Amid the darkness of this troubled Manchester United season, this barely deserved victory will stand out as a rare pinprick of light. It has to.
As United and their new manager Ruben Amorim try desperately to inch forwards, any foray on to a football field that doesn’t end in disappointment is a positive. A scrappy game settled by a deflected winner is more than acceptable for now.
For Fulham, meanwhile, this was a chance missed, an opportunity to score a notable win against one of English football’s established order. Marco Silva’s team have been impressive in the main this season but after an enterprising half and hour, they fell away badly. By the time the game reached its latter stages they were a team waiting to be beaten and that is exactly that happened.
United central defender Lisandro Martinez had played much of this game on the edge. He often does and his two-footed stamp when challenging Adama Traore in the 62nd minute should have been penalised by some kind of card.
It wasn’t and for some reason VAR chose not to get involved. In English football these days, it’s not okay to trip your opponent in his own half. But it is to try something altogether more violent and dangerous. Work that one out.
With just eleven minutes remaining, Martinez appeared in a forward area to make an impact of an entirely different kind as his shot from 21 yards looped up off Fulham’s Sasa Lukic and somehow found the top corner of the goal.
Manchester United left it late to claim all three points in their clash with Fulham on Sunday
Lisandro Martinez’s deflected strike was all that separated the two teams at Craven Cottage
Ruben Amorim’s side laboured to victory, registering just a single shot on target all game
For Fulham there was still time to correct what must have felt like an injustice. And they almost equalised in the 88th minute only for United substitute Toby Collyer to clear a Joachim Andersen header off the line. Then, deep in to added time, Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz lashed a shot over when he really should have hit the target.
The truth is, though, that all the urgency came too late. The end of game statistics – possession, shots and touches in the respective penalty areas – suggested Fulham had been the better team and they probably had been. But they hadn’t been so in the moments that mattered and by full-time they were only grateful that what appeared to be another United goal by Amad Diallo was ruled out for a marginal VAR offside.
Fulham felt like favourites at the outset and that in itself take some getting used to. But Marco Silva’s team have been the ones with form and a discernible pattern of play this season, United the team still desperately searching for something.
What United didn’t have enough of during an opening half that Fulham largely controlled was possession of the ball. It has been a modern United problem for years and it isn’t showing signs of getting any better under Amorim.
United were earnest and willing to run around but too often they were chasing, too often when they did have the ball they gave it away. Their young centre forward Rasmus Hojlund – preferred here to Joshua Zirkzee – looked particularly troubled, unable to give his team the out ball they desperately needed.
Not that Fulham looked like scoring. They didn’t really. Their two best chances came at the end of runs from Alex Iwobi, in the 16th and 20th minutes. Both were similar and saw the former Arsenal player cutting in from the left on to his right foot. The first low shot required Andre Onana to save at a stretch low to his left while the second was more straight forward to deal with.
Fulham were just better, though. Their passing was sharper and more ordered, their awareness of where a team-mate was more natural and instinctive. In short, Fulham looked coached in a way that United – stuck fast to Amorim’s 4-4-3 – just didn’t.
It was down their left side that Fulham looked more cohesive. Calvin Bassey and Antonee Robinson have a good understanding while Iwobi further forward seemed to know when to push on alone or wait for his left back Robinson to come flying by on his outside.
The final ball could certainly have been better. Twice Robinson got in to excellent crossing positions on the run but the first delivery was overhit while the second lacked accuracy.
Both teams lacked the necessary creative spark throughout much of the opening 45 minutes
Fulham looked to be the sharper of the two sides but failed to make anything of their momentum
The midfield battle was being consistently won by Fulham but they were not really managing to build on it. Harry Maguire – fresh from a big mistake against Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday – made one perfectly-timed tackle to halt the dashing Harry Wilson on the edge of the penalty area while Matthijs de Ligt blocked well as Iwobi tried to move on to a stray ball 12 yards from goal.
United didn’t really get forward at all in the first 20 minutes but were slightly more progressive as the half and indeed the game wore on. When De Ligt applied a weak header to a free-kick just before half-time, Amorim’s team did at least have a shot on target to their name.
United were no more potent in the second half of what quickly deteriorated into a quite soporific game. Fulham could not maintain their first half impetus and as such offered United a way into the game.
But as the evening reached the 70-minute mark, United hadn’t looked remotely like taking it.
Amorim made some changes as Zirkzee replaced the hapless Hojlund and Leny Yoro came on for De Lijt. Fulham, meanwhile, were forced in to a change as Wilson was replaced by Adama Traore after picking up an injury to his foot.
United had a little more ball and a Bruno Fernandes free-kick found the side netting as the United captain rolled his shot from 19 yards under the defensive wall as it jumped.
At the other end, a couple of Fulham crosses caused Onana in the United goal some mild concern. Onana came unconvincingly for a corner only for a red shirt to clear and then was scrambling towards his back post from open play when Maguire headed behind.
Other than that and a Traore shot that flew over in the 75th minute, the half was only notable for that terrible tackle by Martinez on the Fulham substitute. Martinez jumped in with two feet in a stamping motion as Traore tried to go past him, somehow missing both ball and man.
United were nearly pegged back in the closing stages but were saved by a goal-line clearance from Toby Collyer
Amad Diallo had the ball in the net in stoppage time but his effort was ruled out for offside
He has form for this, having previously done likewise against Crystal Palace and Liverpool this season. Once again there was no punishment and no intervention from VAR.
Nor were there any complaints from Fulham and a little more than fifteen minutes later Martinez was making his presence felt in an altogether more legitimate fashion.
A lovely pass from Fernandes freed Alejandro Garnacho to the byline and when the ball ran loose to Martinez, his shot from 20 yards looped up off Lukic and over Bernd Leno.
It was a lucky goal and United didn’t deserve it. But nor could Fulham complain. They had not played well enough in the second half and as such had invited trouble.
Silva’s team now had eleven minutes or so of regular time to save themselves. From somewhere they had to find a cutting edge they had hitherto lacked.
Twice they came close. Collyer’s header off the line from Andersen was fantastic, Muniz’s subsequent shot over from ten yards rather less so.
