Fulham vs. Brighton & Hove Albion

Fulham host Brighton on Saturday with kickoff at 10am EST on Peacock.

Brighton have yet to beat Fulham at Craven Cottage in the Premier League. In five PL visits they've only gotten one point. A single and a single place in the table is all that separates the two teams who have both looked really good and really bad through the season. Brighton recently drew away at Manchester City. They also recently drew away at West Ham. So who knows what kind of opposition Brighton will offer Fulham.

The Fulham lineup will be closely watched now that the Nigerian trio has returned. Calvin Bassey did very well at AFCON, but Cuenca did pretty well for Fulham in his absence. I'd be fine if either one of them started. We Lukic likely unavailable due to injury, it should be an easy decision to bring back Iwobi to start along with Smith-Rowe and Berge. Chukwueze was in good form when he left, but he wasn't as good at AFCON. I don't think Kevin did enough to take the starting role, so I'd expect to see Chukwueze on the pitch for kickoff.

Fulham had an all-around poor performance at Leeds, so I hope it was just a blip and Fulham will be firing on all cylinders against Brighton to get three more points a home versus the Seagulls.

 

According to the match preview on the Fulham website, Kenny may be available for this game. If he really is up to speed, he would improve us on the right side of defense. I've never been quite convinced by Castagne.

It didn't seem like Chukwueze got many minutes at AFCON, so he should be fresh. Iwobi may be a little tired.

I think it would be demoralizing if Cuenca lost his spot right away--his style is different than Bassey's, but Bassey wasn't doing so well right before he left, and Cuenca has been our best defender across this whole stretch.

I'm expecting a low-scoring cagey match and hoping for a one-goal victory.

 

Lukic is out 4/5 weeks w/the hamstring injury.

 

Harry F#%king Wilson WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

 

We’ve lost games we deserved to win, so I’m super happy to take 3 points from one we probably should have lost. We’re up to 7th for the moment! Won’t last once all the matches have been played, but it makes for pleasant viewing after the anxiety of the first couple of months of the season.

We have to keep Harry Wilson. Pay him what he wants and tie him up for 3 more years. Seems like a relatively late bloomer who’s entering the best years of his career. Ditto for Silva (except the late bloomer part).

Berge showed today why we need another midfielder to play the way Marco wants to. He’s strong defensively, but his technique is poor, especially his first touch, and that makes him susceptible to turnovers and slows down the tempo. It also makes the other 8 (Iwobi today) hesitant to take risks.

A real stinker for Jedi today. Hope it’s just a one off. Same goes for Kevin. On the other hand, I thought Andersen and Castagne were improved.

I think our results as of late show the growth of this team and Marco’s genius as a coach. We don’t have the top-half talent or top-half money, but we’re making the most of what we do have. I’m proud of these guys.

https://www.transfermarkt.us/premier-league/startseite/wettbewerb/GB1

 

I have a slightly different take on this than @daddude7 , I think Marco made a poor choice by putting Kevin in to start, and both him and Robinson should have come off at the half - although thankfully they didn't last much longer. I think Silva is a good manager, but he's frustrated me throughout this season with his lineup choices that don't maximize Fulham's potential. I also didn't have any concerns about Berge, except for that lose ball that eventually lead to his yellow. I almost never worry that Berge will turn the ball over, while with Kevin and Robinson it seemed a certainty today. They were a pit of despair on Fulham's left side.

On Brighton's goal, I wondered what Wilson was up to. He was marking an invisible man and pulled back to let Ayari had a free shot. It was a great strike, but I have to wonder if on a less windy day if Leno would have beaten it away (same goes for Verbruggen with Wilson's winner).

Castagne made a few questionable decisions, but he saved Fulham a couple times - particularly his critical goal line clearance that somehow didn't make the highlights! I really wanted to see exactly how close that one got, because initially I thought for sure it had crossed the line.

I had no hope for Fulham to score until the subs came on and I am thankful Silva made the dramatic change of swapping out both players on the left - I didn't think he'd go that far. Sessegnon was an immediate improvement, but Chukwueze still struggled a little until moving over to the right side.

Raul generally played well today, but he didn't do great with his close range shot that went straight at the keeper. Then Chukwueze showed what had been needed with an absolutely perfect shot around Verbruggen and into the far post. It was great to see a long ball from Anderson pay off and Chukwueze showed fantastic composure to finish it off on his own.

Honestly, after the initial panic around Welbeck's offside goal, I thought this was headed for a draw and I was okay with that. Then the man, Harry F'n Wilson delivers again! I cannot wait to hear Gentleman Jim's call of this one! What class.

I do agree with @daddude7 on a number of things, like pay Wilson, and that maybe Fulham didn't deserve this win, but that Fulham have certainly been robbed before. Even though portions of this match were less than stellar from Fulham, I won't mind celebrating the win at all!

 

I agree with @MicahMan 's disagreements ;-).