Positives and Negatives: Fulham 3-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

Jack Stroudley looks back at Fulham’s midweek win on the Thames.

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Fulham have entered a tricky December period with four points out of a possible six and a 3-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion, a win that moves Marco Silva’s side up to sixth! During periods of the game this article could’ve been written very differently as the game ebbed and flowed. Nevertheless, Fulham showed a clinical nature to get three goals and three points on a blistery Thursday night, but what are the main talking points from the Thames?

Positives

Incredible Iwobi

Can somebody please give Alexander Chuka Iwobi the keys to the city because he is absolutely on it this season. Iwobi’s performance on Thursday night summed up the type of campaign he’s having for Fulham, his pressing from the off was rewarded inside the opening three minutes of the game nicking the ball back following a sloppy Verbruggen pass and slotting into an empty net.

3 out of 4 successful dribbles and a peach of a strike late on sealed the deal for Fulham. He also done all that playing slightly more centrally with Lukic out with a suspension showing the versatility the Nigerian offers us. He’s in the form of his life, long may it continue.

Statement of intent

Following the results on Wednesday evening we knew a win could send us as high as sixth and speaking to a few mates this felt like a real opportunity for Fulham to make a statement, we did just that. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t exactly sparkling for large portions of the game. Brighton played well and controlled the midfield for parts of the game, Bernd Leno had to make some brilliant saves and the defence had to step in and make vital challenges on multiple occasions.

But we rode our luck at times and were clinical when it mattered – that’s a true sign of a good team. There’s still a long way to go and I’m still not fully convinced we’re the finished article (I’d quite like a number nine in January) but if we can keep in touching distance, who knows what could unfold towards the end of the season.

One of our own

A final positive note, how nice was it to see Josh King make his Premier League debut? The 17-year-old came on with ten minutes to go while the game was at 2-1 and looked pretty good on his first league appearance. A few nice give-and-go’s with Iwobi and Robinson down the left-hand side, won the ball back a few times and overall didn’t look out of place. Marco Silva clearly rates King highly and after a respectable first league game and with the FA Cup coming up, this certainly won’t be the last we see of the midfielder this season.

Negatives

Lack of Lukic

Without being too much of a downer, there is one negative point I’d like to address. Two late goals from Fulham made the result look a lot more comfortable than it actually was and I think the reason for that was our lack of bite in midfield. Sander Berge’s early yellow card, a makeshift Alex Iwobi (yes I know he scored two) and Emile Smith-Rowe struggled during large portions of the game to control the ball and settle the game down.

It all just felt a little bit frantic at times and on another day, the Seagulls would’ve punished us on more than one occasion. Thankfully, Lukic is back against Arsenal who we won’t be able to afford those same chances, but overall a good night for Fulham!