After going three games unbeaten, this was a return to bleakness for Crystal Palace. They were outclassed by a livewire Fulham, Emile Smith Rowe and Harry Wilson providing the goals as Palace finished with 10 men, Daichi Kamada receiving a straight red.
Fulham were sharper throughout, deserving the lead provided by Smith Rowe at the end of the first half. A struggle for a second persisted and nerves would have jangled in those closing stages, even after Kamada’s sending off in the 76th minute for recklessly sliding into Kenny Tete’s shin.
But Wilson contributed once again as a substitute, having scored twice in injury time to beat Brentford at the start of the week. This time his role was to be a closer, not saviour. Wilson’s arrival in the 82nd minute was followed by jubilation less than a minute later.
Palace rocked up without key men – Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton among the missing – but with a tinge of optimism from the past fortnight. A first league win of the season came courtesy of Tottenham’s generosity, a Carabao Cup quarter-final booked with victory at Villa Park. Only a late disallowed winner at Molineux had got in the way of perfection.
But injuries and suspension led to an ad hoc midfield, Marc Guéhi stepping up to partner 21-year-old Justin Devenny, in for his Palace first-team debut. Marco Silva persisted with Wilson on the bench despite that cameo rivalling Christopher Walken as Captain Koons.
The opening minutes were low on quality and composure from both sides but, steadily, Fulham began to threaten. Alex Iwobi moved central to play in his fellow wideman Reiss Nelson, whose shot was met strongly by Dean Henderson.
Nelson’s runs from the left posed danger but his finishing touch remained absent; he shot wide after cutting in from the wing minutes later. While the visitors dominated possession and were far neater in the middle – dinks, flicks, the whole lot – the hosts took little care of the ball when they got a go.
“It’s easy to sum up the game,” said Oliver Glasner. “Fulham was the better team. We made too many easy mistakes. It’s the first game this season, maybe, where we deserved to lose the game. We didn’t have determination in possession. We played too slow.”
Palace’s best way in was through the heart of Jean-Philippe Mateta, the Frenchman up top routinely raising his arms to get Selhurst bouncing. He headed over the bar after leaping high to meet a free-kick and almost opened the scoring near the end of the first half.
Ismaïla Sarr burst forward on the right, his deflected cross looped high into the air, and Mateta snuck in-between Bernd Leno and Joachim Andersen to deliver a glancing header. Leno got an important touch, the ball trickled towards the net, and Andersen, back at his old place of work, cleared off the line.
Instead, it was Fulham who gained advantage before the break, capitalising on Palace’s doziness. Maxence Lacroix’s pass out from the back went straight to Smith Rowe, who played a one-two with Raúl Jiménez before shifting on to his left foot inside the area to finish. Henderson had enjoyed a fine half and got a hand to it, moving low to his left, but the net still bulged.
Smith Rowe was celebrating again not long into the second half when Fulham showed off their pace on the counter. Jiménez led the move from left to right, Iwobi delivered a teasing first-time cross, and Smith Rowe was at the end of it. Then came VAR and those pesky offside lines. Selhurst burst into a song of hope.
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The direction of the game refused to change as Fulham launched repeated attacks. Henderson excelled in denying Andreas Pereira. Nelson, while impressive in his buildup play, remained allergic to the scoresheet, shooting wide again when carving out space in the area.
Wilson, on for Nelson, was the man to provide a sense of ease, running into the area to get on the end of a wonderful through-ball from Iwobi before slotting in. He even had a second in stoppage time, but it was rightly disallowed for a handball in the lead-up. Still some week, though.
