There was a devastating sense of déjà vu at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon, as Mancunians broke our hearts for the second game in a row.
As was the case at the Etihad last week, a goal in the final minute of stoppage time condemned us to a 2-1 defeat.
Christian Eriksen had Manchester United in front at half-time, but Fulham bossed the second period and deservedly equalised through Dan James’ first goal for the Club.
The Whites pushed and pushed for a winner but found David De Gea in great form. We may have felt hard done by to only take one point from the game, but even that disappeared when substitute Alejandro Garnacho nicked the win for the visitors with one of the last kicks of the match.
Marco Silva was forced into two changes, with Kenny Tete and Harrison Reed both suspended having accumulated five yellow cards. Bobby De Cordova-Reid returned at right-back having served a ban of his own, while Tom Cairney was given a first Premier League start of the campaign.
De Gea was forced into the first save of the afternoon in the fifth minute, improvising to keep out Carlos Vinicius’ deflected low drive with his legs following good play down the left from Antonee Robinson and Willian.
Bernd Leno had to be similarly reactive at the other end shortly after when Anthony Martial’s squeezed effort threaten to spin in at the near post via Issa Diop.
United made the breakthrough on the quarter hour mark with a ruthless break after Casemiro won possession in our half. Though there was a deal of fortune about it as Bruno Fernandes’ assist took a big nick off Diop to drop perfectly for Eriksen, who couldn’t miss from close range.
Willian was causing problems against United’s makeshift right-back Tyrell Malacia, and was unlucky to see his sweetly caught curler fly over on 20 minutes.
On the other side, Harry Wilson was keeping De Gea on his toes – his first, a poke on the end of Andreas Pereira’s clever pass, would not have counted as he strayed offside, but the wicked bending effort that followed needed a big hand from the United number one.
Both keepers were impressing, with Leno next to make an important stop, getting enough on Martial’s shot to slow it down, and claiming the loose ball before it could reach the line.
Fulham were having the better of the play but the Red Devils were always a threat, and Martial should have done better than head over from Luke Shaw’s cross five minutes before the break.
Likewise, Eriksen will feel he should have got his first time shot from the middle of the box on target in the final action of the half.
United had the chance to extend their lead inside three minutes of the restart. First Leno came out on top of a one-v-one with Anthony Elanga, and then a combination of Tim Ream and Robinson prevented Marcus Rashford from popping home the loose ball.
Vinicius then must surely have thought he’d opened his account for the club when he connected sweetly with his volley having brought Wilson’s cross down, but De Gea showed great reactions to keep it out, as he did with Ream’s header from the subsequent corner.
As we approached the hour mark, James come on for Wilson and had an instant impact. Again it was good play down the left, as Robinson played an intelligent first time pass down the flank to Willian after Bruno Fernandes had gone out of his way to keep the ball in play. Willian in turn fed Cairney, who put it on a plate for former United winger James with his square pass.
The Cottage was rocking and the Fulham players tried to utilise that. De Gea added another save to his collection in the 72nd minute, parrying a brilliant overhead kick from João Palhinha.
That was a harder chance than the one that fell the way of the Portugal midfielder eight minutes later, and he’ll be annoyed he couldn’t control his header from Andreas’ free-kick having found space on the penalty spot.
It was a similar tale at the Putney End moment later, with substitute Scott McTominay heading miles over from six yards having been picked out by Shaw.
Fulham had been looking the most likely to grab a winner but, for the second game in a row, we lost to a winner in the final minute of stoppage time. Substitute Garnacho was able to get in between two defenders and slide the ball across Leno and into the net. An absolute smash and grab.
