Fulham’s difficult start to the season continued at Ipswich on Saturday, where Alvaro Arbeloa’s side were beaten 2-1 after the hosts scored twice in the closing stages. Fulham had been on the cusp of victory, only for Ipswich to strike twice after the 88th minute and take the win.
It is the second successive Premier League game in which Fulham have led approaching the final few minutes and then conceded. Six matches into the campaign, the Cottagers have no wins, just two points and sit bottom of the table — a testing beginning to Arbeloa’s first season as a Premier League manager.
Speaking after the defeat, Arbeloa was clear that he is not troubled by the scrutiny on his own future. “I never worry about my position,” he said. “I don’t feel fear. You cannot be a coach if you feel it. You have to work, take the decision and you need to show confidence to your players.” He added that his focus is on the club rather than himself: “It’s not about my position, it is about Fulham’s position. That is the most important thing. Obviously it is just six games, but it is true we need points.”
Arbeloa arrived at Fulham in the summer as the replacement for Marco Silva, who had been appointed in 2021 and brought a stability that kept the club competitive in the Premier League without ever being in serious danger of relegation. Silva left to become head coach of Benfica, and Fulham’s decision to turn to Arbeloa represented a gamble: the former Liverpool and Real Madrid player came with limited senior managerial experience, his only previous spell in charge having been a brief stint at Real Madrid from January until May this year.
The main problem under Arbeloa has been conceding late goals. Fulham have let in goals in the final 15 minutes in four of their six Premier League matches, a pattern that was repeated at Ipswich. Despite that, the manager was defiant, insisting he is the right man for the job and can handle the pressure of turning results around. “Maybe you don’t know me but I played for the best team in world. I have coached the best team in the world,” he said. “Maybe you don’t know, but just to let you know, that pressure is part of my life since I was a kid. So, it is normal in football. It is normal for players, it is normal for coaches and everybody that is around a team. I think pressure is something that is important for me and I like it.”
The Ipswich fixture was the first of three consecutive games against newly promoted sides. Fulham host Hull on Saturday, 17 October, before travelling to Coventry a week later, and failing to win at least one of those matches would increase the pressure on Arbeloa further.
Ryan Sessegnon, who had put Fulham ahead at Ipswich, believes the problem is as much mental as tactical. “We need to take a hard look at ourselves,” he said. “It’s a bit of mentality thing at the moment. We need to try and demand more from ourselves. We need to set higher standards for ourselves because it’s going to be a hard season.”