Pointless Fulham with early relegation fears, after gifting Palace‘s first win of the season

Fulham (2) 2 v Crystal Palace (1) 3

King 11

Mitchell 36

Palacios 42

Mitchell 54

Chilwell 77

By Kaz Mochlinski at Craven Cottage

Premier League

Matchweek 3

Crystal Palace gained their first points of the new Premier League season with a vital victory at Craven Cottage, producing a spirited comeback from being behind at half-time to leave Fulham in despair after three consecutive defeats.

All three Palace goals were scored by their left-sided wing-backs, with two from Tyrick Mitchell and then the winner by his replacement, Ben Chilwell, prompting the away fans in the Putney End to delightedly sing “Left-back again, olé, olé!”

Fulham had earlier established a first-half advantage with Josh King’s second goal in two home matches and César Palacios’s first goal for his new club since his summer transfer from Real Madrid.

But ultimately Álvaro Arbeloa’s opening couple of games at the Cottage as the Fulham head coach have both finished with his team losing 2-3 in two London derbies to Chelsea and Crystal Palace in turn.

After another encounter between two clubs with new men in charge, it was Palace’s latest manager, Pierre Sage, who ended the afternoon relieved at finally securing his first win in the Premier League.

On a beautiful sunsoaked late summer’s day beside the River Thames, there was an added tension in the air for a meeting between capital rivals who were two of the top flight’s five sides to have been beaten in both their first matches.

Arguably, the away team were in the worse situation before kick-off, as no other Premier League club had conceded more goals (six) or had a poorer goal difference (minus five) following the initial pair of matchweeks.

Furthermore, having already had to accept the sales of Maxence Lacroix and Daniel Muñoz, Sage has to manage for the moment without Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ismaïla Sarr, who have each been affected adversely by transfer speculation.

Interestingly, neither Arbeloa nor Sage have chosen to change the formations favoured by their predecessors, keeping Marco Silva’s 4-2-3-1 structure and Oliver Glasner’s 3-4-3 system respectively.

Within that framework, Fulham’s tactics are being tweaked more evidently, pressing with greater intensity, higher up the pitch, looking to win the ball in more dangerous areas, but as a result leaving themselves far more open at the back.

Up to now, it has made for thrilling football at the Cottage but has been unequivocally unsuccessful. There were some audible boos from the Fulham fans at full-time, with the negativity primarily being directed towards Arbeloa.

“With that spirit and character, if we play in this way, the victories will come” he responded, pointedly praising his side in stark contrast to the criticism he expressed after last week’s defeat at Sunderland.

“We did many good things to win the game. It was similar against Chelsea, but we lose. For the players it’s a difficult situation, difficult moment, but I am very proud of them.”

Fulham had 61.5% possession and 14 attempts on goal against Chelsea, and followed it up with 64.7% possession and 25 shots against Palace, but found that it was not enough in the end to earn even a point.

Tottenham Hotspur: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Castagne, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson (Sessegnon 79) - Charles (Larsson 79), Iwobi (Muniz 83) - Bobb (Smith Rowe 79), King, Palacios (Berge 61) - García

Crystal Palace: (3-4-3) Henderson - Richards, Disasi, Canvot - Khalaili, Timber (Hughes 74), Wharton, Mitchell (Chilwell 74) - Kamada (Mingueza 89), Nketiah (Strand Larsen 46), Pino (Osorio 89)

Attendance: 27,230