On my way to the Cottage on a sunny Saturday afternoon, ready to enjoy a traditional 3pm kick off, there was certainly a twang of excitement in the air, but also some nerves and honestly, a strong dose of apprehension. Despite Fulham’s stellar start to the campaign, our Champions League competing opponents Aston Villa would prove to be extremely well-drilled under the elite stewardship of Unai Emery, and ultimately it was Fulham who proved to be their own villains of this story as we ran out to a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home. But there were certainly some positives to take away from a tough match-up and of course as with every defeat… plenty of negatives to dive into. Where did it all go right, and wrong, for the mighty Whites? Let’s take a look.

Positives

Raúl Jiménez – The complete footballer

My word… Raul is well and truly in the form of his life. What’s better is this really doesn’t feel like a small bout of form or a purple-patch, this genuinely feels like a player at the top of this game in his natural state. Even on international duty he scored a dreamy free kick and gained another assist, and today he was miles ahead of every other man on that pitch.

That spectacular opening goal sees Raul latching onto a simple goal kick, he controls the ball with composure, shrugs the Villa Centre Back away with ease and slots it past Emiliano Martínez into the bottom corner with his weaker foot. He made something that is extremely difficult to do look natural, and almost dare I say, easy. He is so sharp and clinical and we’re being blessed with these magnificent moments every single match right now.

Then there is the hold up play. While he may not be big in stature (think Mitro and Muniz size) he has no shortage of strength, winning 80% of his aerial duels against towering defenders, drawing fouls and linking up play with 63% passing accuracy, which for a striker playing in dangerous zones of the pitch is very impressive. Couple this with relentless pressing across the front line and six successful defensive actions, and you’ve got a man who is playing as a complete footballer right now. And let’s not forget he should have had an assist to his name for winning the penalty too, which certainly did not go to plan, but we can talk about that later.

For those of you sad about Rodrigo Muniz, don’t worry, his time will come. At age 33 with an option to extend for a year, Raul is in prime form, and the reality is it won’t last forever, so let’s embrace this season, and maybe next, with this man up top. At 23, Rodrigo is still learning the tenacious challenge that the Premier League is and he will get his opportunity again under the stewardship of Silva.

Leno – Eagle-eyed and done dirty

Highlighting the goalkeeper for praise after conceding three goals in defeat is never an easy thing to do, but Bernd Leno did a superb job today and deserves a big pat on the back. Quick to try and encourage fast counter-attacks against our threatening opponents, it was Leno’s keen eye and decisive decision-making that led him to perfectly pick out Raul up top, tearing apart the entire Villa squad with one kick and the rest was up to a very talented forward to bring down and finish. It was lovely to hear the fans actually singing our keeper’s name after a goal and giving him praise where it was due.

There were also a couple of mighty fine stops today, particularly in the first half when Ollie Watkins tore clean through and Leno made himself big to deny the clinical English striker, where most fans were convinced Watkins would give Villa a 2-1 lead.

And when you break the three goals down which included a huge Calvin Bassey deflection and an Issa Diop calamity of an own goal under no pressure to take the ball away from Leno, it’s really only Watkins’ headed goal at the near post you can judge him for, a header won far too easily with barely a defender challenging him. He won’t feel happy after the result, but he can hold his head high for another great outing.

A finely-fought first half

I know I highlighted a similar theme in our last outing at Man City away but… once again we had a really strong first half and it can’t be ignored. In an evenly balanced 45 minutes where both teams looked really dangerous, we saw Raul’s header drop the wrong side of the post, and if we converted that penalty, we walk into half time in the lead with a whole different game-plan for round two. Overall there was a good level of energy and intensity and we competed neck-and-neck against elite opposition and I’m really proud of that first half display. Well, almost all of it!

Negatives

We lost the midfield battle… badly

Since the departure of João Palhinha we were all concerned that there would be a huge Portuguese shaped hole in the middle of the park, but those fears were quickly alleviated with the uprising of one Saša Lukić, a man that has orchestrated silky free-flowing football in the heart of midfield with a tenacious passing accuracy, good pace and healthy aggression in his defensive output too. Then comes the second international break of the season and Saša returns with an injured shoulder and it’s time for plan B. 

Now plan B in theory is great, new signing Sander Berge comes into the squad for the healthy fee of £20m and cements himself in the heart of midfield, maybe playing deeper than his comfort zone permits, but talented enough to handle it. Sadly… it was quite the opposite. He seemed off the pace completely, attempts to win the ball just led to fouls and for a man of his strength and stature he found himself grounded on more than one occasion. We’ve had the shortened pre-season story and it’s been long enough now that that excuse is running out. He was completely bossed today and Rogers was allowed far too much space to get away from him to strike for the equaliser nine minutes in. Out of nine ground duels, he won three and lost six… that’s not what I’m looking for in a player tasked with protecting the defence. We’ll give him time, and look back at this start as a passing phase but… it’s going to take a while mixed with some Marco Silva magic.

Emile Smith Rowe, undoubtedly talented as our most expensive signing of all time, today was non-existent. Bar a few cute moves between him and Alex Iwobi and the occasional bit of link up play, this performance was well under-par for a man who should be the creative heartbeat of the team. The stats don’t read pretty I’m afraid; no shots, no chances created, no accurate crosses or long balls, no fouls drawn and… well, you get the idea. Credit to Aston Villa for shutting him down but, really not good enough today. He was also woefully attempting to mark Watkins before he headed Villa into the lead from the corner, pushing him once then letting him run unchallenged.

Then we come onto Andreas Pereira. This could have had its own section but I think we’re probably tired of discussing this at too much length. That penalty miss was truly awful, coupled with his hissy-fit at Forest when Raul converted the winning penalty instead of him just a few weeks ago, and Andreas really hasn’t covered himself in glory here. In my opinion it’s time to hand over the spot kick to the Mexican who has scored 36 penalties of the 38 he’s taken. And this, like the completely misplaced two-on-one pass at Old Trafford, proved to be a pivotal game-changing moment, costing us points once again. If we go into half time 2-1 up, I really think we had the ability to walk away with all three points. The penalty, coupled with wayward crosses, corners not beating the front man, and an impressive sideways run outside the box leading to indecision and dispossession, and it’s small wonder the crowd jeered as he was subbed off. We should never boo our own players, and I wish Andreas all the best and I’m praying he comes into form soon, but I’m running out of patience very fast. Perhaps ESR and AP aren’t a match made in heaven on the pitch at the same time and Marco needs to do some careful thinking here. I really hope something changes because this story isn’t going away anytime soon.

The red card

In terms of decisive game-changing moments, it doesn’t get much more influential than this, and whatever way you look at it, it’s a big fat negative. Firstly, I’m frustrated that we allowed Watkins to break through so easily, passes like that need to be shut down from the source, our line was a little too high as that was always Villa’s main threat and Joachim Andersen got caught a little short coming across to use his strength as Watkins was half a step ahead of him. We could have prevented that and should have seen the warning signs in the first half. The real disappointment is how soft this decision is. Yes, he’s the last man and any sort of foul stopping a one-on-one goal-scoring opportunity has to be given a red card based on the rules. A rule which you could argue feels a little dated and doesn’t take severity into account.

But putting that aside for one second, Watkins sells Andersen completely short. He has more than enough body strength to stay on his feet when Joachim presses him with his upper body. Watkins’ first touch actually puts the ball in an advantageous position for the defender and when he realises this, he goes down in dramatic fashion to draw the red card. Now, this isn’t cheating, and from a striker’s perspective it’s good play, but it doesn’t stop it from leaving a bitter taste in your mouth as it’s petty when you consider this is supposed to be a contact sport.

Pair that with what is almost a like-for-like scenario when Traore was pushed down one-on-one a few weeks ago against Newcastle, not given as a foul, and it leaves you calling for consistency, again. Just because Traore is built like a brick…house doesn’t mean it isn’t a foul when someone pushes you… as we saw with Watkins. Hopefully we’ll only be without our Great Dane for one match instead of three and we can see Everton away with Diop stepping in.

There’s no need to fret, no matter what the rest of the weekend’s results are Fulham will retain their top ten status for the time being, and with a favourable run of fixtures on the horizon, there’s an excellent opportunity for us to get some big points on the board and push onward. We came up against a superb side, competed well and ultimately didn’t take our chances when it mattered. The rematch will be a thrilling one, and until then, we have plenty of time to embed our newer signings into Marco’s system. Onwards and upwards!