PARKER’S UNWELCOME CHARLIE
West Ham 1 Fulham 0
Rarely can a game that looked to be petering out to yet another pay per view disappointment have finished so fabulously. But it could have been so different.
The first six minutes went exactly as we had all imagined they might. Shot after shot after shot, forcing early athletic saves from Alphonse Areola. First Masuaku, then Cresswell and finally Bowen kept Areola’s hands warm. The chances kept coming in the first half, Haller’s header clipping the bar, but Fulham were determined not to buckle.
Remembrance weekend had earlier been fastidiously observed in the empty stadium, the lone trumpeter standing behind the goal overlooking the two huddled teams across each side of the centre circle. The fixture, crowbarred into its late pay per view Saturday evening slot, seemed strangely empty of urgency after the initial siege to Fulham’s goal. Perhaps it was the bizarre American election that had sapped the viewing energy of the UK public over the week, or it could have been the request for fans to boycott the additional expenditure, but the feeling of being unwatched slowly wound the action down to fragments and titbits.
Masuaku and Cresswell both seem liberated now they are playing alongside each other and since Moyes moved the latter into the centre of defence. If players occupying the same position are both good enough for first team action, the creative manager will move one of them to have different responsibilities and accommodate both talents rather than have one necessarily absent each week. This has been Moyes at his most shrewd: using what he has with acumen and thoughtfulness. Both players are arguably now enjoying their best spells at the club in this strange season.
Fulham had won their first Premier League game of the season against West Brom on the Monday with two early goals, but looked somewhat clueless in the first half. The second half was not much different, Cresswell’s early free kick clattering against Areola’s crossbar, but they finally mustered a decent chance twenty minutes from time when Fabianski saved De Cordova-Reid’s smart low shot. Two minutes later Benrahma and Lanzini were brought on to fashion a winner. The home debutant almost managed it a minute from time with two close range efforts that Areola pawed at in desperation to preserve the stalemate.
The winner came as the match slipped into injury time, Balbuena’s hopeful chip into the area was headed by Andersen straight to Benrahma who set up Soucek to place the ball expertly past the Fulham keeper. Haller was in an offside position in the line of the keeper’s vision, but no matter. The Fulham team seemed resigned to their fate as they jogged back lugubriously to the centre circle. Parker still had time to make a second substitution, bringing Cavaleira on for Anguissa, and the fresh legs worked a last minute corner. After the agony of some desperate pinball action, the ball broke free to the Fulham captain Cairney, who was hacked down by Benrahma before the loose ball was cleared by Rice. Premier League debutant ref Robert Jones charitably played on until the VAR team shouted something loudly in his ear, and he was soon hurrying over to check the replay on his personal screen. The replay, also shown on the big screen, delivered the Big Reveal.
Blame it on the Panenka. Just what possessed Ademola Lookman to conclude the match with the most bizarre penalty seen in Stratford since Jonathan Brownlee got on his bike too early after his swim at the 2012 London Olympics and forfeited a Triathlon bronze may never be known. Lookman’s inexplicable effort in the end cost his side a valuable away point that they had actually done little to deserve, if truth be told. Even so, he must have felt a right Charlie.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 4 Fabian Balbuena, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Soucek, 26 Arthur Masuaku, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Sébastien Haller, 18 Pablo Fornals
Substitutes: 23 Issa Diop, 9 Said Benrahma, 10 Manuel Lanzini
Scorer: Tomas Soucek
