No excuses from Silva after Fulham are crushed by Arsenal

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Marco Silva said there can be no excuses for Fulham’s poor performance against Arsenal as the Premier League leaders cruised to a 3-0 win at Craven Cottage.

The Whites were torn apart by a ruthless Gunners team, who scored all of their goals in 24 first-half minutes as the Whites followed up Monday’s 3-2 loss at Brentford with their poorest display of the season.


Silva’s side were without the suspended Joao Palhinha and winger Willian, who missed out with a back problem, and the pair were badly missed.

But the Fulham boss said their absence could not mask a performance he labelled as “soft”.

“In the first half we were on the pitch but in some moments we weren’t,” Silva said.

“We were too soft, not brave enough, not aggressive, and we let them play the way they wanted and some moments we were not even 50 per cent of where we should be.”

Fulham were dominated by Arsenal’s midfield trio of Thomas Partey, Martin Odegaard and Granit Xhaka, with Sasa Lukic struggling to fill the shoes of Palhinha, who will return for FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester United on Sunday.

“Joao is an important player for us, so is Willian but that would the easiest way for me to analyse the game (and blame injuries),” Silva said.

“But the players that were on the pitch have the capacity to do much better.

“It is easy to make excuses and I don’t like doing that. I like to be honest and work really hard to get things done. We need to work more.”