Fulham and Claudio Ranieri pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks of the season on Tuesday night, beating Brighton 4-2 after being 2-0 down at half time.
Ranieri’s side are still five points behind 17th placed Southampton (who have yet to play at the time of writing) but this is a result that, although not earth-shattering in its immediate ramifications, still poses interesting questions about the fate of both of these teams come the end of the season.
Fulham finally fight back…but is it too late?
A performance of this resilience and passion from Fulham has been a long time coming – if it wasn’t for the eight-point gap that separated the team from safety at the start of the day, this result could easily be seen as a sure-fire turning point of their season, a sign that this is the team to pull off this season’s great escape.
That could still prove the case of course, but this result must be the start of many, many more similar performances if they are to have any hope of staying up. With both Cardiff and Huddersfield losing tonight as well, Fulham are suddenly the team of the bottom three who look most likely to stay up: with another crucial match coming up on the weeken against Crystal Palace away from home, it will not be long before we discover how crucial, and how reflective, this performance could be.
Brighton will still (probably) avoid relegation, regardless of this surrender
Chris Hughton’s Brighton side are not a team that anybody thinks are in any particular danger – when they were 2-0 ahead here at Craven Cottage they were all set to be sitting nicely on 29 points, eleven points off probable safety with a comforting fourteen games left to play.
While the extraordinary collapse is unlikely to change their season for the worse, it does suddenly place slightly greater scrutiny on their league position – they are now only four points above 17th placed Southampton and, if we are ready to believe that Fulham can survive the drop, we must be ready to believe that a team like Brighton could get sucked into the fight.
It does seem unlikely, such is the solidity and guile that Hughton brings to the team, and how straightforwardly sensible the entire team always seems to be. A reaction against Watford at home this coming Saturday is absolutely necessary to calm any nerves.
Glenn Murray scores after a drought, but his misses prove costly
Glenn Murray had not scored in eight league games before his brace on Tuesday night, and bizarrely the Englishman had not scored away from home since September for the Seagulls either.
His brace tonight, sealed in just seventeen minutes of play, was a welcome boost to his season and for Brighton’s recent form, but he had multiple chances to add to this tally that were squandered; some at extremely key moments of the match.
He could have realistically had four goals before half time – Rico in goal for Fulham made a good save to deny Murray, just minutes after the striker had flashed a header wide of the post. At 2-2 in the second-half, Murray had another great chance to grab his hat-trick, but was squandered by Rico again and minutes later, it was 3-2.
For all the credit that Fulham deserve for fighting back so bravely in this match, Murray’s wastefulness at key moments gave them the lifelines that they needed.
Ryan Babel may be the surprise success story of Fulham’s season
It is safe to say that nobody expected miracles from the signing of 32-year-old Ryan Babel, on loan from Besiktas, to add to their options in attacking areas.
He has slotted nicely into a position on the left side of the attack, drifting inside often to pair Aleksander Mitrovic up-front, and his physical and surprisingly speedy presence has really caused both of the team’s he has faced so far major problems.
It was two assists for him tonight, one cross right onto the head of Mitrovic and a calm header across goal for Vietto to tap in right at the end. His influence has been immediate and much-appreciated, and this strangely inspired signing may give the fans confidence about the quality of new signings – if there are new signings that is.
Fulham still need some signings – defensive frailty is still all too apparent
Relating to the earlier point about Glenn Murray’s missed opportunities, it is clear that the scoreline of this game could have been anything from 4-2 to 4-4 to 4-5 to 7-6.
Fulham are still far too easy to exploit defensively and still far too naive when it comes to the basics – everybody expected the club to splash the cash and invest in some defensive reinforcements, but the window slams shut on Thursday night and, apart from the attacking addition of Ryan Babel, no signings have been made.
Is this down to a sudden lack of funds, or an unsurprising lack of interest from potential signings? Either way, Fulham are definitely still too brittle and nervous in defence to stay up as it stands – they need a leader at the back to come in, and to come in immediately, because despite nights and performances like this, they still are not a sustainable, reliable group of players.
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