Fulham

Sammy James, Fulhamish, external

It was a huge relief to get the win against Wolves. Watching other teams towards the bottom pick up points over the weekend made many Fulham fans nervous going into the game, but that victory eases the pressure a bit.

It was a particularly pleasing win given the fact that Joao Palhinha was suspended for us. We definitely missed him, but we just about coped in midfield. Tom Cairney was a Rolls-Royce in the eight position, and a lot of fans think he should start much more regularly than he does.

It's not been a great start for us but, in reality, Fulham have won most of the games that would have been expected to. We've beaten Luton Town, Sheffield United, Everton and now Wolves. The only side that we've lost to who are currently in the bottom 10 are Brentford - which stings because of the rivalry, but that's an impressive return.

While losing games meekly to teams like Aston Villa is never nice and there is a serious concern about our lack of goals (Monday was better, but it still took two penalties), ultimately we are beating the teams we need to in order to stay in the league.

In the next few weeks we face Nottingham Forest and Burnley at home, with a trip to Bournemouth on Boxing Day. Get at least two wins from those games and we'll be in a very comfortable position come the halfway point of the season.

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We asked for your thoughts on Monday's match between Fulham and Wolves.

Here are some of your comments:

Fulham fans

Rob: Big three points. Good to see us start both halves on the front foot. Tom Cairney gives us a better option on the ball. Ream and Robinson are becoming liabilities. Kick on now and get away from the bottom. Big game again against Forest. Winnable games at home upcoming.

Russell: I thought our second-half performance showed the spirit and togetherness in the team, always going to be a tough game but Tom Cairney was instrumental in midfield. We need to stop giving away silly goals but that was about a much-needed three points. Well done Fulham!

Bertie: I’m a Fulham fan but those penalties were a joke - what has happened to the game I used to love? Players go over in a strong wind these days - disgraceful.

David: Jimenez is nowhere near good enough for this division and persisting with a player who cannot commit to a tackle, pass or a shot at goal needs to be addressed immediately.

Wolves fans

Andrew: A pretty even game on the pitch. Bad defending down our right has led to quite a few goals against us this season and needs to be sorted out fast. But again the football is overshadowed by VAR. Why didn’t they give the referee a chance to look at the monitor for the first penalty? Then send him there for Fulham’s second pen? Both were soft! Unreal!

Murray: Very poor defending for the first goal. Ait-Nouri's injury deprived Wolves of a major attacking outlet but a natural replacement by Bueno was overlooked in favour of Doherty who looked lost on the left. Fulham made a string of defensive errors which went unpunished. Loss of Lemina and Gomes for the Arsenal game through suspension is frightening.

Jon: It's always hard playing against 12, especially away from home, but we fought well and came back twice. Sadly it wasn't enough in the end but I'm happy with the display. It's just a shame we'll miss our first-choice midfield for the next game.

Ad: If VAR had got everything right this season, we would be in the fight for Europe. As it happens, we’re on the edge of the relegation fight. When we set up for the counter and played well enough to come away with at the very least a point, it makes it a lot harder to accept.

Fulham manager Marco Silva, speaking to BBC Sport after Monday's 3-2 win over Wolves: "I believe [Fulham deserved to win]. It was an entertaining game with both teams trying to win the game, but I think overall we were the team that did more to win.

"The players deserved the praise after a tough month for us. The previous two games were back-to-back defeats, we wanted to react and the players have showed a reaction.

"Overall we created more, we were more on the front foot, we got bodies in the box. The first goal is a good example. We have been working to achieve these things."

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• Fulham have now won each of their last 11 Premier League games at Craven Cottage in which they’ve scored the game’s opening goal since a 2-2 draw with Liverpool on the opening day of the 2022-23 campaign.

• Wolves have lost successive away Premier League games for the first time since August.

• This is just the second time in six Premier League games since the start of last season that Fulham have won without João Palhinha, having lost four of the other five before today.

• Willian has now scored all seven of his Premier League penalties, only Yaya Toure (11/11), Dimitar Berbatov (9/9) and Ruben Neves (8/8) have better 100% penalty records in the competition’s history.

• Wolves have scored each of their last 20 penalties in the Premier League, the first side to score at least 20 successive spot kicks since Liverpool in December 2021 (21).

Joe Rindl, BBC Sport

Fulham's win was controversial, with the Cottagers benefitting from two second-half penalty decisions.

Still, manager Marco Silva was arguing at full-time that his side had "done more" to win the match.

