After four tough games Fulham remain unbowed, unbent, and unbroken

A 14-day stint that saw Fulham take on Tottenham, Brighton, Arsenal and Liverpool ended on Saturday at Anfield with our 2-2 draw against the league leaders. In that time, Marco Silva’s side went unbeaten, picking up six points from those four games. 

It’s probably telling of the faith we’ve developed in this side that many of us are a little bit disappointed with that haul. Fulham were the better side against Tottenham, and if that game had ended 11 v 11, there was every chance that all three points could have been secured. And with twice having had the lead against 10-man Liverpool at Anfield, perhaps there’s some annoyance – among players as well as fans – that we were unable to hang on for what would have been a huge victory. 

With that said, we’ve probably ridden our luck a little bit at times too. The tight offside call against Gabriel Martinelli was correct, but those are small margins; and there were a few borderline decisions that went our way on Merseyside as well. 

What’s become fundamentally clear this season, however, is that Fulham aren’t going to be run over by anybody. Marco Silva’s side have lost once in our last 10 games, and even that scoreline against Wolves looks worse than the performance was, given that two of Wolves’ goals were scored when we were chasing the game and had 10 men on the field. 

The biggest teams get the most media attention – and in the last couple of weeks I’ve spent a fair bit of time talking to various preview shows for these clubs and in a more general sense, and the one mantra that I keep coming back to when doing them is that “Fulham will give anyone a game”.

That doesn’t mean that we’re going to win every game from here to the end of the season, nor does it protect us from down days from ourselves and good days from others, but there is a steeliness, a willingness to fight in this team that means that there are almost no fixtures on the calendar that we should be looking at and thinking ‘that one is a free hit’. 

Fulham have proved that on multiple occasions this season, but going to Anfield and playing so fearlessly against a team top of both the Premier League and the Champions League tables should end the debate once and for all.

And all that with a second-string centre-back partnership, with the skipper missing from the end of games because of his suspension, and with room to improve in the final third of the pitch.

This side have gone into a stretch of games which would have tested anybody – three of the sides we have just faced finished in the top five of the Premier League table last year, and Brighton were in the top four at the start of the week in which we faced them – and come out snarling, scrapping, and stealing points from teams who would have expected to beat us. 

A win over Southampton at the Cottage next weekend is not a given, seeing as the Saints will have a new manager in charge, but a performance should be – considering there is a week off to prepare and that a win might well propel us further into the European conversation. Given the outcomes of the final week, that conversation does not seem like idle chatter anymore – whether Marco Silva’s side make it there in the end or not. 

This is a team that has bowled up against a Spurs side that beat City 4-0 the weekend before and played them off their own park. This is a team who welcomed Brighton on a drenched evening in SW6, let them have the ball and then fought back when confronted with difficulties to secure the win. This is a team who went into the ring with a resurgent Arsenal and stunted their title ambitions. And this is a team who went to Anfield and reminded Liverpool that they haven’t won this league yet. 

Four tricky games. Unbeaten. Six points. Eighth in the table. Marco’s Fulham have faced off against the best the league has to offer, and come out of those games unbowed, unbent and unbroken; and even more confident in their own ability to determine their fate.