Saturday’s back-and-forth Craven Cottage clash ended in Crystal Palace’s favour, thanks to an unlikely Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) brace.
The Eagles are now unbeaten in nine trips to Fulham, handing manager Pierre Sage his first victory since taking charge. But Alvaro Arbeloa’s side are still without any points.
Here are our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Scout Notes from the match.
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THREE GOALS FROM PALACE’S LEFT WING-BACKS
In honour of the recently departed Daniel Munoz (£5.4m), Palace’s wing-backs put on an attacking show.
The Colombian’s replacement, Anan Khalaili (£5.0m), missed a big chance, while left-sided Mitchell scored twice.
In the 35th minute, he cancelled out Fulham’s opener by reaching an Eddie Nketiah (£5.5m), advancing forward before a tight-angled near-post finish.
However, Mitchell’s second equaliser was some of the finest slapstick comedy seen in modern times. His blocked shot bobbled its way towards a Gonzalo Garcia (£6.0m) clearance, which went back to where it came from and gently clipped Mitchell’s foot. Garcia then slid to get rid, but missed the ball, allowing it to trickle over the line.
In fact, had Mitchell not departed through tiredness, it might have been him who calmly volleyed in a winner, not substitute Ben Chilwell (£4.5m).
KING + PALACIOS SHINE FOR FULHAM
The ex-loanee came on for his second Palace debut, having completed a deadline-day free transfer. Additionally, new name Quinten Timber (£5.0m) started in midfield, and centre-back Axel Disasi (£4.5m) celebrated his arrival by matching Khalaili’s defensive contribution (DefCon) success. There was a very late cameo by Dario Osorio (£5.5m), too.
As for Fulham, they brought on £19 million signing Hugo Larsson (£5.0m), and massively outdid Palace when it came to attempts (25 v 10), penalty area shots (22 v 7) and expected goals (xG, 3.16 v 1.97).
Josh King (£5.5m) was excellent. The teenager scored his second of the season when Oscar Bobb‘s (£5.5m) 11th-minute cutback wasn’t properly cleared, allowing King to dribble outwards and hit a weak shot that deflected in.
He also played a huge part in Fulham’s other goal, bursting down the left flank to set up Garcia’s close flick, which Dean Henderson (£5.0m) could only parry into the path of Cesar Palacios‘ (£5.5m) calm finish.
No assist was given to the centre-forward, making it a frustrating blank. While both of this summer’s Real Madrid arrivals racked up five attempts, none of Garcia’s was on target.
WHY DIDN’T MITCHELL GET THREE BONUSES?
So, why did Palacios scoop maximum bonus points instead of Mitchell, the two-goal defender?
It’s because of his underlying Chief Scout stats. The Spaniard boasted a 90% pass completion (PC) rate, while Mitchell lost eight precious BPS points due to conceding twice.
AVOID BOTH DEFENCES
Shockingly, this was the ninth game in a row (stretching back to last season) where Palace let in two or more goals.
“But I have to change things and to improve the way of defending with the players, because we were too open in the first half and not very well-coordinated.
“That’s why they scored the second goal especially, but they had a lot of opportunities, and we took the first goal after a mistake in the build-up and we have to improve that too.
“That’s why today the lesson is free, because we won, but we are aware of the conditions of this victory.” – Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage
Both sides entered Gameweek 3 with very little FPL interest, and their backlines showed exactly why. As of now, they have the two highest expected goals conceded (xGC) tallies.
Arbeloa’s Fulham are way too open and have allowed the most big chances (14).
“I think we lost a game that we didn’t deserve to lose
“We conceded very easy goals. Crystal Palace didn’t need to do so many things to score three goals. For us, we have to do so many things if we want to score a goal.
“I think we were brave with the ball, we press so well, so high, we controlled the game, but if you are winning 2-1 at home, you cannot concede some counter-attacks and some situations that when you are winning, you cannot concede.” – Fulham head coach Alvaro Arbeloa
Conceding all three goals down the same flank could encourage FPL managers to buy upcoming left-sided opponents like Bradley Barcola (£8.0m), Cody Gakpo (£7.2m), Matheus Cunha (£7.9m) and Luke Shaw (£4.4m).
Then again, some may look past this leakiness and still pursue a Fulham defender for Gameweek 6 to 8’s sequence of facing all three promoted sides.
