Fulham at Southampton

Fulham travel to Southampton on Saturday for a 10am EDT match on Peacock.

Given Fulham’s form against bottom half teams this year, I would say, set the cruise control for frustration. But… neither team has anything to gain or lose from this match, so I’m hoping that it’s actually free-flowing and fun.

 

I think Fulham was partly undone by a lack of good substitutes against Chelsea. Muniz and Smith Rowe had both been sidelined by injuries while Wilson was just getting back on the pitch. Muniz will miss this match again, so I really want Fulham to score early so they don't need Vinicius to deliver any late heroics.

Fulham has given up 25 points from a winning position this season, so if they score one goal, for goodness sake, they need to score another! And then one more after that too! That is the best way to ensure a win (see: Liverpool) Since both Fulham and Southampton have given up 25 points from a winning position there is a good chance that the team that scores first will lose. Only Ipswich has done worse in this metric than Fulham and Southampton.

Fulham haven't managed to string together three wins in a row this season, but they also haven't suffered three losses in a row. Hopefully they don't decide to break that trend this week.

 

It’s been a great season. However; after Southampton’s header into the goal in the 13th minute, I don’t need to see any further minutes of Fulham football today… or maybe for this season.
This club has been both so, so good, and oh so poor in ‘25. Frustrating and fun.
COYW

 

SESS!!!!

 

@nevzter Did you really think you were done?? The Cosmos’ knew of your declaration and a Fulhamish ending was guaranteed

 

Frustrating? Check
Fun? At the end
Free flowing? At times

I am a bit surprised at how little I cared for the first 70 minutes. I had completely resigned myself to thinking that it doesn’t matter that Fulham was on pace for earning one point for the season from a historically bad team.

I am more surprised at how excited I was when Fulham took the lead. The audible cheer and fist pumps were probably more than necessary for beating the worst team in the league.

I was excited when Sessegnon re-signed with Fulham but he’s starting to exceed my expectations. It took a while for him to get his opportunity but, man, he is not wasting it at all.

 

Just as the game was about to kick off I noticed that the backsplash in my kitchen had turned into a nice water feature - a stream of water flowing over the ceramic chips looked very pretty. Then I realized, having a water feature on my kitchen wall was very, very bad. Turns out a shutoff valve had failed upstairs sending water streaming downstairs and I spent a good chunk of the day dealing with my plumbing emergency.

I finally plopped down to watch the replay and after muttering "FFS" after that first goal I just about gave up. The day had been bad enough I didn't need more crap piled on. And it generally was a lot of crap from Fulham. Lofted cross after lofted cross with no threat. Zero shots on target in the first half. The only guy who looked like he might score, Willian, had to be subbed off. It looked pretty dreary.

Despite saying that I didn't really believe it could happen for most of this match.

But then, Fulham finally started putting shots on target and getting a bit of fortune with Smith Rowe's score. It still felt like a frustrating draw was in the works, until Sessegnon popped up with a classic, textbook Ryan Sessegnon goal! What a sense he has for getting in the right place at the right time. @astroevan I was also surprised how much I celebrated given how poor Fulham had been, but that was just a great moment that deserved celebration.