Fulham will hope Monday’s defeat to Chelsea was merely a blip.
The Cottagers were undone by defensive lapses as they went down 2-0 at Craven Cottage.
Fulham had 56 per cent possession and were the first team this season to have more of the ball than Chelsea, but individual errors cost them.
Issa Diop’s poorly-timed jump allowed Mudryk to open the scoring, and captain Tim Ream then gave the ball away on the edge of his own area before the Broja goal.
Fulham did improve after the break, but the damage had been done.
Ream proved so many people wrong last season when he delivered consistently assured performances to help Marco Silva’s side finish tenth.
On Monday, though, he really struggled - run ragged by Chelsea’s high-octane attackers.
“Disappointing result for us,” said head coach Silva. “In certain moments performance-wise as well. They won some individual challenges that gave them a boost that they needed in that moment.”
Much of Fulham’s improvement after the break was down to Silva’s substitutions.
Carlos Vinicius, Sasa Lukic, Tom Cairney and Alex Iwobi all injected a vitality into Fulham that was missing in the first half.
Iwobi, in particular, took risks, beat players, and drove forward.
Just as he did by scoring in the Carabao Cup win over Norwich last Wednesday, Iwobi showed why plenty of Fulham fans want Silva to start him.
“I feel like I added a bit of energy to the game”, Iwobi said. “That’s what the manager told me to do: to just be dynamic when we have the ball, with a lot more movement.
“I’m working to try and get a start, but there’s so many quality players in the team all deserving to start. Whenever my time comes, I’ll try and take my chance.”
