Fulham club captain Tom Cairney once again starred for the club on a landmark occasion for the Whites against West Ham United.
Cairney took to social media to celebrate a second Premier League 5-0 win on the bounce at Craven Cottage.
After being treated to a spectacle against Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest side on Wednesday, Fulham repeated the feat yesterday.
West Ham turned up off the back of a 2-1 win over London rivals Tottenham but looked off the pace for much of the game.
Raul Jimenez opened the scoring after a phenomenal pass from Joao Palhinha and the Hammers never looked like getting back into the game from there.
Willian and Tosin Adarabioyo extended Fulham’s lead before half-time and the Brazilian was withdrawn at the break after looking uncomfortable at the end of the first 45.
He was replaced by Harry Wilson who scored the goal of the game, curling the ball over the outstretched Lukasz Fabianski, before setting up Carlos Vinicius for a tap-in to complete the rout.
Although Cairney wasn’t on the score sheet against West Ham, he still ran the show from midfield.
Marco Silva was very complimentary about the 32-year-old after the match and having spent much of last season as a super sub, he looks irreplaceable in the starting line-up right now.
Cairney stars again against West Ham
It was the silky playmaker’s 300th Fulham appearance yesterday and he took to Instagram to celebrate both a personal accolade and a fantastic win for the team.
He said: “300. Always an honour putting on the shirt and I’ll never take it for granted!! But we ain’t done yet.”
Cairney’s teammates past and present wanted to congratulate the midfielder, with Willian calling him a ‘Player’, while Alex Iwobi suggested his new captain is a ‘Legend!’.
Even Ryan Sessegnon wanted to send a message to his old skipper and he loved that Cairney had reached 300 games for his previous club.
Cairney showed against West Ham why he still has such a crucial role to play for Fulham this season.
Joao Palhinha is extremely good at winning back possession while Andreas Pereira is rediscovering his best form in the final third.
However, Cairney establishes a level of control with his magic left foot that few other players can do in the Premier League.
He dictates tempo, spots a pass before the ball has even reached him and gets the best out of Willian and Antonee Robinson on the left flank.
Fulham have a full week to prepare for Newcastle before the busy Christmas period begins.
Cairney has shown Marco Silva that he’s fit enough to play a key role in back-to-back games and right now it would be mad to drop him out of the starting line-up.