Manager Alvaro Arbeloa was a relieved man after his wasteful Fulham side finally registered a first Premier League win of the season with a 1-0 win against a lethargic Hull City side.
Alex Iwobi’s first-half goal proved enough at Craven Cottage, but the home side gave up chance after chance to make the game safe as the spectre of more dropped points hung over them.
There had already been eight of them thrown away from winning positions, five after Fulham had led inside the final two minutes, and they were perhaps fortunate to come up against a Hull side who turned in, by Sergej Jakirovic’s own admission, their worst display of the season.
Sergej Jakirovic was scathing in his assessment of his team, calling the game in west London “men against boys,” but of the two managers, this was surely the more significant result for Arbeloa, whose six-game winless league run had brought intense scrutiny of his position.
“I saw this movie before,” said Arbeloa. “I don’t have the feeling that we were in danger, but in football, you never know. A throw-in, a long ball. In one second, any team can score.”
Fulham enjoyed more than 76 per cent possession and had 18 shots on goal, but Iwobi’s 33rd-minute drive that went through the body of goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis was all they had to show. It was enough in the end to give valuable oxygen to Arbeloa, whose team climbed off the bottom of the table and out of the bottom three.
“I’m happy because I think we deserved this victory before, in other games,” he said. “We lost some games where I didn’t feel the other team was better than us. I didn’t see a team that I can think ‘Wow, what a team.’
“Today was a perfect day, where we dominated, we controlled the game. We were almost perfect. Not perfect because we didn’t take our chances. I can’t believe this game finished just 1-0.”
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The goal came just after the half hour. Brooke Norton-Cuffy’s clearance was poor, and from there City never recovered. Sander Berge took possession and knocked it back to the edge of the box for Iwobi, whose driven finish squirmed through the body of Tzolakis. The goalkeeper could point to a slight deflection, but it was a poor error.
Josh King’s touch on the hour to spin away from Semi Ajayi was a delight. The 19-year-old then drove forward and crossed for Gonzalo Garcia to head into the path of Iwobi, and only a magnificent save from Tzolakis denied Fulham what would have surely been one of the goals of the season.
Fulham had Ryan Sessegnon deservedly sent off with virtually the final action of the game after the substitute was dismissed for raking his studs down Robinio Vaz’s Achilles in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
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