Opta Evaluation

Fulham were left frustrated at the end of last Saturday’s six-goal thriller at the Madejski Stadium as Hal Robson-Kanu’s 90^th-minute equaliser rescued a point for Reading.

As our Opta stats showed, Martin Jol’s side dominated large spells of the match and finished with 65.9 per cent of the possession and with 19 shots at goal – five more than their opponents.

Fulham have impressed with their attractive, forward-thinking football so far this term, and that was evident once more with a total of 295 attacking passes. Of their 612 attempted passes, an impressive 519 were completed.

Of passes played forward, Mahamadou Diarra made 31 whilst Chris Baird made 30.

With a total of 58 crosses between both Reading (34) and Fulham (24), Nicky Shorey (14), Damien Duff (8) and Kieren Richardson (8) were the game’s most productive from the flanks.

Former Fulham striker Pavel Pogrebnyak was kept relatively quiet throughout, although the Russian target man did win five of his aerial duels. Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes both won six of their aerial contests.  

Goals from Bryan Ruiz, Baird and Dimitar Berbatov took Fulham's Barclays Premier League goal total to 19 in nine matches - the third highest total behind Manchester United (24) and Chelsea (21).