Thursday Fulham Stuff - 29/10/26...

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League Cup Result

Wednesday 28/10

Fulham

0-1

Crystal Palace

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Fulham 0-1 Crystal Palace
Eddie Nketiah's smart first-half finish put Crystal Palace into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals as Pierre Sage's side snatched victory at Fulham.

The cup run won't relieve all the pressure on Sage, given Palace have lost five of their eight Premier League games to put huge focus on the manager's position, but this will brighten the mood at the club.

The Eagles boss gambled with 10 changes from the weekend defeat by Newcastle in the Premier League, with his focus clearly more on Saturday's trip to Tottenham, but they still managed to squeeze past Alvaro Arbeloa's side.

Fulham started strongly but squandered early chances, with Kenny Tete, Antonee Robinson and Joachim Andersen all off target from inside the area.

The visitors were being completely dominated in the opening half, but then Nketiah found the net against the run of play.

Oscar Mingueza crossed in the 37th minute and Nketiah provided a clever flick to find the net with what was Palace's only shot of the first half.

Fulham, who made six changes from their weekend win over Coventry, kept Palace under pressure after the break.

Alex Iwobi had a close-range effort saved by Dean Henderson, who recovered from injury to make his first appearance since early September for the Eagles.

Fulham boss Arbeloa made changes in a bid to get Fulham level in the tie - including bringing on Josh King and Gonzalo Garcia.

Daichi Kamada missed a good chance for Palace late on before Garcia had a header saved by Henderson at the other end as Fulham failed to find an equaliser.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cx30ej1531eyt

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Post-Crystal Palace Press Conference
Álvaro Arbeloa acknowledged that there were plenty of areas where Fulham needed to be better in our Carabao Cup defeat by Crystal Palace.

The Whites were by far the better team but lacked a cutting edge, and so found ourselves sucker-punched by our South-East London counterparts for the second time this season.

Arbeloa – who began his press conference by expressing his condolences to those affected by the train crash in his native Spain earlier in the day – said: "Same history, another day.

"I think they were waiting for a mistake. They took their chance, and I think we can do better. Even when we have the possession, we have to move the ball quicker against a very low-block team, and we need to make more runs, and do it better in the last pass.

"I think we need to create more chances in the wide areas. We need to be more patient, and we need to understand how you have to attack a team like Crystal Palace.

"They were defending well and defending their space but, similar to other games, I think we need to learn that we will face many teams in this league that are waiting for your mistake, and you need to be clever and to be patient and to understand that you have to do very well with the ball, and you need to be aware of the transition.

"We won the last two games because we didn't concede chances, we didn't concede goals, and the other day [against Coventry] we were waiting 80 minutes until we had our chance, and for me this is what we have to do.

"And it's a really frustrating night for everyone, for me as a manager, because I know how important this game is for the Club, for the supporters, and the most important thing for tonight is that we need to learn as quick as we can."



https://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2026/october/28/post-crystal-palace-press-conference/

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Fulham flop against Crystal Palace yet again as concerns grow over lack of firepower
Carabao Cup Fourth Round

Fulham (0) 0

Crystal Palace (1) 1 Nketiah 37

For Fulham, it was a case of 'It's happened again.'

They have come to realy dread the visit of the Eagles - having lost the last four to their south London rivals and having failed to beat thm by the Thames since 2005 - a run of nine games before this latest reverse.

Once again Palace prevailed - as they did not so long ago in winning a Premier League clash 3-2. They are into the quarter-finals with another Wembley visit still a carrot for them.

Even with a decidedly second string starting XI, it turns out they had the measure of the Whites. They scored against the run of play but then managed the game impressively. They limited Fulham to very few chances.

This was a result to ease some of the pressure on boss Pierre Sage, whose job feels under threat after a difficult start to his tenure since arriving in the summer. A clean sheet is also so welcome after conceding more league goals so far than anyone else in the top flight.

But conversely, the Whites will be worried about their feeble attack. Only two goals against two promoted sides and none against the worst defence in the Prem.

It was nearly all change for the Eagles - with 10 new faces in the starting line-up from the weekend defeat to Newcastle. For Fulham, it was a mere six changes. The net outcome was a more cohesive looking Fulham than their visitors during most of the opening half.

They should have gone in front when Kenny Tete had a free far-post header that he put into the side netting and Cesar Palacios was denied by the legs of a returning Dean Henderson after being set up by Sander Berge inside the area.

Eagles fans crammed into the river side half of the Putney End will have been pleased to see their talismanic keeper back between the sticks.

The many goals they have conceded this season are not down to Walter Benitez by any means but the psycholgy of having their trophy-winning stopper back in situ was no doubt reassuring.

