Fulham FC 2-3 Crystal Palace FC: Premier League Match Report, 5 September 2026

Fulham led at half-time and lost anyway, which completes a third defeat from three. Fulham FC 2-3 Crystal Palace FC, 2-1 up at the interval and beaten by full time, with the second half finishing 0-2 against them. The record carries no more than those two scorelines, so the order in which Palace's two goals arrived is not something we can state.

The parallel with Fulham's opening fixture is hard to miss. They lost 3-2 at home to Chelsea on 24 August from a losing half-time position, and they have now lost 3-2 at home to Palace from a winning one. Three matches have produced three defeats, four goals scored, seven conceded and no points.

Palace's start had been worse still. Beaten 2-0 at Everton and 4-1 at home by Manchester City, they came into this bottom of the table with no points and a goal difference of -5. Two matches is not a season, but conceding six in them was a genuinely poor opening for a side that finished fifteenth last time.

Last season's table put these clubs seven points apart: Fulham eleventh on 52 with a goal difference of -4, Palace fifteenth on 45 with -10. Palace scored 41 goals in 38 matches, the lowest total in the division outside the three relegated clubs — which makes three goals in an away fixture the most surprising figure in this result.

Palace's first points of the season, and they took them in the manner their 2025/26 record least suggested: by scoring three away from home after being behind at the break. That is worth one match's weight and no more, but for a side whose problem last season was scoring, it is at least a data point in the right column.

Fulham are the more pressing story. Zero from nine available points, and two of the three defeats have come after they scored twice at home. A club that finished eleventh on 52 points is not usually pointless after three matches, and having led at the break here and been level at the break at Sunderland, they have not simply been outclassed in all three.

The caveat still applies with force. Three matches is a fortnight, not a season, and the seven-point gap these clubs finished with in May remains better evidence about them than anything either has done in September.

Our pre-match call was Double Chance 1X (Fulham FC or Draw) at 1.38, at medium confidence. It lost.

The case was straightforward and, on the table, sound: Fulham finished seven points and four places above Palace last season, Palace had opened with two defeats and a -5 goal difference, and covering two of three outcomes at home to the bottom club looked like the low-risk side of the market. At half-time, 2-1 up, it looked exactly like that.

The misjudgement was treating Palace's opening two fixtures as information rather than as a schedule. They had played Everton away and Manchester City at home; losing both says less than the goal difference implies. Backing a side to avoid defeat is only cheap when the opponent is genuinely poor, and two matches were not enough to establish that.

Verdict: lost