Sergio Rico claimed his fifth Man of the Match of the season for his impermeable performance at Bournemouth.
For the second game in a row, the 25-year-old departed the field with a clean sheet, although he was a lot busier at Vitality Stadium as the Cherries had five shots on target, compared to Everton’s sole effort the week previous.
After denying Callum Wilson in the opening stages, Rico then demonstrated the kind of ability which has seen him capped by Spain when he pulled off a wonderful sprawling stop to deny Ryan Fraser in the 17th minute.
Reaching the fierce shot was impressive enough, but then his hand was sufficiently strong to ensure the ball flew over rather than in.
Fraser was one of Bournemouth’s more positive attackers and was played in for a potential equaliser 12 minutes after Fulham’s had gone in front, but Rico made himself big on the angle to repel his low shot after he’d been sent through on goal by David Brooks.
Wilson was next to be denied from close range with a smart save, before bravely diving in at the England man’s feet a matter of seconds later to prevent him from getting a tap-in.
His performance was rightly described as “fantastic” by Match of the Day pundit Jermaine Jenas, who also believes we should not have “chopped and changed” our goalkeeper every week, despite Rico holding the gloves for the last 26 Premier League matches.
The Fulham faithful were fairly unanimous that Rico was our best performer in the Dorset sun, with 52.5 per cent giving him their vote. Matchwinner Aleksandar Mitrović came second with 19.9 per cent, ahead of the impressive Joe Bryan who claimed 10.6.