For the opening half an hour, Palace were frankly nowhere and hardly venturing beyond half way. But they nosed in front when Oscar MMingueza's perfectly angled cross from the right was met superby by Eddie Nketiah - getting in front of Joachim Andersen to steer the ball beyond Benjamin Lecomte.

Almost improbably, the away fans started lauding 'Perre Sage's red and blue army.' Considering the boos his team received after the loss to Newcastle and the fact he is under so much pressure, it was perhaps unexpected, but then again Eagles fans are not easily discouraged.

Fulham's 75 per cent of the ball had got them nowhere so it was no surprise that we saw a triple change from Alvaro Arbeloa before the hour was up. On came Josh King and Tom Cairney in a bid to find greater creativity. Gonzalo Garcia thrown on with 15 to play. Pierre Sage responded by introducing Adam Wharton for Palace.

The Whites did briefly look more balanced and Alex Iwobi wasn't far from stabbing in from close rage - it needed a good save from Henderson on his goalline to block the effort. But it was Palace who grew stronger as the minutes ticked by - Dwight McNeil and Yeremy Pino coming on to add more heft.

Garcia had a late header at goal and Kevin flashed a ball across the face of goal in injury time but it was not nearly enough.

Whites: (4-2-3-1) Lecomte - Tete (Castagne 58), Andersen, Bassey, Robinson - Berge. Larsson (Cairney 58) - Bobb (Kevin 82), Palacios (King 58), Iwobi (Garcia 73) - Muniz

Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Lerma, Chilwell (Michell 61), Richards - Mingueza, Hughes, Doucoure (Wharton 61), Ahanor - Osorio (Pino 77), Guessand (Kamada 77) - Nketiah (McNeil 71)

Attendance: 22,420



https://www.capitalfootball.co.uk/single-post/fulham-flop-against-crystal-palace-yet-again-as-concerns-grow-over-lack-of-firepower

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Fulham 0-1 Crystal Palace: Eddie Nketiah goal seals Carabao Cup progression and eases pressure on Pierre Sage
Palace win at Craven Cottage for the second time this season

Crystal Palace eased the pressure on manager Pierre Sage as Eddie Nketiah's first-half goal saw them to a 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Sage's team will play in the Carabao Cup quarter-final but Fulham will wonder how after they dominated virtually every aspect of the game against a team lacking in confidence and low on ideas.

Despite the win, there was little to convince travelling fans that a corner has been turned in their team's torrid start to the season.

When Palace won 3-2 on this ground on September 5, Alvaro Arbeloa appeared to be the new manager whose future looked uncertain.

Two wins in the last two games have relieved the pressure and hauled Fulham up the Premier League table, and Sage, whose Palace team have sunk to 17th, now looks to be the manager in peril. It remains to be seen whether he will be in charge to lead his team in the next round.

Supporters in the away end sang their under-fire boss' name late in the fist half with their team a goal up, but this was another performance to draw concern for the club's direction since the Frenchman was appointed.

That Fulham failed to score was remarkable. Early on, Kenny Tete was left free at the far post at a corner but headed into the side-netting, then Palace were saved by the foot of Dean Henderson after leaving more space inside the box for Antonee Robinson to shoot.

Joachim Andersen ought to have scored against his old club but sent an unchallenged header over the bar from inside the six-yard box, as Palace again failed to mark at a corner.

The visitors were poor throughout the first half. On the rare occasion they brought the ball into Fulham's half, there was little idea of what to do with it. Cheick Doucoure summed things up for his team with an awful pass to no one that rolled away for a throw-in.

Fulham appeared to be coasting towards half-time, but then the first piece of quality from Palace caught them cold. A lovely cross from the right by Oscar Mingueza saw Nketiah manoeuvre himself across Andersen and expertly turn the ball wide of Benjamin Lecomte into the corner.

From then on it was a matter of attack versus defence, with Palace at times doing seemingly little more than stand and watch Fulham play through them. Henderson somehow kept out Alex Iwobi from virtually on the goal-line as Palace made yet another botched attempt to clear away a corner.

A rare foray forward saw Daichi Kamada poke a shot wide from Tyrick Mitchell's cut-back, but it would have been far from a fair reflection of things had it squeezed inside the post.

