Bournemouth 3-1 Fulham
Fulham's two matches leading up to the international break were against a team near the bottom (Aston Villa) and a team near the top (Bournemouth). These contests proved to be disturbingly similar because in both the Whites took the lead only for the opposition to score three goals in return.
Yet there was no disgrace in last Friday's defeat. A trip to Bournemouth in the first week of October should be a treat but not if Storm Amy is in town. With torrential conditions affecting both teams (and the brave spectators) it was commendable that the last half hour contained some top-notch football. The match could easily have ended in a draw.
Unable to select either Raoul Jimenez or Rodrigo Muniz (both injured) Marco Silva introduced Issa Diop to strengthen his defence. There was another problem for the head coach when Sasa Lukic suffered an early setback and needed to be replaced by Tom Cairney.
Though the home side dominated the first half Fulham rallied in the last fifteen minutes with Ryan Sessegnon and Josh King combining well and Alex Iwobi having his effort blocked. Even so it had taken 45 minutes for the Londoners to have a shot on target.
Silva admitted during the interval 'We have to do better on the ball'. He may also have warned his defenders not to lose track of Antoine Semenyo even though the Ghanaian had been little in evidence until the closing moments of the half.
The second period began with Fulham still under pressure. Timothy Castagne made a timely intervention and Bernd Leno beat away a difficult corner from David Brooks (fortunately Francisco Evanilson was off target with the rebound).
Bournemouth could have won a penalty when Diop pushed Evanilson in the back but a very long VAR examination eventually found nothing amiss. At the other end Harry Wilson gave the drenched goalkeeper Djorde Petrovic his first real save of the match.
Substitutions around the hour mark often change outcomes. So it was with Bournemouth's Justin Kluivert and Fulham's Samuel Chukwueze. In the 70th minute Samuel interchanged passes with Sessegnon and put him through to score with flair. Silva's defensive strategy seemed to be paying off but he could not legislate for the brilliance of two Bournemouth stars.
Nine minutes after Fulham's goal Semenyo took the ball down the left and reached the goal-line before cutting in and sending the ball through the legs of a startled Bernd Leno. Then Kluivert was allowed to move from the halfway line and choose his spot before swirling the ball into the corner of the net.
Tom Cairney had a chance to equalise but he was just off target and anyway Bournemouth were still dangerous. Just before the final whistle, with Fulham hunting an equaliser, Ben Gannon-Doke broke away and gave Semenyo the easiest of chances.
It is not our first experience of that wizard from Ghana. In our Championship period he once threatened our promotion hopes with two dazzling goals. Luckily we still had Alex Mitrovic to reply with a hat-trick. On Friday night Marco Silva fielded his best available players but they were beaten by the elements and by two individual acts of sheer brilliance.
The New York Times mused 'Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the Premier League right now?'. Maybe not but Fulham will be in no hurry to encounter a better one.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
