Fulham vs. Crystal Palace

Fulham has their last home game, and their penultimate game of the season, against Crystal Palace on Saturday. Kickoff is at 10am EDT on Peacock.

Given that there isn't really much to play for, I'm surprised how pumped I am for this match. It is because there are a number of milestones that could be reached with a win:

• Fulham would have a record number of points beating the old record of 52 from 2011-12
• Fulham would be guaranteed a top half finish
• Fulham would ensure they finish above Chelsea and that Chelsea finishes in the bottom half

That would be a perfect bow to put on a great season for the fans at Craven Cottage.

However, all that requires beating a Crystal Palace team that is on fire. Since Roy Hodgson returned as manager only Manchester City and Liverpool have earned more points. A team that had been on the edge of the relegation scrap quickly got to safety. They will be full of confidence as they close out the season. I do think it is important to look at who they have been playing though - and this is where I feel kind of bad for Patrick Vieira. When Palace went on their long winless run here are the teams they faced: Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United, Newcastle, Brighton, Brentford, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Arsenal. The only team in that list that is not currently in the top half is Chelsea! That was not an easy part of the schedule to get through. Meanwhile since Roy took over here is who they faced: Leicester, Leeds, Southampton, Everton, Wolverhampton, West Ham, Tottenham, Bournemouth. The only team in that list that is not currently in the bottom half is Tottenham and most were fighting off relegation. So while I like Hodgson, I think a lot of their recent success had to do with the quality of the opposition.

Palace will be without Zaha since he is out with an injury for the remaining matches, but they'll have Eze who has really been the offensive spark over the past two months. Fulham will of course be without Ream and Pereira, but hopefully Mitrovic can get a start and keep scoring. It would be great to see the squad give a good performance at the Cottage and remind everyone how special Fulham has been this season despite a few rough spots over the past two months.

 

I'm likely going to miss the last two matches of the season because of family commitments: a graduation party this weekend and a wedding the next. It would be amazing if we could get something from both. We still have a chance of overtaking Brentford for ninth, with them playing Tottenham and City.

 

I’d really like to see us finish strong. It’s been a very, very good season, and we hit a bad patch for a bit. I believe we will show up big time for hot Palace, and the motivation to put in a good shift at Old Trafford should be off the charts. But first things first. Make the Cottage a fortress and send a message: you’re in for a war when you visit SW6.

 

Disappointing not to hold onto a lead at home and see this one out but a solid performance by the lads in the home finale. Looks like Mitro spent a significant chunk of his eight game ban working on kicks from the spot. Good. He needs to become all but automatic. I always love it when the keeper guesses right and still doesn’t come close to getting even a fingernail on it. Just a bit of dumb luck on their equalizer, otherwise we take all three points.
It’ll be nice to see the new Riverside Stand full next season.

 

My thoughts exactly. That was a MUCH more confident penalty than we've seen from Mitrovic before. His whole body positioning was different while in the process of taking the shot. No kicking it into his standing foot with that PK form. If he can keep that approach I'll not have to feel nervous about penalties next season.

Was that the first time this season a team scored directly off a counter from a Fulham corner? I know I've been nervous about that possibility often this season, but I don't recall if that actually happened before. It doesn't matter the opposing team or the game situation, Silva puts the two CB's in the opposing box and makes every effort to score on the corner. That has paid off multiple times this season, but they finally got caught out on this one.

What was Palace's defensive approach on the corner for Mitrovic's second goal? It was one of the easiest headers he'll ever score.

I was a bit bummed about the draw, but Mitrovic's enthusiastic hug for Andersen somehow made me feel better. Everything is fine! They'll both see each other again in the Premier League next season!

The highlights if anyone hasn't seen them.

 

Chelsea goes down with a whimper to Manchester City's B squad so that means Fulham will finish 10th regardless of how the last match goes down and Fulham will finish above Chelsea this season.