Gonzalo Garcia put another free header straight at Henderson in stoppage time. In the end, Fulham simply ran out of time, as Sage's team squeaked through.



https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/fulham-crystal-palace-carabao-cup-nketiah-goal-sage-b1302731.html

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Nketiah steals win for Palace as wasteful Fulham stumble out of League Cup
Arbeloa's side blow numerous chances as horror-show defending disintegrates Fulham's hopes for cup success at the Cottage

The League Cup will sit absent from Fulham's trophy cabinet for another year. Crystal Palace have continued their streak of positive results at Craven Cottage with a 1-0 win, won through our favourite combination of wayward abandon in front of goal and utter recklessness managing our defence. Eddie Nketiah scored an unforgivably easy goal in the first half, after a hatful of chances were squandered by the team, and we failed to muster a response in over an hour of football. The result? A night that saw our pretty possession play stained with hideous performances from several men in white has let a frankly uninspired Palace side claim victory over us, and make it to the quarter-finals of an increasingly open cup draw - one we will be watching from the sidelines, yet again.

First Half
Could Fulham turn their recent fortunes around against Palace tonight? Beaten four times in four home games against our visitors, an ugly run including being dumped out of the Cup by Eberechi Eze and binning two leads to lose 3-2 last month, there was a wave of energy around the team as they stepped out onto the pitch today. Certainly they started with bite, dominating possession and pressing high to pen a passive Palace into their own final third. We operated high up the pitch, our backline stepping forward to put Fulham on the front foot in the game.

It certainly looked impressive, and in the context of a miserable few weeks for Pierre Sage, his team slunk backwards into a cautious 5-4-1, Nketiah stranded from the action. With Iwobi and Palacios drifting around in the middle, Robinson and Tete very advanced along the wings and Berge and Larsson stepping around the box to link play, a lot of moves were attempted around the box. Tete worked particularly hard along the right with Bobb, bypassing a stodgy Chilwell to unlock a route into the box.

Not for the first time though, our chances weren't being taken. A freekick won by Bassey needed a strong clearance to repel Iwobi's delivery, but the midfielder's corner to Tete was far more accurate and unmarked in the six yard box the right-back needed to do better than put his header into the sidenetting. Iwobi continued to be involved, storming down the right to collect a long pass and whipping a cross into the middle that Muniz headed into Lerma. A handball decision would have been harsh, and wasn't given - Berge collected the rebound and moved it left for Robinson, who had space on the left but dragged his effort along the floor for Henderson to stop with his legs. The right channel continued to bear fruit, Tete asserting himself to win a corner against Chilwell - Bobb's delivery was excellent, but Andersen slammed his header over as he stormed onto the cross.

We've been here before - the "better" team but unable to convert it into the one statistic crucial to the result. Slowly, Palace started finding a few passes, coming out of their shell to remind us they were a presence in the game. As another set-piece, earned by Tete's dribble drawing a foul from a trailing Guessand, was squandered by a Muniz foul before Bobb's cross could even reach the box (or, by Muniz heading the ball into the floor for Henderson to smother), Palace grabbed their moment. An inattentive Iwobi reacted too slowly to the bounce of the ball, letting wing-back Mingueza pounce, seizing possession from the stumbling midfielder. With Robinson marooned in attack he cruised along our left, curling the ball into the box before a frantic Bassey could cut across and reach him. Andersen, sauntering into the box, was oblivious to the run of Nketiah, standing docile as the ball flew into the box; the striker needed no invitation to stride in front of him, touching the ball to guide it towards the goal, out of the reach of Lecomte's hopeful dive. From nothing, their first attack of any substance, Palace led the game, aided by pitiful work in defence.

Back on the ball, Fulham tried to up the ante and grab a quick equaliser, but Palace had snatched an advantage and had the motivation to lock into their defensive structures. Muniz found even less space amongst the centre-backs as he struggled to beat them in the air for Bobb crosses. A deflected cross from Tete saw Robinson chest down the ball for Berge to volley over, the deflection yielding a corner that Lerma cleared well, and a crafty one-two between Bobb and Tete saw the winger loft a ball for Berge that he headed comfortably over; indeed, it was a painfully familiar story as we went into the break.

Second Half
Frustratingly it was Palace who had the first opportunity of the second half, using some of their conserved energy to ride our opening move, Muniz making a clumsy foul on Richards in the process, and put a few bodies around our half. The evening might have truly soured with their first attack, as a loose ball into Tete saw the right-back stumble, Guessand devouring the space and snatching the ball off him. Thankfully Lecomte was alert and blocked the acute shot the winger tried, keeping the deficit to one.

Palacios tried to get involved more, forcing Lerma into a yellow card on a breakaway. The Iwobi free kick was good again, Andersen winning the header wide in the box and Bassey putting Henderson under pressure to earn a corner, but Palace's aerial comfort continued to keep them secure. The Spaniard made another good move, dispatching Robinson along the left, and at speed the left-back whipped the ball into the box, forcing Ahanor to make a decent block to stop Muniz reaching it. It seemed to unpiece Palace, as the furore from the corner saw Hughes give Ahanor the ball under pressure - the centre-back awkwardly scuffed the ball to Muniz, right in front of the box, but Rodrigo managed only a swipe at the ball that rolled straight to Henderson.

