Everton drop into relegation zone after draw at Fulham

Everton dropped into the relegation zone after a 0-0 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage. 

Sean Dyche’s side had a glorious chance to score in stoppage time but substitute Beto failed to hit the target.

The Toffees fall below Luton Town into the bottom three after the Hatters beat Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 at home.

In the opening minutes Dominic Calvert-Lewin expertly held up the ball and laid it off to Jack Harrison, who flashed his shot wide. 

Bernd Leno then palmed Ashley Young’s free-kick into the path of James Tarkowski, whose shot deflected off Issa Diop onto the bar before being cleared off the line by Antonee Robinson. 

Just before the break Raul Jimenez had a golden opportunity to put Fulham ahead. Timothy Castagne’s long-range strike was cleared off the line into the path of the Mexican, who failed to score the rebound.

The end-to-end affair continued in the second half. Harrison’s cross was headed onto the crossbar by Calvert-Lewin, while Bobby De Cordova-Reid spurned a brilliant opportunity for Fulham when, instead of shooting, he opted to square the ball to Willian and saw his pass intercepted.  

The breakthrough for both sides looked most likely to come from a set-piece. Castange’s header rattled off the crossbar as the defender tried to redirect Cordova-Reid’s header towards goal, and in the 75th minute Jordan Pickford made a superb save, denying Fulham defender Diop from heading his side into the lead.

The Cottagers went close again when Robinson’s cutback in the box found Cordova-Reid, whose shot went agonisingly wide past the post.

But Everton very nearly grabbed the three points in stoppage time as Beto headed wide from close range, and a goalmouth scramble in Fulham’s six-yard box a few minutes later ended with goalkeeper Leno gratefully grabbing the ball. 

Fulham climb to 12th place on 25 points.

See: Fulham report | Everton report

Everton have had more shots (40), shots on target (12), big chances (9), and accumulated more xG (4.7) against Fulham (home and away) this season than they have against any other opponent in the Premier League, but have failed to score a single goal against the Cottagers in those two games.

Marco Silva is now unbeaten in all of his five meetings with former club Everton as Fulham manager across all competitions (P5 W2 D3). In fact, since taking over Fulham in 2021, the Cottagers have played Everton more times without losing (5) than any other team.

Everton’s Jordan Pickford has kept more clean sheets in the Premier League this season than any other goalkeeper (8), with six of those clean sheets coming in his last nine league matches.

Fulham have drawn their first home Premier League match of the season in what was their 11th such game; it’s the latest into a Premier League season that they’ve recorded their first home draw of the campaign.