Fulham vs West Ham: Hammers cruise past Claudio Ranieri’s lacklustre Cottagers

Fulham 0-2 West Ham: Fulham rarely threatened to retaliate after Robert Snodgrass and Michail Antonio’s quick double, as Manuel Pellegrini's side notched their fourth consecutive win

There were carol singers and fake snow outside Craven Cottage before the match and mince pies in the media room. And Fulham’s Christmas spirit continued after kick-off as they gave away three more vital points.

Showing true festive generosity, they presented West Ham with two goals, leaving Robert Snodgrass and Michail Antonio unchallenged to put the visitors two up at the interval. The Hammers did not have to play very well to win, but their quality and pace in attack was too much for the hosts and in the end their fourth successive league victory – their first such sequence since February 2014 – was achieved with some comfort.

Fulham have yet to record a clean sheet in 17 Premier League games and will, barring miracles, be in the bottom three when Santa arrives. After a victory over Southampton and a draw with Leicester City in his two previous home games in charge of Fulham, this will feel like a big setback for Claudio Ranieri, who desperately needs some points over the holiday period.

A trip to Newcastle next Saturday and a Boxing Day home bout with Wolves precede a six-pointer against Huddersfield Town and a New Year’s Day visit to Arsenal.

His team were without the injured Ryan Sessegnon and suspended Andre-Frank Anguissa, but it did not show early on as they looked the more positive of the two teams. In the ninth minute, Andre Schurrle picked up possession on the left, marauded across the field and let fly with his right foot, the ball passing inches over the crossbar.

Seconds later Fulham should have been ahead. Aleksandar Mitrovic played the ball through West Ham’s static back four and Aboubakar Kamara raced free. But as Lukasz Fabianski advanced, the Frenchman short hurriedly and the goalkeeper was able to drop to his right and knock the ball away.

And in the 17th minute West Ham were ahead, It seemed Denis Odoi must cut out a long pass down the left but an indecisive attempted interception allowed Felipe Anderson to recover and continue to charge forward. The Brazilian looked up and played a diagonal pass back to the edge of the penalty area, where Snodgrass, unmarked, thumped the ball first time past Sergio Rico.

Robert Snodgrass scored West Ham’s first after just 17 minutes (Action Images via Reuters)

West Ham, though, could be as defensively lax as their hosts. Both Mitrovic and Kamara found space for unchallenged headers but the former nodded Joe Bryan’s cross into the side netting and the latter put Odoi’s too close to Fabianski.

Kamara then tested Fabianski with a rocket shot from distance before Fulham caved in again with 29 minutes gone. Anderson’s cross from the left was nodded on by Javier Hernandez and Antonio was in yards of space as he brought the ball down with his right foot and slotted it past Rico with his left.

West Ham had never looked remotely in control of the match but were two ahead and looked capable of more. So did Fulham and Schurrle swerved another right-foot shot marginally off-target as half time approached.

Fulham did their best to retrieve something in the second half but were unable to put together any sustained possession. In one incident, Aboubakar drew cheers from the home fans with a shuddering old-fashioned shoulder charge to win the ball from Pablo Zabaleta only to lose concentration, and the ball to Anderson. Promise but ultimate disappointment – how very Fulham.