Nothing less than a Manchester mauling was to be expected when Fulham paid a visit to the Etihad Stadium before the international break, but Marco Silva’s side felt particularly hard done by against the treble winners, having gone behind just before the break to a contentious Nathan Ake header.
While Manuel Akanji was in an offside position as he raised his leg to let the ball sail under his foot, it was deemed that the defender was not interfering with play, and any attempts to galvanise his bemused team at the break did not work out as intended for the Cottagers coach.
Tim Ream had initially drawn the visitors level after Julian Alvarez’s opener, but a second-half hat-trick from the indomitable Erling Haaland condemned Fulham to a chastening defeat, leaving them with just the one win to shout about from their opening four Premier League fixtures.
The Cottagers found themselves occupying a mediocre 13th-placed standing heading into the international hiatus, and their drubbing against Man City means that this weekend’s hosts are one of only two teams to have shipped at least 10 goals in the current Premier League campaign, the other being basement side Burnley (11).
Even when Silva led his side to a 1-0 victory over Everton on the opening day, the overall consensus was that the Toffees deserved more from the match, and no clean sheets at home since February 11 will offer Luton some hope of belatedly igniting their survival charge.
Much was made of the development of Kenilworth Road to be ready for Premier League football, as Luton sought to consign road beatings against Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion to history when they welcomed West Ham to their humble surroundings.
However, the Hatters’ party was well and truly ruined by the Europa Conference League winners, who netted in either half through Jarrod Bowen and Kurt Zouma before Mads Andersen’s header offered a sliver of hope in added time, but the Dane’s contribution was too little too late.
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As one of only two Premier League teams without a single point on the board this season – alongside fellow promotees Burnley – 19th-placed Luton are only being kept off the bottom of the rankings owing to a slightly superior goal difference, but their league-low tally of two goals can only be matched by a shot-shy Everton.
Success in the EFL Cup did come the way of Rob Edwards’s side at the end of August – a 3-2 second-round win over Gillingham led to a tie away to Exeter City later this month – but Luton’s overall away record in the top flight now reads 28 games without a win since overcoming Aston Villa 32 years ago.
The head-to-head column also makes for grim reading for this weekend’s visitors, who are winless in seven games against Fulham since prevailing 3-1 in a 1998 second-division match, while their most recent trip to Craven Cottage in May 2022 ended in a 7-0 annihilation under Nathan Jones.
