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Fulham 2 : 0 Blackburn Rovers
Fulham are now just 20 points from automatic promotion after many of the chasing sides obligingly lost again over the weekend. The Cottagers did their part with this comfortable 2-0 win over Blackburn.
QPR lost at home to Cardiff and on form Luton’s winning run came to a halt at the Riverside where Middlesbrough beat them 2-1. Second-placed Bournemouth surprisingly lost at Preston and Coventry lost to Swansea on a good weekend for Welsh sides.
Two other play-off chasers, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest drew 1-1, both dropping two points.
Only Huddersfield and distant Millwall match Middlesbrough’s win, illustrating just how weak the clutch of play-off challengers is compared to the sides in the bottom half.
“No-one since Wolves, who cantered to the Championship in 2017/18, have survived and blossomed in the EPL since winning the second tier.”
Tuesday’s fixtures will do even more damage to the pack as Sheffield United host Middlesbrough, Blackburn host Millwall and Luton visit Coventry.
Although Huddersfield overtook Bournemouth and temporarily occupy second. Scott Parker’s side have four games in hand, the first of which is Peterborough at home on Tuesday.
Huddersfield can still reach 92 points, leaving Fulham a current target of 93. They are on 73 already. Swansea and Barnsley away in the next week give a side with a better away record than at the Cottage, a chance to put a massive dent in that.
But here’s the issue.
Until recently, it was safe to assume that any side who ran away with the Championship would be a good bet to survive their first year in the Premier League. Norwich and Watford have proved that assumption is no longer a certainty in this era. Leeds had a decent first year in the EPL but are now struggling. The previous year Norwich came straight back down.
No one since Wolves, who cantered to the Championship title in 2017/18, have survived and blossomed in the top-flight since winning the second tier.
There was hardly a journalist or a fan watching them coast over one of the division’s better sides who believes the current eleven can make an impact next year.
So after the bets on the timing of the first appearance of the ‘Is this a library’ song have been settled, the question is asked: “How many of the players who started today will start when they make their EPL debut?”
Neco Williams’ name comes up but he is on loan from Liverpool. Harrison Reed perhaps? But then the caveat is added, “if he continues his improvement.”
Aleksander Mitrovic, Antonee Robinson, Neeskens Kebano, Tosin Adarabioyo, Tim Ream and Kenny Tete played in the side that plummeted out of the Premier League last year. You could argue that Kebano and Adarabioyo are on their way upwards in terms of their careers though and that Tete had injury issues last season.
That leaves Harry Wilson and Fabio Carvalho of the outfielders, as well as Jean-Michael Seri who was hardly selected by Parker last year and was sent out on loan to Bordeaux.
Whether Marek Rodak can cope with the likely large workload any better than Alphonse Areola who kept the goalkeeper out the side last year is also doubted.
“Scott Parker seemed to feel the pressure to field all his loan players at times and there were just too many of them for that to be a workable situation.”
On the upside, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa surely has learnt a trick or two at Napoli where he has made 16 appearances and Terence Kongolo is yet to return from injury. Nathaniel Chalobah, Josh Onomah and Bobby Decordova-Reid are the mainstays of the backup.
Some of the men who struggled last year will have improved by learning and it may be premature to rule the likes of Decordova-Reid, Tete and Adarabioyo from being solid EPL material. As mentioned, Tete battled with injury and Decordova-Reid came up against Parker’s bewildering decision to keep selecting Ruben Loftus-Cheek despite any available evidence that he fitted in with the tactical plan.
Parker seemed to feel the pressure to field all his loan players at times and there were just too many of them for that to be a workable situation.
This brings the discussion to an obvious conclusion. Loan players are not going to keep Fulham up.
The current squad needs improvement both at the first eleven level and down. Is there low hanging fruit from the sides likely to be met on the way up? It’s not abnormal for relegated sides to want to reduce their payroll after all.
The Championship version made light work of Blackburn once they stopped the histrionics to con penalties from the referee. Twice Fulham players clearly slipped and despite Mitrovic and Wilson both being well aware of the truth harangued the referee who had seen through them. From the giant Serb, we expect and to some extent accept such gamesmanship, but it was disappointing to see it spreading.
Fulham went ahead just into the latter half of the first half. Neeskens Kebano was first to pounce after Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski failed to hold Neco Williams’ somewhat tame shot. It was a bit of a gift but all credit to Kebano for his alertness.
Comic irony arrived ten minutes later when referee David Webb booked Rovers’ Thrhys Dolan for diving. To be fair, he did dive while Mitrovic and Wilson merely slipped. Their sin was pretending to have been fouled rather than diving and then pretending to have been fouled.
Three minutes later, Wilson added the second with a beautiful chip over the outrushing Kaminski while chasing down an Adarabioyo through ball. It’s rare to read a pundit saying a side does not do route one often enough, but this goal was a perfect example of route one being done well.
That was the end of the scoring although Fulham with 63% of possession managed 14 shots of which six were on target.
Rovers had the ball in the net during a far better second half. Joe Rankin-Costello was offside at the free-kick only Bradley Johnson and Sam Gallagher touched the ball. Rankin-Costello neither shot nor scored the rebound but replays showed that Johnson was also, though more marginally, offside.
The outcome was inevitable and it was clear that Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray’s mind was on the next game well before the final whistle. That game is with Millwall who have won five on the trot, scoring eight and conceding two.
Rovers lead the Lions by five points but have played a game more, so a loss would place them theoretically behind Millwall and more than theoretically if Gary Rowett’s Londoners go on to make it seven straight wins.
Fulham’s minds are now more on next year than the next match.
With the chasing pack dropping points almost every week. 93 points will see them mathematically promoted but 83 will almost certainly be enough.
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