And, on reflection, he has a very strong point.

Alex Iwobi was sent through on goal with the hosts 2-1 up. Had his shot not been superbly saved by Wolves keeper Jose Sa, Fulham may have relaxed a little and ultimately cruised to a 3-1 win.

Instead, the Cottagers' third goal came from the penalty spot and VAR once again stole the headlines.

For Fulham the big news is the London club ending their four-match winless run in the Premier League and recording their first league victory since beating Sheffield United 3-1 on 7 October.

Luck is only something you worry about when it goes against you.

Willian grabbed an injury-time winner from the penalty spot as Fulham beat Wolves in an entertaining Premier League match at Craven Cottage.

With the score at 2-2 referee Michael Salisbury awarded the match's third penalty when he deemed Joao Gomes to have fouled Harry Wilson, and Willian hammered the ball into the bottom corner from the spot.

Alex Iwobi had opened the scoring in the seventh minute for the hosts, side-footing Antonee Robinson's cutback through the legs of Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa.

Matheus Cunha equalised for the visitors after 22 minutes, heading in Jean-Ricner Bellegarde's cross after the Frenchman skilfully beat Robinson down the right.

Willian restored Fulham's lead with the first penalty of the game just before the hour mark after Nelson Semedo had caught Tom Cairney on the edge of the box.

But Wolves soon had a spot-kick of their own inside the final 20 minutes when Tim Reem bundled over Hwang Hee-chan and the South Korea forward struck Wolves' second equaliser from 12 yards.

Fulham rode their luck and benefited from another late penalty call to sneak all three points.

Were you at the match or did you follow it from home?

Fulham fans - let us know your thoughts on the game here

How did you rate the side's performance, Wolves fans?

Follow all the reaction here

Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League matches again this season, against a variety of guests.

This week, he takes on Barry Can't Swim, aka DJ and producer Joshua Mannie - who is an Everton fan.

Sutton's prediction: 0-2

Fulham have taken one point from their past four games, but I don't see them getting dragged into the relegation battle because they've got a good manager in Marco Silva and enough quality to stay in the Premier League.

Their biggest problem is that they haven't replaced Aleksandar Mitrovic, who was a real figurehead for them last season, and they are missing his presence up front. Burnley are the only top-flight team to have scored fewer goals than the Cottagers so far.

Wolves are not exactly prolific either, but they have built a nice bit of momentum in the past few weeks and I can see their bandwagon rolling on here.

Barry Can't Swim's prediction: 0-1

Gary O'Neil has done a really good job at Wolves and I don't fancy Fulham right now.

Read their full predictions here

Crystal Palace and Fulham have inquired about the availability of Ajax's 28-year-old English striker Chuba Akpom. (Team Talk), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Fulham manager Marco Silva has been speaking to the media before Monday's Premier League match against Wolves.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Silva confirmed Issa Diop, Adama Traore, Tyrese Francois and Rodrigo Muniz will all be absent for the visit of Wolves.

• He added that Traore has had a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury but "it’s not going to take a long time".

• On returning to action after the international break: "It's a good sign that we've had 13 or 14 players away for the past two. It's good that the game will be on Monday to give us time to recover."

• When asked about the form of striker Raul Jimenez, who scored his first Fulham goal last time out against Aston Villa and will face his former club on Monday, Silva said: "It's been tough for him. Now, I hope that he can keep working hard. He never gave up. We are going to see more confidence from him, for sure."

• On Monday's opponents Wolves: "A tough team to play against. First, we have to react to back-to-back defeats. We want to show a reaction."

Stay in touch with all of Friday’s Premier League news conferences here

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Fulham have moved ahead of Liverpool and Manchester United in the race to sign Fluminense's 22-year-old Brazil midfielder Andre. Wolfsburg's Denmark striker Jonas Wind is also among Fulham's targets. (Standard), external

Want more transfer news? Read Thursday's full gossip column

• Fulham have won just one of their past 14 league games against Wolves (D4 L9) - a 2-0 home victory in the Championship in February 2018.

• The past six Premier League meetings between Fulham and Wolves have featured only seven goals (two for Fulham, five for Wolves), with neither side scoring more than once in a match.

• Fulham have alternated between defeat and victory in their five Premier League home games this season, and lost 1-0 to Manchester United last time out at Craven Cottage. Their past eight home league defeats have come in London derbies (five) or against sides from Manchester (three).

• Wolves have scored at least once in their past 11 league matches. It’s their longest scoring streak since a run of 18 between August and December 2019.

