Fulham vs. Brentford - 1st of 12 London Derbies

Fulham hosts Brentford on Saturday at 10am EDT. The match will be carried on Peacock. This is the first of 12 London derbies for Fulham, the first of four West London derbies, and the first meeting in the Premier League with Brentford. Fulham has a terrible recent history against their London rivals in the Premier League. Back in the 2018-19 season, Fulham lost all of their London derbies and improved only slightly in 2020-21 with draws against Tottenham, Palace, Arsenal, and West Ham. Fulham hasn't won a London derby in the Premier League since 2014 against West Ham.

While satisfied with a point away at Wolverhampton last week, the more I thought about the performance, the more concerned I became. The Wolves should have scored a number of early goals and only Rodak and some terrible finishing prevented Fulham from going down early. Fulham played much better defense against Liverpool. I'd like to blame the dip in quality on the extreme heat from last week.

Meanwhile Brentford are coming off of a shocking 4-0 smackdown of Manchester United. That certainly looks impressive on paper, but the two opening goals were gifted by De Gea and United is a real mess right now. I'm not sure what the win says about the quality of Brentford. In their opening match against Leicester City, Brentford went down by two goals and was completely out-played in the first half before coming back to earn a draw.

I don't think anyone played poorly enough last week to lose their starting spot for sure, but I won't be surprised if Diop or Leno make appearances. I hope to see the same level of quality that we saw against Liverpool. If Fulham does that I think they'll get that long desired derby win. However, I think we'll probably see something short of that and get a third draw in a row.

 

Probably our ‘truest’ London Derby (without QPR on the schedule), they’ve done a good job building that club. No doubt the Cottage will be pulsating. @MicahMan beat me to it about DeGea and the 2 comical howlers masking the scoreline, but they will be dangerous. This is a spot where the losses of Wilson & Solomon really hurt, but even then will go w/2-1 (ala the playoff final) victory for the lads.

 

The local horse race track added a sportsbook so I put 10 bucks on the game when I was out there on Tuesday. I bet over 2.5 goals combined. Did I make the right call?

 

@stlouisbrad Like the Over at 2.5 for sure Brad.

 

Sorry, Brad. I'm putting money on a 1-0 W.

 

Brilliant first 44 minutes, could’ve been worse
then 2-0. They might be the Bees, but we were the ones buzzing about. Then the well worked corner and volley by Norgaard (how did he escape a card when he stamped Stansfield??) for 2-1 HT scoreline. Nervous second half coming up.

 

Cue it James!!!!!

 

What a wild ride to 3 points!

 

I frightened the dog when Mitro scored.

 

Let’s just chalk up last week’s penalty failure as an anomaly that cost us two points. Today, a big time player made a big time play at crunch time. That’s the essence of sports at the highest level. World class athletes that come through in the clutch are special…especially if they happen to play for YOUR team!
Oh, and right now we’re CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!

 

The money shot, from freelancer Simon Dael, via Shutterstock and The Guardian. A bit lucky for Mr. Dael? Perhaps a smidge. But you don't get an image like this without doing your homework, knowing the venue, the situation and the players, especially the one most likely to do something like, well, this.
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Well done Mr. Dael. And well done Fulham!

 

I know we are only three matches in, but this is the first time Fulham went undefeated in the first three Premier League matches since 2011/12 and the best start for Fulham since 2008/09.

This looked much more like the squad that gave Liverpool so much trouble on the opening day. I've wondered sometimes in recent seasons why Fulham didn't have a clear home field advantage. Craven Cottage is by far the smallest pitch in the Premier League. The field at Craven Cottage is 6500 square meters while most in the Premier League are 7148 - 10% larger. Most squads will only play one game all season on a field that small, but Fulham will play half their matches in those conditions. Fulham's pressing, swarming style under Sylvia should work even better at home as opposing teams try to figure out the narrower and shorter conditions. Hopefully Craven Cottage can become the kind of place no opponent feels comfortable rather than a place to get an easy three points.

If you haven't watched Fulham's highlights, be sure to check them out if only to hear GJ instruct Brentford to "Pick that out!" after Mitrovic's goal.


I'm sure you've all seen the match or the highlights, but here they are for the record:

 

And be sure to check out this FUL ACCESS video. I'm so glad Fulham is putting together stuff like this now. The best part of this one is the camera being at the corner flag after Mitrovic scores the winner but I liked getting to see some of the new stand with Khan too: