Bitter end to Mitrovic era as Brentford bury Fulham
Silva slams departing striker – and referee
IF THIS was a glimpse into life after Aleksandar Mitrovic for Marco Silva, then it is fair to say he will have been spooked by what he saw.
Fulham’s manager went into their second game of the season riding high after an opening-day win over Everton and still hoping he would be able to call on his star man for the rest of the season. By the afternoon’s end, there was no doubt — Mitrovic was off — and Silva’s side had been on the wrong end of a west London derby demolition.
The thrashing had been delivered by a side also shorn of their talismanic striker, with Brentford’s Ivan Toney suspended until January. But the Bees had readymade replacements in Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo to take up the slack. Fulham looked lost without their shining light.
Silva spurned his own megamoney move to Saudi Arabia last month but has the air of a man who regrets that decision ever more by the day. He cut a morose figure as he criticised Mitrovic for the circumstances around his impending £45million move to Al Hilal, confirmed by the club last night, and suggested there might be more exits on the way.
‘Mitrovic forced everything to leave the club,’ he said. ‘I’m not saying if I’m disappointed or not in him, he knows my opinion, I told him in private. It was not just Mitrovic in our football club in the last three or four weeks.
‘Is it normal? No. Should footballers behave in this way? No, is the easy answer. It was not like it should be in many aspects.’
Without Mitrovic, Fulham looked toothless as they fell to an emphatic defeat secured through Wissa’s opener and Mbeumo’s second-half penalty. Tim Ream saw red — harshly, it must be said — for fouling Wissa for the spot-kick, and Mbeumo punished the 10 men to make it 3-0 in stoppage time.
That’s 11 London derbies in a row in the league without defeat for Brentford, for whom Mbeumo and Wissa have scored all five of their goals in their first two games. By contrast, Raul Jimenez — the man who, in the short term at least, will be charged with filling Fulham’s gap up top — is goalless in 25 league matches. After a quiet start, Brentford nearly took the lead in the 38th minute. Wissa’s shot looked bound for goal until Antonee Robinson cleared off the line.
But the opener, when it came, was an absolute gift. Issa Diop was under little pressure when he miskicked a routine pass at the back. Wissa pounced, danced around Bernd Leno and slotted home into an empty net.
Fulham came out strong after halftime, and Bobby Decordova-Reid’s curled shot from the edge of the box hit the crossbar. But Brentford soon came close to adding a second on the counter, Leno forced to tip over an effort from Mathias Jensen.
Wissa was in again a few minutes later and fell under the challenge of Ream, who put an arm across the forward. Referee Darren Bond pointed to the spot. Ream received his marching orders for a second yellow card and the game was all-but over when Mbeumo sent the spot-kick into the bottom left corner, leaving Leno no chance.
‘It was completely the wrong decision from the referee,’ Silva declared. ‘It was a clear and obvious mistake.’
Brentford added a third late on to give the scoreline the gloss their display deserved. Substitute Kristoffer Ajer rampaged up the right flank, combining with Rico Henry, and put the ball on a plate for Mbeumo to tap home for his brace.
Bees boss Thomas Frank said: ‘This win was 100 per cent for our fans, and I hope they’ll have a fantastic evening in the pubs by the Thames.’ They might just run into Silva drowning his sorrows.