s easy as a spectator to say these things, but we really do need to sharpen up if we want to compete with the elite teams head-to-head as we’ve seen many opposition teams do to us this season.

Double-penalty blow

I haven’t had a negative word to say about Sasa Lukic all season, but today he wasn’t at his sharpest. The penalty was just so rash and erratic, not a great feature of our game following up from Joachim Andersen’s unnecessary lunge last weekend too. It was a real shame because Fulham were gaining momentum and a footing in the game, so as soon as that leg was stuck out the match was finished. I genuinely feel we had a good chance of pulling a draw but we ran out of steam after that, not for the want of trying, just the task was too great for us at that stage. I was also livid that the ball making contact with Luis Diaz’s out-swinging arm wasn’t considered a penalty. While I don’t think he could have done much about it, his arm was clearly in an unnatural position and blocked the chance. I was really disappointed in that decision, which could have given the fans a moment to celebrate at the end of a long season.

Closing thoughts

With a massive summer ahead, let’s hope that Silva stays and the board back him with everything they’ve got. I think there will be some twists and turns with some outgoings of longstanding players, but I’m hoping on the whole for some real positives to inject some fresh excitement into next season’s campaign. I really hope we continue on this ambitions path, and can put in an even stronger challenge for Europe. For now, let’s drink in the crushing of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, our double over Brentford, knocking United out at Old Trafford on pens… and so many more happy memories that made our 2024-25 season so special.