Bournemouth 1-0 Fulham

Fulham were beaten 1-0 by Bournemouth in a scrappy Monday night encounter on the south coast.

The Whites fell behind to Antoine Semenyo’s strike inside a minute, and spent the rest of the match chasing an equaliser that never came.

There were just 53 seconds on the clock when Semenyo managed to squeeze past Antonee Robinson on the right, before placing a curler into the bottom left out of Bernd Leno’s reach.

And Fulham could have fallen further behind in the 17th minute, when Alex Scott headed a deep cross back into the middle, and Evanilson rattled a shot against the crossbar from five yards out.

The Whites forged an opportunity when Andreas Pereira delivered a dangerous free-kick into the box and Joachim Andersen directed a header on target, but goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was behind it.

Evanilson came close again as Bournemouth looked for a second, controlling the ball on the edge of the box before seeing his piledriver deflected behind by Timothy Castagne, and Lewis Cook’s half volley from the resulting corner sailed wide.

Rodrigo Muniz created a fantastic opportunity for himself as he pounced when two Bournemouth defenders failed to clear the ball, but his strike across the goalkeeper whistled past the post.

Castagne was called into action again at the other end moments later, this time sliding in to make the block when Dango Ouattara was presented with the shooting opportunity.

Meanwhile, Muniz created more problems, first using his strength to hold off two Cherries defenders and volleying into Kepa’s arms on the turn, and then rising highest at a corner and again forcing Kepa into a save.

Marco Silva’s men increasingly looked the more likely to score next, with Kepa keeping his hands warm as Ryan Sessegnon got a shot away when he was found by Alex Iwobi’s ball in.

Bournemouth survived what could have been a game-changing moment when Marcos Senesi went in studs up on Andersen, but the Cherries defender escaped with just a yellow following the reckless challenge.

And Leno prevented the scoreline being doubled in first-half added time, pushing Scott’s shot round the post to keep it at 1-0.

The home side had to wait until ten minutes after the interval for their next chance, with Ouattara’s drilled effort finding Tyler Adams, but Leno made another fine save to keep it out.

Alex Iwobi took matters into his own hands, firing a strike at goal that looked destined for the top corner, if not for Kepa pushing the effort away. Then, when Saša Lukić let fly from a similar distance, the goalkeeper was also equal to the shot.

Substitutes Adama Traoré and Tom Cairney were next to threaten an equaliser, with Adama heading over at the far post and Cairney shooting straight at the busy Kepa.

And more of Marco’s changed linked up when Willian found Cairney, and our number ten lobbed a cross over to Raúl Jiménez, with the Mexico international’s header deflected behind.

In truth, despite all the endeavour, it never felt like Fulham’s night, and the Cherries did enough to hold onto their lead and seal three points.