Fulham at Manchester City

Fulham has another tough game on the road at Manchester City on Saturday. The 10am EST match will be shown on NBCSN.

Although Leicester is 7 spots in front of Manchester City, this match will likely be an even bigger challenge for Fulham than last week. Manchester City has a game in-hand and is only 3 points behind Leicester. Manchester City also has fewer injury concerns and they are coming off of an easier 0-0 draw with Porto in the Champions League where they rested most of their starters. All three of City's clean sheets this season have come against teams, like Fulham, that are 14th or lower. City is also coming off of their most convincing win of the season, a 5-0 drubbing of Burnley.

Fulham is likely to keep the same lineup as the one that found success against Leicester. Tete is still unavailable, but the squad that played Monday should all be healthy. After giving up 10 goals in their first three matches, the Fulham defense has solidified and given up only 9 goals in the last seven matches.

Fulham as already gotten more (3 points) from this tough run of matches than I expected, so I'll be satisfied if they can put in a solid 90 minutes at at least keep the goal differential to a minimum. Although, of course, points from this match would be ideal!

 

All I’m really looking for is a plan from Scott and execution from the squad. Points would be a pure bonus but I’d like to see the same fight we’ve seen lately.

 

I got what I wanted to see out of this match. Citeh outclassed Fulham in the first half but at no point did I feel like Fulham laid down or quit even after going down 2. Overall I would have liked to see the subs a little earlier, specifically Cairney, but no real complaints from me today.

 

I was worried at 0-2. I'm OK with the result.

 

I had to wait to watch the replay at 9pm! I almost gave up after 4 minutes, but I hung with it for the full 90.


The final score was probably a fair representation of the match. I thought the penalty was very soft, but that's the way those go now. Fulham could have fallen to pieces, but I thought they struck the right balance of going for opportunities without letting the game get out of hand. Importantly, Areola did a nice job of making sure the scoreline didn't get ridiculous. The only Fulham player who seemed to be at the same level of quality as the City squad was Anguissa. Two years ago I thought he was terrible and a colossal waste of money. He's been so much better this year. Maybe he's just got a better team around him now or maybe he's improved personally, but he's shown again he's got the most skill of any Fulham player out there.

 

I caught the game on Peacock and it was about what I expected. Didn't think we'd get anything so I wasn't disappointed. I got to say I think we have a much better team than two years ago. Anderson, Lookman and Areola all look to be excellent loan signings.

 

Which one? The Belgian or the Frenchman?

 

We did not embarrass ourselves at all. This could have gotten way out of control after the DeBruyne penalty (see West Brom v. Crystal Palace 2nd half).
But it didn’t. I only wish we could have shown more technical ability when they took their foot off the gas in the second half. We could have easily nicked a goal and made it interesting at the end, but at least there’s more than a glimmer of hope there. If we keep putting in efforts like this and improving, I think we’ll stay up. Sheffield United and West Brom look to be cinches for the drop at this point, especially the Blades. The manner in which they dropped a point to Leicester was crushing. But I’d like to see us get the points we should instead of relying on others’ ineptitude. That being said, I’m not willing to concede anything at home against Liverpool. They’re the champs, obviously, but they’re much weaker defensively without Van Dijk in the back...and offensively too, for that matter, on corners and set pieces when he comes up for them. Citeh are still the offensive juggernaut in this league, and 2-nil is respectable. We’ll get ‘em on the return fixture if we keep getting better and stay fit.

 

@MicahMan, the best move of the summer was not to sell Anguissa. I wasn’t as down on the kid as others, he just wasn’t ready for the English game. I imagine being in a foreign country w/bad weather, bad team, multiple manager switches didn’t help his confidence. The year in Spain where he got rave reviews has seen him mature and he looks like he has something to prove. Plus SP believes in him and Zambo is returning the favor.