Samuel Chukwueze, Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey stood out for Fulham in a wild nine‑goal thriller at home against Manchester City. Chukwueze scored a brace, Iwobi found the back of the net, and Bassey impressed with a solid defensive display. Meanwhile Manchester City raced into a four‑goal lead inside the first 54 minutes thanks to strikes from Erling Haaland, Tijjani Reijnders, a double from Phil Foden and a deflected own goal.
Fulham pulled themselves back Smith Rowe scored just before halftime, then Iwobi and Chukwueze (72′ and 78′) brought the score to 5‑4 as Craven Cottage roared.
Despite the defeat, Fulham manager Marco Silva was upbeat and insisted there were lessons and positives to build on. After the match he said:
“Of course we take many positives from the game but the feeling is not the best, as you would expect.”
He acknowledged the poor start: “The way we started again made this more difficult for us. We were too soft, we didn’t start on the front foot like we should start these games. The first 20 minutes were difficult. We conceded the second goal too soft.”
Still, Silva praised his players’ reaction after falling deep behind: “The reaction of the team was always good, even after 1‑0 we had a big chance through Emile [Smith Rowe] to score to equalise the game.”
He told the players at half-time “I have a feeling you are going to score in the second half.”
Silva went on: “It’s a game where you score four goals and lose at home, the feeling is not good.”
But he remained proud of the players’ character: “If you go in that direction, about the character and the personality of the team, of course what they showed was impressive.”
On the atmosphere and reaction from the fans, Silva added: “The reaction was unbelievable from the boys, from our team, from the fans too. And looking at that reaction we probably deserved that fifth goal to equalise the game.”
He concluded that even though Fulham did not take a point, there were many positives to carry forward: “We didn’t take any points from this game, but we took many many things from this game which will help us to win games in the future.”