Fulham continued their fine early-season form with a comfortable Premier League win at struggling Crystal Palace.
The result lifted the Cottagers up to sixth in the table on the same points as fourth-placed Chelsea, although the Blues play their game in hand against Arsenal – who are also on 18 points – on Sunday.
Emile Smith Rowe set Fulham on their way in the second minute of added time in the first half, racing on to Raul Jimenez’s pass and dispatching a left-foot effort past Dean Henderson after a mistake from Palace defender Maxence Lacroix.
And on an afternoon when Marco Silva’s team could and should have won even more emphatically, Harry Wilson scored his third goal of the week after coming on as a substitute with seven minutes left.
To compound fourth-bottom Palace’s misery, they had Daichi Kamada sent off in the 76th minute for a reckless challenge on Kenny Tete.
Without Eddie Nketiah, Adam Wharton, Eberechi Eze and Jefferson Lerma, there was an unfamiliar look to the Palace starting line-up.
While Eagles boss Oliver Glasner tried to shore up his midfield by deploying his England defender Marc Guehi alongside 21-year-old debutant Justin Devenny, it was an experiment that did not really work.
Outplayed for long periods, Palace’s only sporadic threat came mainly when they took a more direct route through to Jean-Philippe Mateta.
The French striker headed Northern Ireland U-21 international Devenny’s first-half delivery just over the bar, while his former team-mate Joachim Andersen then cleared a bundled effort off the line.
However, while the home side toiled in attack, Fulham repeatedly sliced through the home defence with some incisive football.
A second Smith Rowe effort, at the end of a sweeping move, was disallowed after a lengthy review from the video assistant referee showed the former Arsenal midfielder had strayed marginally offside.
Another late Wilson strike was also ruled out after he handled while controlling the ball.
Jimenez also went close with a volley and Iwobi, Reiss Nelson and Andreas Pereira were all superbly denied by Palace and England goalkeeper Henderson.
