Midway through their run of consecutive matches versus the promoted trio, Fulham finally picked up their maiden victory of 2026/27.
In truth, the win should have been bigger, with the Cottagers up 18-5 on shots and 1.38-0.16 on expected goals (xG).
However, their sole goal against Hull City involved neither Gonzalo Garcia (£6.1m) nor Josh King (£5.6m).
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Here are our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Scout Notes from Craven Cottage.
GONZALO + KING FRUSTRATE
Fulham entered Gameweek 7 bottom of the league, following late heartbreaks against Manchester United and Ipswich Town.
It put new head coach Alvaro Arbeloa under pressure, but those who saw potential in attacking duo Garcia and King were optimistic. One keeps being presented with huge opportunities, while the other is the league leader for touches inside the penalty area (now 48).
However, King spurned a second-half sitter once his one-two with Shea Charles (£5.0m) raised hopes. The teenager also missed a couple of other chances and saw three creations head nowhere.
Booked early on, King’s 78th-minute removal was seemingly due to cramp. That’s four blanks in a row for him.
But summer signing Garcia’s basket remains empty since his Gameweek 1 goal. In fact, just three of his latest 17 shots have been on target, and he’s missed all six big chances in that time. That includes Saturday’s 74th-minute close-range header that hit the crossbar.
He is currently the worst finisher when looking at shot quality (Shooting Goals Added/SGA, -2.52).
So, while the Spaniard is worth keeping for the ‘good’ Coventry City fixture, all faith in him is evaporating.
PROMISING IWOBI STATS
In another attack, Garcia set up a big chance for Alex Iwobi (£5.4m), who fired straight at Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.7m).
The Greek made five saves and was trying to make amends for an earlier Iwobi shot that he let squirm through his arms and into the net. It was a passage of play full of Hull errors, as a poor clearance is what allowed Sander Berge (£4.9m) to tee up Iwobi’s low near-post strike.
After averaging 9.75 attacking returns throughout the previous four league campaigns, this was the midfielder’s first of 2026/27.
It was a day of four close-range efforts and 12 successful passes into the opposition box, meaning only Bruno Fernandes (£11.8m) beats him overall for both this (32, below) and successful crosses (12).
Iwobi is also right behind Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.9m) when it comes to creating the most big chances (six).
As of now, the Cottagers have three of the four biggest expected goal involvement (xGI) underachievers.
DEFCON DATA
Elsewhere, although his owners will cherish the clean sheet, this was the first time that David Affengruber (£4.5m) didn’t collect defensive contribution (DefCon) rewards.
Instead, they went to his centre-back partner Calvin Bassey (£4.5m) – who also had a big chance from a set play – and Hull’s John Egan (£4.1m).
As for Timothy Castagne (£4.5m), he was recalled into Fulham’s starting XI and picked up two bonus points.
HULL WERE BAD
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno (£4.5m) didn’t add a single save to his clean sheet because the Tigers failed to register a single shot on target or big chance. Fulham dominated possession.
“We got what we deserved from it, really. It was maybe our worst performance in my time here. In possession, out of possession, first balls, second balls, transitions – Fulham were much better than us in all of those areas, and in some ways it was men against boys.
“We were very poor with the ball. In the end, we gave them the goal. In some ways, we can be relieved it was only 1-0 with the chances they had. It felt like we could have played until tomorrow and not scored – that was my feeling watching it.” – Sergej Jakirović
Mohamed Belloumi (£5.2m) found himself back in Sergej Jakirović’s XI after fatigue restricted him to a goal-scoring Gameweek 6 cameo versus Everton.
But the early momentum gained from two initial victories seems to have disappeared, and next they have to host sixth-placed Brentford.
It’s unlikely that Robinio Vaz (£5.0m) will be available, as Ryan Sessegnon (£4.3m) – King’s replacement – received a straight red card for putting studs into the loanee’s Achilles.
“The Achilles is very painful, and he [Vaz] will go for a scan on his leg, and then we will see what happens. It looks like a bad one.” – Sergej Jakirović to Hull Live
