For the first time this season, Tom Cairney has started successive games in the Premier League. Fulham have won them both 5-0.
Coincidence? Yes, almost certainly. But a coincidence that the Fulham captain has deserved. You reap what you sow.
Cairney is now 32, and the West Ham rout marked his 300th appearance for Fulham, the club he joined in 2015 in a bid to take his career to the next level.
A pivotal player in Marco Silva’s first season as Fulham romped to the Championship title, Cairney’s involvement became bit-part last term, when he made 27 Premier League appearances off the bench but only started six games.
Yet whenever he came on, he was always lively, hard-working, and impacted the game. The same was true this season, until Silva rewarded Cairney with a start at home to Wolves last month.
Fulham’s club captain repaid that faith by registering an assist in a hard-fought 3-2 win, while his 90 per cent pass completion rate this season is bettered by only eight midfielders across the whole Premier League.
“In four games, he’s started three”, Marco Silva recalled on Thursday. “He’s been crucial for our last few great performances.
“He’s been a vital player for me since I joined. In the first season for a long time he had a bad injury in his knee. Last season, our three players in the midfield line gelled together so well — Joao [Palhinha], Harrison [Reed] and Andreas [Pereira]. It was really difficult for someone to come in and start any games in the Premier League.
“This season, he’s working hard again to get his chance. He played against Wolves because he showed to me in the weeks before that he was ready.
“His is a top player, [with] the quality and calmness that he can give. If he can be more complete in all these scenarios, he’s going to be even more crucial for us in the future. How many games will he start in the future? I’m going to decide.
Cairney's 90 per cent pass completion rate this season is bettered by only eight midfielders across the whole Premier League.
“He deserves all these moments in the white shirt. We love him, that is clear, and I am really pleased for him. He is always ready to help the team, and when you have a player like him — coming in for 90 minutes and performing so well — of course I am so pleased with him.”
A goalscoring No10 by trade, Cairney instead partnered Palhinha in a double-pivot in the recent thumping wins against Nottingham Forest and West Ham.
“The last few games we have played with Joao, TC and Andreas”, Silva recalls. “On the ball, I want him and Andreas to do more or less the same thing. Andreas is so crucial in his first pressure.
“With his [Cairney’s] capacity to give us more calm in the build-up, how we are using him sometimes looks and seems that he is much deeper than Andreas. On the ball, he plays the same role as Andreas. Off the ball, he has to work with Joao and drop a little more.”
It is a role that gives Cairney both attacking licence and defensive responsibility. He is showing he is up to the challenge, and re-emerging as a player Fulham cannot do without.
