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Crystal Palace pile more misery on Fulham with ruthless victory

Riedewald celebrates opening the scoring in the eighth minute - JAMIE MCPHILIMEY
Riedewald celebrates opening the scoring in the eighth minute - JAMIE MCPHILIMEY

It had seemed so promising for Fulham. Capable performances at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United, plus the arrivals of defensive strongman Tosin Adarabioyo, the rough-house charms of Mario Lemina and the guile-laden Ruben Loftus-Cheek offered real hope.

Head coach Scott Parker gently tinkered with their formation to give them a more solid feel, but with that still-fragile security came a concomitant absence of threat. For all their new-found sense of purpose, none of the new men enhanced their reputations , they finished with 10 men and surrendered again, this time to a ruthlessly efficient Crystal Palace who were always performing within themselves.

“We have to learn from our mistakes,” said Parker. “But there are positives and we did have spells of dominance.”

As if encapsulating their whole campaign, after minutes of solid Fulham dominance, Palace scored when Wilfried Zaha burst through, brought a fine save from Alphonse Areola, only for Jairo Riedewald to slot home with rather more aplomb than might have been expected from one previously without a goal since joining Palace in 2107

Palace smothered Fulham’s early forays and with the attack-minded Ola Aina struggling to attend to his defensive duties, Zaha was given licence to rampage.

Blessed with an abundance of possession, Fulham continued to press, although without great conviction. Ademola Lookman hit one post when Vicente Guaita saved smartly and the other when his thunderbolt whizzed past the goalkeeper. The rebound fell to Aleksandar Mitrovic, who blazed high over the open goal.

Palace remained unruffled and ready to pounce and pounce they did just after the hour when Andros Townsend released Michy Batshuayi down the right. The cross was low and with the Fulham defence sleeping soundly, the unchaperoned Zaha slid in to poke his fifth goal of the season into the unguarded goal.

To the backdrop of stable doors being locked as horses bolted into the distance, Parker swapped security for adventure and Aboubakar injected attacking impetus, until his yellow card was upgraded to a red for an awful studs-up foul on Eberechi Eze after referee Graham Scott had consulted his pitchside VAR monitor, but by then Palace were enjoying themselves.

“The players’ desire, work-rate and enthusiasm was excellent,” purred Roy Hodgson, the Palace manager. “They know exactly what they have to do to climb the table, but I saw enough from Fulham today to know they’ll cause people problems."

A solid, well-drilled victory for Palace, but Fulham’s problems continue to mount and whether Parker is the man to face them remains to be seen: “I can’t control that, what I can do is what I've done throughout my career and my life during hard times: front up and work as hard as I possibly can. It’s out my hands, we will see.”