Harry Wilson does it again as Fulham trash Brentford 3-1 to catch stinking rich Chelsea

By Alessandro Schiavone at Craven Cottage

Fulham came from behind to erase a Joshua King cock-up and trash Brentford 3-1 in the west London derby on Saturday night.

All eyes were on Harry Wilson after his epic contributions home and away against the Bees last term saw Marco Silva’s men do the double over their local rivals.

And expectedly the Welshman did it again with a brilliant diagonal finish from Alex Iwobi’s telegraphed assist into the box to put Fulham 2-1 up. Iwobi nabbed the leveller for his side 18 minutes after Mikkel Damsgaard collected King’s gift to give the Bees the lead.

The lid came then off the visitors when Ethan Pinnock inadvertently flicked Ryan Sessegnon’s cross into his own goal five minutes after the restart.

The Cottagers are now sixth in the Premier League standings and level with Chelsea on eight points but with a summer outlay of £34.5m compared to their bottomless neighbours’ £276.1m.

Yet it could all have gone horribly wrong on the riverside as the hosts were wasteful in Brentford’s box and sloppy with the ball when proceedings occurred in their own-half.

Wilson, Andersen and Lukic all saw their efforts fail to hit the net for one reason or another.

And Damsgaard was the happy recipient of a poor King pass just outside his own-half. It was a pass that made the hair of Fulham fans stand up on the back of their necks.

And the Dane picked his spot before stabbing home. A shock lead that few saw coming.

As if that wasn’t bad enough a poor Sasa Lukic backpass landed to Kevin Schade’s feet but his effort was thankfully deflected behind for a corner.

Christmas is more than three months away but Fulham were definitely in the mood to hand out some gifts.

Until Iwobi put them back on track after burying an effort following a scrap in the box on 38 minutes. Two minutes later the ex-Evertonian set up Wilson who once again did the damage against his favourite victim by tucking home first-time. As fans were singing “Harry Wilson, he’s done it again”, Brentford retreated and eventually folded like a pack of cards. That's now four goals in the last three games against Brenrford for the ex-Liverpool youth star.

After the interval Pinnock summed up the Bees’ afternoon when he failed to deal with a harmless cross by sending it past his own goalkeeper Kelleher.

And it could have been worse had Rodrigo Muniz’s goal not been disallowed by referee Michael Oliver after a VAR check.

Brentford huffed and puffed and tried to find a way back in.

But Fulham held on and will start the week in the same position as a side that spent eight times as much last summer.