Fulham fires to end Newcastle's unbeaten run
Fulham ended Newcastle United’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season and recorded its second victory of the campaign, winning 3-1 at Craven Cottage.
Raul Jimenez scored the opening goal after five minutes, chesting down Adama Traore’s cross and firing a shot low into the net.
Jimenez has scored eight goals in his past nine Premier League starts, netting in consecutive league games for the first time since December 2023.
Smith Rowe nearly doubled the lead just moments later when he struck an effort on to the top of the crossbar, but later found the net from close-range on 22 minutes.
Newcastle responded inside 28 seconds of the second half, with Harvey Barnes producing a fine finish to halve the deficit.
The hosts nearly gifted Newcastle an equaliser shortly after as Bernd Leno presented Fabian Schar with the ball from a goal-kick but the defender failed to punish the goalkeeper.
Both sides had chances in the second half, but substitute Reiss Nelson sealed the three points for the hosts with a goal in added time.
Fulham climbed to eighth in the Premier League table, while Newcastle has dropped to sixth after its first defeat of the season.
Asked if his side ultimately lost the game in the first half, Magpies boss Eddie Howe said: "I think we did. It was a slow start and the first goal was a killer blow for us.
"It was a poor goal for us to concede; we need to do much better. The first half was difficult and we looked stretched in our defending.
"Second half we were much better and we scored a great goal. We thought we could turn the game around. We had our chances and ultimately the third goal killed the game."
Victory for Fulham was its first over Newcastle in the Premier League since March 2014, having previously gone eight without a win in this fixture.
The victory keeps Fulham unbeaten in its past four Premier League games, its longest spell without defeat since February 2023.
It has never been on a longer such run under Marco Silva in the competition.
"It was very good performance from us," Fulham boss Silva said. "Looking at all over the pitch and the whole game, I think we were the team who deserved to win the game.
"It was a very good first half in our image. I like us to play, creating problems in different ways for the opposition and really enjoying to embrace the challenge in front of us.
"We built from the back and every time we arrived in central areas. We should have scored more goals from the moments we created."