We weren't doing enough, and Arbeloa recognised it, introducing a-listers King, Cairney and Castagne for a patchy Palacios, an indifferent Larsson and the ever-reliable Tete. Our captain tried to weave his quality into the game, cutting through the lines with incisive passes, though he'd need better than the wayward touches Robinson was offering, miscontrolling the ball on the touchline to end an attacking move. More composed was Iwobi, collecting a brilliant forward ball from Cairney and taking strike at goal, the deflection earning another corner that Palace needed to deal with. Sensing the danger, Sage brought Mitchell and Wharton on for physical relief and defensive structure, shifting Palace further into consolidation of their lead.

This, of course, increased the need for poise and clinicality in the final third. Palace, for all their talent, offered scant little going forward, content to ward their box and frustrate us around it. It was Cairney who found a rare shot on target for us, on the end of a nice move orchestrated by Iwobi and assisted by Robinson's overlapping cross along the ground... with a touch more fortune his kick wouldn't have clattered into Richards on the block. Castagne and King resumed their chemistry with a confident Bobb along the right, piecing together slick passages of play against a busy Mitchell. One such move led to yet another corner, taken by Bobb, flicked on by Castagne and reaching Iwobi in the six-yard box. He wrapped his leg around the defender, needing virtually any touch to put the ball into the net... the one he managed conspired to hit Henderson from point blank range, and the equaliser continued to elude us.

The game dragged on, our quality starting to slip away, typified by Robinson nutmegging himself trying to collect a Berge pass. It was becoming yet another match where the build-up play failed to produce shots - let alone shots on target - and as Arbeloa threw on Gonzalo Garcia to add another striker to the mix Palace looked quite comfortable, and with substitutes McNeil, Pino and Kamada forming a revitalised frontline we started to look vulnerable on the break, their snappiness catching us on the back-foot. Robinson's ugly evening continued, Mingueza taking it off him deep in our half and moving it centrally to Pino, who slipped McNeil through; Lecomte was sharply off his line to deny Palace a second. A Berge shot into a defender saw another break, Kamada soaring clear of Andersen and dispatching McNeil, who wriggled free of Bassey to find clear air before the box but curled a gentle effort for Lecomte to catch.

Kevin arrived from the bench, our last chance for a hero to emerge from the darkness - his composure was far less than the previous substitutes, at one point spinning a corner straight out of play from the flag. Robinson's horror evening continued as he struggled to manage Palace's attack, and with Castagne operating as a right-winger Mitchell had the freedom to glide along the left without opposition, playing a pass central beyond a pitiful attempted block by Andersen. Kamada slicing the ball wide to spare us the ignominy of conceding a second. Robinson's evening threatened to turn into farce, his confidence evaporating with each second - skewing the ball into Palace hands from a good position and killing our momentum once again.

And yet! These two maligned players combined on the left for Fulham's last clear opportunity, Kevin threading a pass through to Robinson on the overlap, finally ahead of Mingueza and into the attacking channel. His cross was accurate, sailing into space in the box, and Garcia, quiet up until now, had space away from Lerma to take the header... straight into Henderson's path, who easily palmed the ball away. It was the final blow to our confidence - stoppage time took a descent into the abyss, with Robinson wasting some good dribbling from King with a rotten touch to knock the ball out of play again, and Cairney lifting a cross out of bounds for one last blown attack. The full time whistle put us out of the cup, and out of our misery, Palace had beaten us once again.

Misery, thy name is Fulham
A staggering ten (10) home matches have passed without victory over Crystal Palace, who on current form are nothing close to the Glasner side beat us on route to winning the FA Cup or even the side that we conspired to give three points to last month. Their 1-0 win today was not a Mourinho defensive masterclass, or a lesson in control from one of the great Italian outfits, but a reminder of the consequences when basic tenets of the game are ignored - fail to take your chances, and simple mistakes will prove fatal.

We had three very scoreable chances fall to defenders capable of scoring strong-foot shots or headers from inside the box in the first half before we conceded, any one of which would have changed the course of the game. Muniz, Cairney and Iwobi all had shots on target that might have found their way into the net with a touch more composure, or in Iwobi's case even the slightest degree of fortune. Around these moments were dozens of crosses, through balls and set-pieces that with the slightest tweaks would have connected intricate attacking play to a man in the right position. Yet an unpleasant zero sits in our goals column. What is going wrong for us in attack?

