Had it not been for the heroics of Bernd Leno in goal and a spate of wasted opportunities from Sean Dyche’s Everton, Fulham could and probably should have travelled home from Goodison Park without all three points in the bag on the opening weekend.
While Everton were able to create plenty of openings against Marco Silva’s backline, the Toffees’ profligacy came back to bite them once more, as a second-half Bobby Decordova-Reid strike propelled Fulham to an arguably undeserved success.
The Cottagers’ Goodison Park triumph is good enough for fifth place in the Premier League table with one gameweek done and dusted, although Everton were left indignant after a Michael Keane strike was ruled out for a perceived foul on Leno by James Tarkowski.However.
ex-Everton boss Silva admitted that it was “not a good performance” from his Cottagers team, although continued uncertainty surrounding the futures of attacking duo Aleksandar Mitrovic and Willian is doing them no favours whatsoever.Fulham did not help themselves at Craven Cottage
during the back end of last season, though, as they won just two of their final seven Premier League home matches in 2022-23 and have kept just one top-flight clean sheet in front of their own fans since the end of October.
Thomas Frank and Ange Postecoglou’s commitment to attacking football is well-documented, and it therefore came as little surprise to see the goals fly in at the Gtech Community Stadium, where an unforeseen issue with the water supply delayed kickoff last Sunday.
Cristian Romero headed home the opening goal of that London derby, but Brentford capitalised on Spurs’ defensive shortcomings to storm ahead through Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, who continue to make their mark while the banned Ivan Toney s
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However, the glut of first-half goals was not done there, as Emerson Royal found the bottom corner with aplomb to rescue a point for a Harry Kane-less Tottenham, in a repeat of last year’s 2-2 Boxing Day draw on Brentford’s turf.
An entertaining stalemate with Tottenham was by no means a disastrous result for Brentford in the wake of their winless pre-season, and their final two away wins of the 2022-23 season coincidentally came against London clubs, defeating both Spurs and Chelsea on their own territories.
Fulham and Brentford were familiar foes in the Championship before their promotions to the top flight – the Cottagers bested the Bees in the 2020 playoff final – and Silva’s side edged a five-goal thriller 3-2 at Craven Cottage in August 2022 before Frank’s men gained revenge with an identical victory five months back.
