Wilfried Zaha and Crystal Palace hand Fulham Premier League reality check
After all of the excitement and expectation that followed the most spectacular transfer window in Fulham’s history, here was the most sudden of reality checks. On day one of a much-hyped new era at Craven Cottage, Crystal Palace swaggered through the door and swiftly set about crashing the party.
If Slavisa Jokanovic did not know already that the Premier League is a punishing place, then he certainly does now. His Fulham side controlled so much of the ball, weaving their passing patterns as they did so often in the second tier, but they were twice left reeling by the Palace counterpunch. Jeffrey Schlupp scored the first for Roy Hodgson’s side, before Wilfried Zaha ripped the life from Craven Cottage deep into the second half.
There will be lessons learned from this, and also questions asked. Were Fulham too aggressive? Did their enthusiastic approach leave them over-exposed? The response may be that this is the style that brought them back to the big time after four years away, so it would be foolish to change now. But to see how Palace repeatedly draw them out and then sting them on the break was to see how tough this season will be for Fulham, no matter the size of their transfer budget.
A dozen new arrivals, for a combined cost of more than £100 million, had raised hopes in these parts that Slavisa Jokanovic’s side will be too good to be worried about relegation battles this season. These are early days yet, but there will have be more than a few concerned frowns in south-west London last night.
For Palace, this was a near-perfect execution of Hodgson’s game-plan. They were compact, organised and clinical. They were everything, in short, that they had not been in last season’s curtain-raiser, when they were thrashed 3-0, at home, by Huddersfield Town.
The team sheets here provided an early was a measure of quite how comprehensive the summer overhaul has been at Fulham. Jokanovic’s side began this game with no fewer than six debutants in the starting lineup. There were three more on the bench, and the total count of nine does not even include Aleksandar Mitrovic, the £22 million signing from Newcastle United who spent the second half of last season on loan in south-west London.
Time will tell whether this was too much disruption to a winning side, but Jokanovic will certainly be pleased with how his new recruits began the game. Fulham were electric in the early stages. Jean Michael Seri, perhaps the most exciting of all the summer arrivals, was a dynamic presence in midfield, while former Chelsea forward Andre Schurrle provided width and pace on the right.
Cyrus Christie had the first effort on target after just three minutes, before Mitrovic twice went close within the space of a minute. Ryan Sessegnon, the boy wonder on the left wing, also looked threatening and Tom Cairney was controlling proceedings in the middle. Cairney had said last season that Fulham played “Premier League football” in the Championship, and this was early proof that Jokanovic’s side are more than capable of dictating games in the top division.
The key, though, was to avoid getting carried away. Both Fulham full-backs continued to push up, so the pace of Zaha provided an ever-present source of danger. Fabri, the new Fulham goalkeeper, was forced into action to stop a looping Christian Benteke header, and it required the repeated interventions of Calum Chambers, on loan from Arsenal, to stop Zaha from breaking free.
Fulham remained the dominant team in terms of possession, with Mitrovic and Schurrle looking particularly imposing, but there was an air of inevitability about the Palace opener. Patrick van Aanholt slipped a tidy pass into the path of Schlupp, who held off Chambers before crashing the ball inside Fabri’s near post.
The pattern of the game continued after the break, when Fulham again looked worryingly vulnerable to the counter. Zaha should have doubled the lead after the home defence had crumbled in the presence of Christian Benteke, but Fabri’s well-placed foot kept Fulham in the game.
The chance was a timely reminder of the dangers posed by the Benteke and Zaha double-act, not least because it came just moments after Fulham had been denied a penalty. Schurrle twisted past Mamadou Sakho in the box, going down under a lunging challenge, but referee Mike Dean was unmoved.
As Fulham pushed, those spaces continued to open up. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, the young Palace right-back, motored forward with 10 minutes remaining and found Zaha, who breezed through the gears, rounded Fabri and tucked in the second.
