The home match against Watford kicked off at 12.30pm and anyone arriving two minutes late will have missed another early goal gifted by the Fulham defence.
Zonal marking took on a new meaning as Alfie Mawson, Calum Chambers and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, grouping around Watford’s Will Hughes, allowed him to target an unmarked Andre Gray.
Luciano Vietto squandered a chance to equalise, but the visitors, prompted by Etienne Capoue, dominated the first half with their superb passing.
Bettinelli frustrated Deeney, Christian Kabasele’s free header was blocked by Ryan Sessegnon and Gray should have scored again after a foolish back-header by Mawson.
Just like the previous match against Manchester City, Fulham were fortunate not to be three goals down at half-time.
This time they were luckier still because Fosu-Mensah’s wild lunge at Deeney went unseen by the referee. (The Watford striker subsequently accepted the Dutch player’s apology.)
After the interval. Mawson and Kevin McDonald were replaced by Floyd Ayite and Denis Odoi, and we saw a marked improvement.
Aleksandar Mitrovic came close with two promising headers, but his eventual goal resulted from a low cross from the industrious Vietto.
The Serb was now on fire, and nearly won the match with yet another fierce header that Foster just managed to keep out.
On their second half showing Fulham deserved their point against highly placed Watford, but boss Slavisa Jokanovic must sort out his defence.
I heard someone ask after the match: “Where would we be without Mitrovic?”
That’s an easy one – still in the Championship.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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