Embarrassed Raul Jimenez struggled to celebrate his second goal as Fulham routed Nottingham Forest 5-0 – because his backheel finish might well get Steve Cooper the boot.
Jimenez blushed in response to mugging ex-Fulham loanee Ola Aina in the box before delivering an impudent heel-flick into the Craven Cottage net.
Alex Iwobi tapped home Willian’s cross, Jimenez lashed in from Andreas Pereira’s dinked pass – then the former Wolves forward’s flourish-filled second proved the killer blow.
Iwobi still found time to claim a double of his own and Tom Cairney swept home too, on what could well prove Welsh manager Cooper’s last match at the Forest helm.
This was Jimenez’s first Premier League brace in almost four years, his last top-flight double coming in Wolves’ 3-2 win at Southampton on January 18, 2020.
The 32-year-old now boasts three goals in his last four Premier League matches, having started the season with a 10-game league drought.
Iwobi meanwhile was left to plunder the first-ever top-flight brace of his career.
Fulham’s second win in three league outings eased the pain of Sunday’s battling but ultimately galling 4-3 loss to Liverpool at Anfield.
Forest in contrast slipped to their fourth league loss on the spin.
Owner Evangelos Marinakis had an ominous face of thunder in the directors’ box.
The maritime magnate has had plenty of practice shipping out managers, having sacked three already this season at his other club Olympiacos.
Cooper could be next, and on this miserable evidence there could be few arguments should Forest vote for change.
Fulham spent the first 15 minutes almost stunned into inaction by the visitors’ lack of bite, quality or precision.
Then star man Pereira shaved the post with a smart free-kick, and suddenly the home men realised they could win this at a canter.
Orel Mangala’s pocket was so easy to pick it might as well have been flapping around turned inside-out, so Jimenez had no choice but to oblige.
The Mexican flicked Fulham onto the break, Willian whipped in a bouncing cross – and Iwobi ghosted in at the far post to deliver a first-time tap-in.
Iwobi turned instigator for the second, angling a ball off the wing.
Pereira’s cute dink dragged Vlachodimos off his line and Jimenez thundered the ball into the top of the net.
A flattened Forest shrugged and slumped their way to the break, but not before Iwobi curled just wide from 20 yards.
Cooper’s half-time team talk and two changes yielded no discernible improvement.
Pereira laid on Fulham’s third by dropping a ball between Murillo and Aina, but the latter then gift-wrapped Jimenez’s second of the night.
Jimenez brushed former Fulham loanee Aina aside in the box, then backheeled into the net.
The 32-year-old was red-faced at the finish, and not due to exertion.
Jimenez’s celebration was almost against his better nature, such was Aina’s clanger.
Somehow, Forest got worse. Iwobi swept home his second and Fulham’s fourth from Harry Wilson’s cross.
The cutback had no business reaching the former Arsenal and Everton man, but Forest appeared almost past caring.
When captain Cairney stroked home the fifth, from who else but Pereira’s pass, referee John Smith should have stopped the fight.
Cooper’s Forest bout could be over in the coming days, while Fulham will hope to box clever enough to start climbing the table.
