Fulham 6-2 Bristol City

Fulham made it six points and 13 goals for the week with an emphatic victory over Bristol City.

The visitors led twice at Craven Cottage through Antoine Semenyo, but his efforts were cancelled out by Aleksandar Mitrović and Neeskens Kebano.

Fabio Carvalho then put the Whites in front, and Mitrović added two more to complete a first-half hat-trick.

Kebano’s magnificent take and finish was the only goal of the second half, but the damage had already been done by that point as we returned to the top of the Championship in some style.

Following the prolific evening’s work in Reading four days earlier, it came as little surprise that Marco Silva named an unchanged XI.

After a 15-minute delay to kick-off due to a power outage, Fulham started brightly but found ourselves one down to a seventh minute counter attack. Semenyo raced up the pitch and his shot had too much power for Marek Rodák.

The setback didn’t stunt the Whites’ enthusiasm, as we went straight on the hunt for an equaliser, one that almost came when Mitrović nodded Harrison Reed’s corner wide of the near post.

We weren’t to be frustrated for long, though, with Mitrović heading home his 25th goal of the season. Harry Wilson swung in a beauty of a cross and Mitro was able to hold off his man before guiding his header back the way it came and inside the far stick.

It almost got even better when Kebano dazzled his way into a shooting position through some slick footwork, but his curler was watched all the way by goalkeeper Max O’Leary.

The Robins were on the ropes, relying on an athletic O’Leary save to keep out Mitrović’s header after Wilson’s volley had bounced his way.

But despite Fulham’s dominance, City retook the lead in fortuitous circumstances. A powerful strike from Mitrović was blocked, and the force of the effort sent the ball halfway up the pitch towards our goal. Semenyo then had the strength to hold off the challenges of Tim Ream and Reed before smashing in via the upright.

You cannot keep a good team down, though, and within seconds Fulham were level. Mitrović attacked Kenny Tete’s cross, and Kebano was there to gobble up the loose ball and head in from close range.

The fans were being treated to an absolutely bonkers game in the Cottage’s first event of 2022, with Carvalho getting in on the act in the 36th minute. The away defence made the mistake of backing off the youngster as he bore down on goal, giving him an invitation to shoot which he gleefully accepted by planting an exquisite shot into the corner.

After a hairy moment which saw Rodák called into action, Fulham extended the lead. Tom Cairney – so influential in midweek – delivered a peach of a corner that Mitrović nodded down beyond O’Leary for 4-2.

We weren’t done there, either, with Mitrović wrapping up his hat-trick in first half stoppage time with a brilliant finish. Cairney again showed his vision to pick out the Championship’s top scorer, who sent an unstoppable strike into the far top corner with his weaker left foot.

One could be forgiven for expecting things to let up in the second period, but within 13 minutes Kebano had doubled his tally with arguably the goal of the game. Tosin’s looping header looked tricky to control, but Kebano brought it out of the sky and beyond his marker with one touch, before lashing his shot high into the net from the tightest of angles.

Kebano almost joined hat-trick club soon after, but unfortunately sliced his shot wide of the target.

Wilson would have been keen to get in on the act with this many goals being shared out, and he was unlucky in the 77th minute that his placed effort didn’t dip quite in time to find the net.

With the game long since sewn up, the tempo had slowed a bit and the home fans were forced to settle for just the six goals this time.