The thought will be anathema to most football romantics, but Burnley’s hopes for the season may hinge on an honourable defeat.
This reverse, against a Fulham side that could have scored twice as many, did not really fit the category; eyes at Turf Moor will now turn to the two-goal deficit they must overturn against Olympiakos on Thursday, though, and on current evidence a prolonging of their Thursday-to-Sunday regimen would put them at risk of serious trouble.
A relatively kind start to the campaign has now brought just one point and, not helped by some uncharacteristically shambolic defending, they were outmanoeuvred here by opponents whose passing and movement, led by the marvellous Jean Michaël Seri, was on a different level.
A year ago Seri thought he was about to join Barcelona from Nice.
The move fell down amid a flurry of half-explanations and finger-pointing; the prospect of furthering his career at Fulham, struggling in the Championship’s lower reaches at that point, would have seemed unpalatable but the signs are that he has found the platform to become a star.
Burnley could not keep up with him and that was more a mental issue than down to any physical gifts: Seri’s recycling of possession, his ability to change the game’s tempo with a single pass and his appreciation of the space around him combined to give him control of the midfield in an otherwise ragged, see-sawing affair that entertained throughout.
It helped that he packed a hammer blow to go with the masterful direction of traffic.
Fulham had already started quickly when, just over three minutes in, Seri took possession from Luciano Vietto in the inside-left position.
There was little on but, losing Jeff Hendrick in one movement, he set his sights and sent an achingly clean 25-yard drive arrowing into Joe Hart’s top corner.
“He’s great,” said Slavisa Jokanovic, whose five changes from a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham had looked a gamble.
“He scored a fantastic goal, he fits well for the style of how we want to play football and he’s one of the guys who is important for our possession of the ball.”
Fulham’s control was jolted when Hendrick, finishing at the second attempt after they had been exposed by an Aaron Lennon led counter, injected some life into Burnley’s heavy legs.
But Fulham regained their composure quickly enough and, by half-time, a sodden afternoon’s other star turn had made his mark.
Aleksandar Mitrovic’s two headers, the first from a tantalising Tom Cairney delivery that spun up beyond Hart and the second arising when Vietto was allowed a barely credible amount of time to cross, came within as many minutes of each other and were emphatically taken.
The Serb led the line superbly throughout and would have been worth a hat-trick; James Tarkowski and Ben Mee never had the measure of him and Jokanovic was right in saying his performance disabused any notion that he is that common breed of nearly-man: too good for the second tier but not fit for the top flight.
| Match Stats |
Fulham |
Burnley |
| Goals |
(3) 4 |
2 (2) |
|
| Scorers |
Seri 4 |
Hendrick 10' |
| |
Mitrovic 36 |
Tarkowski 41 |
| |
Mitrovic 38 |
|
| Schürrle 83
Schürrle 83 |
|
| |
| Goal attempts |
25 |
12 |
| On target |
12 |
2 |
| Shooting Accuracy |
48% |
17% |
| Possession |
64% |
36% |
| Passes |
574 |
300 |
| Passes Success |
85% |
74% |
| Crosses |
16 |
28 |
| Crosses Success |
31% |
18% |
| Corners |
6 |
4 |
| Tackles |
9 |
21 |
| Tackles Success |
89% |
48% |
| Saves |
0 |
8 |
| Fouls |
11 |
8 |
| Offsides |
1 |
5 |
| Yellows |
2 |
1 |
| Reds |
0 |
0 |
| source: SkySports |
“Some people thought he can only be a Championship player but no, he’s showed his quality at the highest level,” Jokanovic said. “He’s a really important player for us, a young man who has huge room for improvement.”
For all the fine work of those further forward, Fulham’s defence falls into that latter bracket.
They were undone again when Tarkowski, who looked offside, bundled in the game's fifth goal shortly before halftime and will surely suffer anew when better attacking units exploit the gaps they leave.
Burnley failed to provide any further examination of that theory after the interval, instead finding themselves pulled apart on the break.
Andre Schurrle, who had shot on sight all afternoon with wildly varying degrees of menace, eventually scored from his 11th attempt after Hart had tipped Mitrovic’s effort on to an upright. Doubts eliminated, Fulham could bask in their first win of the season.
How Burnley need three points of their own, whether on a Sunday afternoon or not, to ensure those concerns about their schedule avoid self-fulfilling.
“Players get barraged now with news stories and it’s mostly negative about the Europa League and games and things like that,” Sean Dyche said. “But that’s the reality now: can we keep going in different competitions?” He might ask himself whether it really is worth finding out.
Fulham : Bettinelli, Fosu-Mensah, Odoi, Le Marchand, Bryan (Chambers 72), Seri, McDonald, Cairney (Anguissa 78), Schurrle (R Sessegnon 89), Mitrovic, Vietto
Unused substitutes: Fabri, Christie, Johansen, Kamara
Goals:
Seri 04 (right footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Luciano Vietto.)
Mitrovic 36 (header from the right side of the six yard box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Tom Cairney following a corner.)
Mitrovic 38 (header from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Luciano Vietto with a cross.)
Schurrle 83 (right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner.)
Booked: Shurrle (59,f), Bettinelli (90+1,tw),
Burnley: Hart, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward (Barnes 66), Lennon, Cork, Westwood, Berg Gudmundsson (Taylor 19), Hendrick, Wood (Vokes 66)
Unused substitutes: Heaton, Gibson, Bardsley, Long
Goals:
Hendrick 10 (left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the top left corner.)
Tarkowski 41 (left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Ben Mee following a corner.)
Booked: Tarkowski (54,f),
Referee:
David Coote (Nottinghamshire)
Attendance: 23,438