Roy bursts Fulham’s bubble
Big-spending new boys undone by wily old boss
WHO better to extinguish the giddy thrill of a £ 100 million spending spree than Roy Hodgson, 71 years young and celebrating a new contract at Crystal Palace?
Hodgson has seen it all before many times over and as hype reaches new levels in modern football the wise old owl retains an appreciation of the value of stability and the chemistry of a settled side.
So, as Fulham returned to the Premier League with a dozen new recruits and many onlookers quick to hail their shrewd business in the transfer window, Palace made the short journey north with last year’s side and won.
It was mid-October before Palace won a game in the Premier League last season, having made a dreadful mess of a new dawn under Frank de Boer.
Here, there was something to cheer on the opening day with goals from Jeffrey Schlupp and Wilfried Zaha as Hodgson delivered a sobering reality check for his old club.
‘It means a lot,’ said the Palace boss. ‘Given that dreadful run with seven games, no points or goals and a minus 18 goal difference, to win a game. We already have that now so we’re happy.’
Fulham under Slavisa Jokanovic are committed to their brand of fluent, attacking football and will be better when their array of new recruits start to gel. But they will find the environment is unforgiving in the Premier League.
The home side opened brightly, roared on by a vibrant crowd by the Thames, pleased to be back in the top flight after a four- year absence.
They started with six of Jokanovic’s summer signings plus Aleksandar Mitrovic, who scored 12 goals in 20 games during a loan spell from Newcastle which helped clinch promotion.
Fulham dominated the first 30 minutes although emerged with nothing to show as Wayne Hennessey stood firm in the Palace goal and kept out efforts from Cyrus Christie and Mitrovic.
Hennessey made more fine saves in the second half and kept his best for stoppage time at the end of the game when he beat away a header from Ryan Sessegnon. The home crowd were aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty at one down when Andre Schurrle beat Mamadou Sakho to a ball inside the penalty area. Sakho slid in and challenged recklessly but referee Mike Dean waved away appeals from the Fulham players.
‘From my position, yes,’ said Jokanovic when asked if he thought it was a penalty. ‘But the referee’s position was better. If he says no, it’s no.
‘I don’t complain about this kind of situation. I trust him to make the right decision. I was 60 yards from this decision. He was six.’
Palace drew the sting from their hosts before fi nding a better
rhythm and advancing with more purpose as half-time approached.
Fulham goalkeeper Fabri tipped a header from Christian Benteke on to the bar but could not stop the opener four minutes before the interval.
Schlupp sped on to a pass from Patrick van Aanholt and accelerated away from Calum Chambers before slamming a shot high into the net.
Holland left back Van Aanholt had a goal correctly ruled out for offside, and unleashed another fierce effort into the keeper’s chest, early in a more even second half. Hodgson said: ‘We didn’t start the game well. But that was largely due to Fulham. They won the ball quickly, were sharp and quick into tackles, making it difficult to play the ball through midfield.
‘ But we got better and better. Scoring a goal helps to put a team on the back foot and, second half, we were much better.’
Zaha missed a chance on the volley, which Fabri saved with his feet, but secured the points on the counter-attack with a goal created by young full- back Aaron WanBissaka.
Wan-Bissaka, 20, had spent most of the game nullifying the threat of 18-year-old Sessegnon but broke out of defence on a powerful run.
He was felled by Mitrovic on halfway but climbed to his feet and slipped a pass into Zaha, who skipped around the goalkeeper and rolled the ball into an empty net.
‘It’s a tough job ahead of us,’ said Jokanovic. ‘Not just for Fulham, but all the Premier League teams.
‘So we must be optimists and trust in ourselves. We showed we can be brave, but were a bit shy in the end. We had 15 shots to Palace’s 10. We did some interesting things in the game, too.’