Fulham will let Portugal midfielder Joao Palhinha leave to join Bayern Munich in January for less than the 60-65m euros (£52m-£56m) the club originally wanted. (Florian Plettenberg, Sky Germany), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Dan Crawford, Hammy End, external

Having taken a massive gamble by failing to replace Aleksandar Mitrovic when he forced through his move to Saudi Arabia, Fulham are stuck in the middle of second-season syndrome.

The Whites look toothless in front of goal – summer signing Raul Jimenez finally got off the mark last weekend – and lack the creativity that characterised last season’s success, putting more pressure on an overworked defence.

Fulham were fortunate that Joao Palhinha’s proposed transfer to Bayern Munich fell through at the eleventh hour as losing the tenacious midfielder would have plunged them into a relegation battle and a fight against the drop could still loom large.

January, never the easiest window to secure successful signings, seems vital.

The plus point has been Marco Silva signing a new contract at Craven Cottage, but the failure to strengthen his playing squad means Fulham will have to settle for keeping their heads above water.

Recent protests against the club’s ridiculously expensive ticket-pricing policy have demonstrated the disconnect between the ownership and fans, who risk being priced out of following their team.

We can only hope that a return to form after the international break gives everyone a lift.

Fulham, Chelsea and Tottenham are interested in 18-year-old Club Bruges and Norway forward Antonio Nusa. (Football Insider), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

We asked you to come up with one thing you would change about Fulham's season so far.

Here are some of your comments:

Rob: Having a replacement lined up when the whole world knew Alexander Mitrovic was going to leave.

Adam: Missing out on James Ward-Prowse; the owners ignoring Marco Silva’s request for early signings and having absolutely no plan for replacing Mitrovic. Highest season ticket costs in the Premier League are not justifiable either.

Simon: There’s only one answer here and every Fulham fan will say the same. We should have signed a Mitrovic replacement. Pure and simple. And if we don’t do it in January, the only way we will stay up is if there are three worse teams.

Rob: That’s an easy one. Cancel Jay Stansfield‘s loan and get him in the squad. We need goals.

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After a couple of seasons with lots of managerial comings and goings by this stage of the campaign, some changes in the summer for clubs seem to have given some time to some teams. The three managers of the bottom sides themselves would have had a lot of credit in coming up from the Championship.

Looking at it, I think we've seen talk of managers leaving, but again, we've seen teams just wait. Bournemouth for example got a result against Burnley when possibly they might have been thinking 'do we change?'

I just think it's nice to see that clubs are giving these managers more time and not making those rash decisions, that's the most important thing, because who are you going to replace him with? If Manchester United lose to Luton, where are they going to look to change? Who would it have been? So it's nice that we're sitting and giving them a touch more time to think about the situation.

I spoke to a very experienced manager recently and he said jobs are starting to go, people are getting offered in and around, but also said, when you get to that January window is when you see a change as well. Obviously managers will believe they can go and make a difference at that time of the season.

Sometimes if you're a manager wanting to go in and change, you'd rather go in when you know you've got the chance of changing the team a bit closer to what you want. So teams have got to be pulling along and getting results until January and around that time otherwise we will inevitably start seeing some managerial changes.

Michael Brown was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Fulham and Crystal Palace are interested in a loan deal for 27-year-old RB Leipzig and Germany striker Timo Werner, who has fallen out of favour at the Bundesliga club. (90min), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Friday's full gossip column

It's a strange situation the international break.

The injured players who weren't available to be called up have got no one to bounce off, it's a lonely place. When you're injured it's a lonely place anyway, but in the season you can catch players in the changing room or in the gym, but it's even worse when no one else is around. There's no one to bounce off, you realise you're injured, you realise you can't contribute and it's just a strange place.

For players who are fit but left behind, when it's only half a session and you can't get all the numbers in, you're just waiting for players to return. For teams like Liverpool and Manchester City where nearly all the team is gone there will be a week off in the building before players start coming back in dribs-and-drabs in the the few days before to build-up to the weekend games, so it's strange.

What's difficult is when you have a team like a Nottingham Forest who signed a load of new players on deadline day and then they're off and away, you can't have the two weeks you want to build up and capitalise on it. So while you want them to have international experience, you also want them around to work with them and improve.

For some players who aren't on international duty or injured, you're just looking forward to having three or four days off to go and get some sunshine, so there's many ways to go and do an international break.

Michael Brown was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson