Player ratings: Crystal Palace 0-2 Fulham

Our Fulham faced the challenge of a Palace team who had started poorly, but their form was looking up after recent wins against Tottenham and Villa. Despite this, we cruised to victory in South London in a very good showing, here are the specifics on players individual performances.

Bernd Leno
Bernd was forced to make four saves today and managed to keep his second clean sheet of the season, this included a great one-on-one save in the second half to deny Mateta and retain our one goal lead. His distribution was primarily short which was the right thing to do as we had control over the majority of this game, and Palace’s chances often came from poor touches or passes rather than their own creation. 8/10

Kenny Tete
Kenny was defensively exceptional again today, putting in five successful tackles out of five. He also drew a very poor challenge and red card out of Kamada leaving the eagles with ten men for the last 20 minutes, which he seems to love to do at Selhurst Park. If he continues the way he’s going it will be very tough for Castagne to get his place back, but the healthy competition is great for the squad. 8/10

Joachim Andersen
Our great Dane was the talk of the town heading into this fixture, as he returned to familiar soil facing Crystal Palace for the first time since he left them for London’s original. Some called it a sideways move but today proved that we are a level above. He was almost at fault for a Palace opener after some miscommunication with Leno but a dramatic goal line clearance was enough to recover, and he managed to limit Mateta well throughout the game despite the pace difference. 7.5/10

Calvin Bassey
Andersen’s lack of pace could have been a struggle for our back line, but not with Calvin Bassey by his side. This game was a brilliant example of why these two make such a great partnership, Calvin’s speed was a huge factor and there were multiple occasions where he came to the rescue as he raced back to deny Mateta from creating chances. 7.5/10

Antonee Robinson
Sometimes I watch Robinson and wonder how on earth that man gets up and down the pitch so quick, this was another example of that and he showed once again just how crucial he is to this system. Four interceptions and seven recoveries are two stats that speak for themselves when describing his performance. Yes, the odd cross often flew off in the wrong direction but this is something we’ve all become accustomed to by now. 8/10

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Sander Berge
The skyscraper that is Sander Berge has been improving game by game since his debut and he put in another solid performance at Selhurst Park. He used his height to his advantage as he battled to win some tough aerial duels and helped to link the play between the defence and attack well, as he continues the fill the void left by Palhinha’s transfer and Saša’s injury. 8/10

Andreas Pereira
A man facing a big amount of criticism particularly at the beginning of the season, seems to be getting ever so slightly better as games go by in his new, deeper role. Maybe adapting to this role over time will strike a change in form as today he didn’t make me want to pull my hair out at any point which is progress. He had a good chance on the half-volley where he managed to smash it into Dean Henderson’s face, in which he arguably should have done better, but as a whole it was a satisfactory performance from Andreas and if Marco trusts him then so should we. 7/10

Emile Smith Rowe
It had been a while since Emile scored after such a fantastic start, but he bagged again today with a cool finish one-on-one against Henderson which he slotted into the bottom right corner before shushing the home fans. He was unlucky not to have two as he hit the back of the net again in the second half only for VAR to take what must have been around five minutes to decide that he was millimetres offside. His dribbling and all round play shined too with his intricate touches often allowing him to dance through Palace players. 9/10 – Man of the match.

Reiss Nelson
Reiss Nelson was starting for the second match running and deservedly so after his top performances off the bench. His finishing was a bit rushed against Brentford which was my only concern but unfortunately again at Selhurst he missed one or two chances which in a tougher game could be costly. However, once again he showed his class when taking on players and he is an extremely creative player that can make a chance from nothing and that is his main purpose, some more composure in the finishing department and he would be unstoppable, overall a solid performance. 7/10

Alex Iwobi
In top form recently, and after Marco described him as one of our best players this season, Alex Iwobi did not disappoint at all on the road this weekend. He created the most chances out of anyone on the pitch, assisted Harry Wilson’s goal and found himself unfortunate not to have another assist with his perfect ball across the box to Smith Rowe for the goal that was called offside. 8.5/10

Raul Jimenez
Raúl played very well today especially considering he wasn’t really provided with any clear cut chances, he had a spin and shot in the first half reminiscent of that against Villa but couldn’t hit the target. But the striker turned to provider as he played the ball through and got himself the assist for Emile’s opener. He worked very hard and contested for a lot of aerial duels against the three center-backs of Palace which is not an easy job. 7.5/10

Substitutes

Rodrigo Muniz (75’ for Raúl Jimenez)
Only touched the ball five times and made one pass, not enough to be fairly assessed.

Harry Wilson (82’ for Reiss Nelson)
He’s done it again. The Welsh Messi scored off the bench today after around 38 seconds to secure the victory, and lighting was about to strike twice as just minutes later he put the ball in the back of the net for a second time only for VAR to disallow it for handball. He had the away end rocking with his cameo as he also found himself another scoring opportunity but a bit more selfishness would have helped as he tried to square it with nobody arriving. It will be very interesting to see whether he gets a place in the starting XI after the international break. 8.5/10

Tom Cairney (83’ for Andreas Pereira)
Not enough time to be fairly assessed.

Harrison Reed (89’ for Emile Smith Rowe)
Not enough time to be fairly assessed.

Adama Traore (89’ for Alex Iwobi)
Whilst he had very limited time on the pitch, I don’t think it would be fair to not point out the incredible pass Adama played to Harry Wilson for the second disallowed goal, his end product is what we moan about but if he can keep playing passes like that then we’re in for a treat. 6.5/10