I think one clear problem is confidence, typified by watching the performance of an individual like Antonee Robinson tonight. We have the moves, we can watch the team pull strings out of the opponent's bow, we can dominate all the attacking statistics, but when we have the ball in the final third, there's a hesitancy that lets doubt and fear creep into our game, the edge shifts back to the defender, the attack breaks down. Robinson has not suddenly shifted into a cadaver but his confidence ebbed away, leading to mistakes so amateurish you'd think a doppelganger had assumed the position. Amongst the calamitous errors he made crosses a team with a touch of goal-scoring assurance would have scored - clearly the man is not a busted flush just yet!

As risible as he was for much of the evening I can't help but feel greater scrutiny should be applied to Andersen, returning to the starting line-up for the cup. His defending throughout the evening was horrible, most obviously when he was outmaneuvered by an otherwise uninvolved Nketiah but across many disquieting moments watching him stagger behind the play, unable to operate at the speed of the action. Arguably without the concession Fulham still have a chance to out-gun Palace on penalties... in frustrating games like this you need your defence, particularly your most experienced defenders, to have their eyes on the game. Compare Bassey or Tete to the Dane's efforts tonight and it is clear to see why he has been dropped.

Given how much attacking the team did to no avail, it feels pointless offering any praise - harsh for many of the players involved, like Bobb, a player with a noticeable spring in his step, or Tete, fighting hard to earn his starting place back from Castagne. Iwobi had some nice moments on the ball but his gaffe that led up to the goal is hard to overlook. Palacios did too little until far too late into his time on the pitch. The Berge-Larsson pairing lacked the dynamism to crack a defensively congested Palace side, certainly when compared to the work Charles has done in recent weeks, though Berge deserves some praise for at least trying to step forward in the action. Cairney showed some quality off the bench, Castagne was productive down the right and King continued to demonstrate his role as our attacking star, but these pieces are not enough to turn the tide against a Premier League outfit.

I suppose it brings us onto our main problem... where will our goals come from? Muniz is adored by a lot of the support and with Garcia's struggles for fluidity (again, does a striker with the world at his feet put a gilt-edged chance like the one he received straight into the keeper's path?) there is an obvious case to put him back into the team - it's one I and many others have found ourselves arguing. An ugly truth, though, is that the man is not as reliable a striker as the image we construct of him suggests, and his passion and energy around the pitch don't actually translate to enough goals to be an instant solution. This isn't to say he is a poor player - his pressing is strong, and before Garcia ended up occupying the same areas as him he made himself busy around the frontline - but the goals aren't going to automatically come for him, as evidenced by the difficulty he had even winning the ball ahead of the Palace centre-backs, let along making Henderson work to make a save. It's a troubling situation to find ourselves in, not least as Arbeloa has a cup exit and a run of tougher games to try and resolve the conundrum in.

Sage Stages a Siege
We'll offer Palace some praise by saying that they defended well in the second half and made life difficult for us as the chasing team, as any good defence should. The centre-backs, Richards in particular, had a solid grasp on their tasks, and the times they were beaten saw Dean Henderson showcase why he goes to international tournaments with England. Personally though I thought they were quite fortunate to be heading through and essentially relied on our inability to function as a proper team against them (again!) The chaotic opening spell of the game, had we managed to find the net once, would have forced Palace to creep out of their shell and expose the flanks to an even greater degree than we saw in the game.

Unlike in previous years we weren't outplayed by technical brilliance - barring the final stage of the game with Fulham tired and running out of ideas they seldom attacked with any coherency, relying on defensive mishaps and opportunities from the blue. Chilwell/Mitchell and Mingueza were camped alongside their centre-backs for the majority of the game, Hughes, Doucoure and eventually Wharton spent more time blocking than distributing in midfield and the attackers were willing runners more than a formidable frontline, the substitutes generating more in 20 minutes than the starts in 70. Nketiah scored his chance and his team are through, but they have a lot of areas to improve on should they wish to progress.

But perhaps they won't? Maybe they'll draw Bradford City and Fleetwood, and flex their top flight muscle over the lower league outfits. Perhaps they'll get Bournemouth or Sunderland, sides with similarly patchy starts to the season like ours, and be able to outgun them in a straight fight. Manchester City and Liverpool will be tough, but they can always repeat the tricks of tonight, and sneak a victory against teams stretched with European duties to manage. It is for everyone at Fulham to ponder - once again we are looking at the cup from the outside, another missed opportunity to add to the substantial mound at the Cottage.



https://www.fulhamish.co.uk/p/nketiah-steals-win-for-palace-as