At the close of the 2018-19 season eleven Times sportswriters nominated Premier clubs for various ‘awards’. Eight rated Manchester United the biggest disappointment but Alysson Rudd and two others judged that the title truly belonged to Fulham for their brief and costly stay in the top tier.
The 11 strong panel has just issued its forecasts for the latest Premier programme. Ten of the writers named Fulham as certainties for relegation. Only Alysson demurred. Well, she was arguably correct in 2019 and we hope that her new pronouncement proves equally valid.
The powers-that-be could have given the Whites easier opposition for the opening match. I felt sorry for Joe Bryan, widely and justly praised for his part in the Play Off Final, who found himself facing Willian, the Gunners’ acquisition from Chelsea. Back to reality.
With the sun glinting on the perfect pitch, commentator Martin Keown rhapsodised about ‘a beautiful part of the country for anyone lucky enough to be here or to live here’. Agreed, Martin, but spare a thought for the twenty thousand plus prevented from occupying their seats. To make it worse we heard a phantom chorus chanting ‘Come on, Fulham’.
The home side had two very early opportunities for a surprise lead. Abou Kamara outsmarted Gabriel Magalhaes by pouncing on an underhit back pass but Bernd Leno saved his new teammate from embarrassment. Then Neeskens Kebano made an opening for Denis Odoi, who shot straight at Bernd.
Perversely Arsenal’s first real attack led to a goal. Tim Ream failed to control the ball, leaving Willian in the clear and though Marek Rodak saved the Arsenal debutant’s shot Alexandre Lacazette scored from the rebound.
Fulham fought back (and tightened their defence) but they rarely threatened to equalise. Things looked more promising after the interval until a corner kick brought another soft goal, the unmarked Gabriel beating Rodak at close range.
Two years ago Lacazette had a profitable day at the Cottage but it was Aaron Ramsey’s goal that stole the limelight at the time, a six man move rightly deemed an act of collective genius. Ramsey moved on to Juventus but the genius remains, to judge from Arsenal’s third, involving eight players from Leno to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the stylish goal-scorer.
The home side tried hard but made no impact. After a particularly fraught afternoon Michael Hector salvaged some pride with a typical goal-line clearance, and the match ended 0-3.
Scott Parker’s post-mortem was a variation on ‘one of the games we had to lose’. He will already be sick of hearing that he is in for a long season. Long enough, maybe, for those ten pundits to be confounded.
By contrast the next opponents were Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup. Parker made nine changes, introducing keeper Alphonse Areola, Kenny Tete, Antonee Robinson and Mario Lemina. The Whites achieved a narrow but comfortable victory with a single goal by Aleksandar Mitrovic (celebrating his 26th birthday). Parker will have slept well on Wednesday night.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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