Arbeloa records first league win with Fulham
Fulham earned its first Premier League win of the season as it defeated Hull City 1-0, courtesy of a first-half goal from Alex Iwobi.
Alvaro Arbeloa's side produced a dominant display to end a six-match winless start to the campaign, but its long-awaited victory was soured by Ryan Sessegnon's late dismissal.
Fulham dominated possession from the outset, as Iwobi went close to an early opener with a powerful strike that took a sharp deflection off John Egan before sailing narrowly over the crossbar.
The hosts continued to probe for a breakthrough as Sander Berge and Timothy Castagne combined neatly, the latter firing into the side netting, before Oscar Bobb stung Konstantinos Tzolakis’s palms with a low free-kick.
The hosts’ dominance finally bore fruit just past the half-hour mark as Brooke Norton-Cuffy was caught in possession, allowing Berge to tee up Iwobi for a superb curling strike into the bottom corner.
Tzolakis was called into action just before the break to deny Fulham a deserved second, keeping out Josh King’s effort across goal with an outstretched leg after the midfielder was slipped through by Bobb.
King threatened again shortly after the restart, with Bobb smartly cutting out Semi Ajayi’s loose pass and playing a fantastic one-two with the midfielder, who was once more thwarted by Tzolakis’s outstretched leg.
The Tigers posed minimal threat at the other end, but Fulham continued to squander chances.
Tzolakis produced another superb stop just before the hour mark, brilliantly denying Iwobi’s close-range effort after Garcia cushioned King’s looping cross into the Nigerian’s path.
Garcia then went close himself in the 74th minute but could only guide Iwobi’s floated back-post cross straight on to the crossbar, leaving the Craven Cottage faithful on edge.
A frenetic end to the match saw Mohamed Belloumi twice fire wide of the net before Sessegnon was given his marching orders for a late challenge on Robinio Vaz in the fourth minute of stoppage-time.
Arbeloa praised his side after the match.
"We were having the same feeling as other matches, when we were controlling the game for long spells and having good chances but didn't score,” the Spaniard said.
“Our rivals punish our mistakes or take their chances, but today we were brilliant for 90 minutes.
“We controlled the game, had many chances and didn't concede any clear chances to Hull, a very good team. They are tough to beat.
"I am very happy, especially for the supporters, they deserve this win, for the players, they were looking for this victory and have been working so hard.
“We deserved it in other matches, but we couldn't get it; today was finally the day.
"We have so many players with talent who can score. They will have chances. Players from the bench will be so important for us too. We have many chances and we need to try and take them.
"This is a massive game for us, a massive week because we have Coventry [City], then Crystal Palace in seven days.
“It won't be easy, but we know how we need to play and compete, we have to be competitive in this league. We have our way and hope we can win in many games."
The Tigers, meanwhile, have seen their bright start to the season waver. They are winless across their past five Premier League matches, while against Fulham, they failed to register a single shot on target in a Premier League match for the first time since facing Palace in May 2017.
"It's easy to analyse this game; we were out of everything,” Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic said.
“Fulham were much better than us in any terms, in and out of possession, first and second balls, duels. It was men against boys. We didn't show anything today. But we cannot change anything now.
"The performances of Fulham have been good; they should have more points. We knew it would be tough today. We were completely out of it today.
"It was very frustrating, maybe we had some situations around the box but made wrong decisions. They were much more aggressive than us and could have scored more."
