The Tanner Report: Manchester United 1 Fulham 0

That Fulham are neither mentioned as a top eight club, nor as a relegation candidate in the hype prior to the start of the Premiership, indicates that another midtable position is expected.

Joao Pahlinha will be a great loss now that he has moved to Bayern but Emile Smith Rowe is an exciting signing and Ryan Sessegnon is back.

I watched last night’s game on SKY.

As I had expected, the coverage had a Man Utd bias with legends Roy Keane and Gary Neville as pundits. I thought that this might be balanced by ex- Fulham players and now analysts Mark Schwarzer and Tony Gale, but no such luck. I guess the decline of Manchester Utd and the competence and future of Erik ten Hag is the big story.

As for the game, Fulham started brightly with some pacy fluid counter-attacking and Kenny Tete’s long shot was well saved by Onana.

However it was the Reds that began to dominate as the half went on. Fulham picked up the pace again in the second half but we only had one holding player in Sasha Lukic and gradually were pushed back.

This meant that full backs Tete and Antonee Robinson had to cover and not get forward. Emile Smith Rowe was largely anonymous and was subbed after an hour. Andreas Peteira did not seem happy in a deeper rôle.

Many, including me, felt that Harrison Reed should have come on to shore things up and  that Fulham might get an honourable draw. However, it was United who scored through Joshua Zezkzee – an expensive signing from Bologna – who deflected in a cross in the 87th minute.

Joao Pahlinha almost certainly would have coveted the empty space in front of the back four but he’s gone (for good money for a 28 year old) and there is still time for a replacement to be signed.