Fulham at Brentford

Fulham takes the short trip to face Brentford on Monday. The game will kick off on USA at 3pm EST.

So Fulham has achieved their primary goal for this season - safety from relegation. So now what? There are plenty of matches left to play and this match against Brentford is a big one if Fulham would like to achieve more. Fulham can achieve West London bragging rights with a win or a draw, so that would be nice. How about a shot at Europe? With Tottenham and Newcastle suffering losses yesterday, Fulham has a chance to gain ground on some of those European spots.

Whatever the motivation, Brentford will be tough competition. Brentford has not lost since October and have only lost once at home - to Arsenal. Their recent run included wins against Liverpool and Manchester City, and a draw last month at Arsenal. Fulham will also have to face Brentford without Palhinha who scored against Brentford in August and also celebrated so hard on Mitrovic's winning goal that the cameraman thought it was Palhinha put the ball int he net. Fulham will have some different options on the wings this time since it was Stansfield and DeCordova-Reid last time.

Both teams are full of confidence and desire, both teams have only given up 5 goals since the World Cup, both teams are coming off of frustrating draws against teams they should have beat. This should all add up to a tense and drama-filled match.

 

Lukic for Palinha and I hope the train keeps a rollin'...

 

Gonna be a tough one. I’d settle for a draw and no doubt injuries.

 

The lack of comments since the final whistle blew seems like an appropriate response. That was ugly.


Fulham was a bit unlucky on the first goal - it was never going in until it hit Ream. And the penalty was a bit soft. However, Brentford certainly deserved to win and were unlucky themselves that Lukic wasn't sent off for what should have been a second yellow.

On the plus side, Solomon scored again!

 

I'm not sure what to say about that game in a cogent manner.

Did Brentford play well enough to win it? Probably. Was the officiating was so incredibly poor that it makes you question what is up/down? That too.

If we can put aside the fact Toney should have seen a straight red, Lukic a second yellow, and their PK never awarded (hard, I know), the true impact of the bad refereeing was the fact 29 fouls called but only 3 yellows given (and all for us; one for dissent and another for simulation?!). Because any tussle was getting whistled but not punished with a card, both teams played for the foul. The result was the game was quite terrible to watch as any sustained passage of play of interrupted as soon as a Brentford or Fulham player fell down. At one point in the 1st half, Willian lept to head a ball, Wissa jumped into Willian and ricocheted to the ground, but Wissa drew the FK foul. Literally any 50/50 tussle resulted in a foul. It was a mess but not in the usual rough-and-tumble-derby kind of way.

And if there was sustained possession, well, woof we need to talk about Mitro. He's not 100% and our offense clearly cannot function with him at ~80%. Vinicius now has as many goals (2) since the WC break as Mitro. Unfortunately soft tissue injuries take forever to fully heal, and even when you think you've recovered you haven't (if anyone else has suffered them, you can def relate). I'm not sure where Marco goes because a fully fit and firing Mitro is pivotal for the entire squad's involvement going forward, and I dont see him getting healthy anytime soon. This present state means we're quite manageable for defenses. I'm kind of dreading Sunday...

 

We did not come close to matching their intensity and energy at the beginning of both halves. All things being equal from the officiating misdeeds, we got what we deserved. We haven’t responded to their desire to beat their perceived arch rivals at their place for several seasons now, since just before and since they earned promotion. We’ve got to realize that this is not just another home match for them: it’s a chance to prove they belong in the same tier we do. Let’s be honest about Palhinha’s absence. We missed him. A lot. Let’s hope he doesn’t miss too many more matches after Arsenal.

 

I avoided the score to watch the game on peacock. Thought we played ok. The penalty was weak to say the least. I didn't think more than a draw was in the cards so overall I'm not that upset.

 

Fulham got punched in the mouth in the first five minutes and never recovered. They were sloppy, even when Brentford gave them time on the ball. And when the Bees pressed, Fulham had no answer. I thought that they had righted the ship when Solomon scored, but the evenness of the match was short lived.

I suppose it's easy to be the most yellow carded team when the ref hands them out like Halloween candy to your team but keeps it pocketed even when the other team is raking their boot across someone's face.

 

Watched first half live, then didn’t bother going back after seeing result. If that’s Palhinha w/a boot across someone face the ref wouldn’t have been able to reach his red card fast enough. However, no yellow card screams utter incompetence.

 

Maybe there was action on whether Toney could get a red card…and with the boot to the face, I’d have thought he had that bet wrapped up…but the ref went and ruined the whole scheme…

 

Mitro needs rest for full recovery.

 

It's hard to figure because, and maybe it's me, I cannot get past looking at it from our American prism where a player gambling results in an immediate, indefinite suspension by the league pending an investigation (which usually ends with a larger suspensions).

Obviously this is a different country and sport system but I believe its the FA, not the EPL, whose disciplinary committee needs to meet and determine the punishment. Brentford could take the ethical high ground and suspend him before this, but for some reason they wont. And previous examples of players being suspended for gambling, Joey Barton being the most notable, took time to go through the protocols.

Lastly, IIRC, he's said he's assisting with the investigation; not that he's admitted to the charges (is there an English equivalent of an Alford Plea?) The whole thing is a mess and its lowkey disgraceful he's allowed to play