Rise of a Football God

(Premier league:)

(West Ham – Fulham)

(Date: 14th January, 2025)

…

(Leicester City – Fulham)

(Date: 18th January, 2025)

…

(Fulham – Man United)

(Date: 26th January, 2025)

After the impressive win against Watford in the FA Cup, Fulham had 4 days of rest to prepare for their next game which was a premier league game.

After the FA Cup game, Fulham finally ran into their first hectic schedule since they lost their talismanic attacking midfielder.

Their next 3 games were important games that would potentially decide the outcome of their season.

Their first 2 encounters against West Ham and Leicester City were away games in tough away stadiums. No football club loved losing in front of their home fans, they would surely make things hard for Fulham.

In Sam's absence, the other Fulham stars would have to show up to win and of course, their hardest of the 3 premier league encounters was the 2nd clash against Manchester United for the premier league season.

This game was important because it was Fulham's last game for January 2025, and more importantly because it was against Manchester United.

Despite the recent dominance of Manchester City in the premier league, ask OG premier league fans and they would tell you that Manchester United are yet to be dethroned as the historical Kings of England.

Their history was still the best and most storied.

The memories created by ancient legends like George Best, more recent ones like Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Roonie, Robin Van Persie, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Edwin Van Der Sarr, all of it would not be forgotten so easily.

Besides, this season, Manchester United was a wildcard.

They win when you expect them to lose and when you do expect them to win, they'll go on and break your heart, losing in humiliating fashion.

In simple terms, they were unpredictable this season.

Despite their current form, it was still a team of elite professional football players in Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Andre Onana, Lisandro Martinez and the likes. It was going to be Fulham's hardest game streak of the new year so far.

Personally, for Sam who was still in Netherlands with his girlfriend, the next run of games was especially important to him.

This was because after 26th January, the day when his team would take on Manchester United at home, the next day would be the day of his full recovery from his injury and when he would shock his teammates.

Till today, not even his girlfriend knew that he would recover in one month despite the fact that she was excited by how fast he was recovering.

Sam was ready to shock everybody, not just his girlfriend, his friends, his teammates and his coach, but also Fulham rivals.

A lot of people were secretly happy that he was injured, praying for their downfall, he could not wait to see the look on their faces on his return.

'Thinking of my return,' he rubbed his chin. 'I think I should find a way to make it special and memorable'.

'Something like…, maybe a new celebration that is exclusive to me?'

Thinking of that, he remembered a certain Marvel superhero and then he grinned. "As you can see, I am not dead".

…

Time moved fast for the Fulham players.

While they were engulfed in training, preparing for their next game, time moved like it was being chased and in no time, it was already 4 days.

The Fulham squad traveled to West Ham United's London Stadium.

Like usual, both teams started with their strongest lineups.

For Fulham, Raul Jimenez led the line with the trio of Harry Wilson, Pereira, and Emile Smith Rowe behind him. Further behind them was the midfield duo of Lukic and Berge who started this game.

The 4-man defense comprised of Antonee Robinson, Diop, Bassey and Tete with Bernd Leno starting in between the posts in their regular 4-2-3-1 formation.

As for West Ham, they started in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Fabianski in between the posts and a 4-man defensive quadruple comprising of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, the ex-Man United defender, Mavropanos, Kilman, and Emerson Royal who once plied his trade for FC Barcelona.

The sole man in midfield was Alvarez, while the 4-man offensive unit ahead of him comprised of Jarred Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Soucek, and Mohamed Kudus.

Nikolas Fullkrug, the tall and imposing German striker was the sole man upfront for West Ham starting as their striker.

This was a formidable lineup and once the referee's whistle sounded, West Ham rode the momentum created by the home fans to play a wonder game.

This was Fulham in its current full power but during the first few minutes of this game, West Ham ran the Fulham defensive units ragged.

Mohamed Kudus especially was in imperious form as bolstered by his defense shutting out the Fulham attackers, this winger took the game by the scruff of the neck, consistently turning Tete inside out.

Their domination continued for over 40 minutes without a goal and during the late stages of the first half, as the pressure that they mounted on Fulham reduced, that was when their striker scored a wonder goal.

Mohamed Kudus created it.

After receiving the ball in the left-hand side, this winger wriggled past Tete again, wrong-footed Calvin Bassey before slipping a lobbed pass for the laser-focused German striker to hit on a powerful volley towards goal.

Bernd Leno reacted, his right hand touching the ball but the power behind the shot was just too much as it squirmed past him and into the net.

The London Stadium erupted as ecstatic West Ham supporters rejoiced.

The first half ended with West Ham leading 1-0.

When second half started, the Fulham players probably having taken a dose of motivation words from their coach started the game powerfully as they took the action to their opponents but it only lasted a short while before the West Ham domination continued.

Without Sam on the pitch, Fulham just seemed to lose that extra factor that would enable them compete at the very elite level.

They kept on trying but in the 60th minute of this game, the German striker pounced again, powering a header past Bernd Leno from a cross.

In 60 minutes, 2-0 to West Ham.

The away fan section deflated but, on the pitch, the Fulham players kept on trying their best and giving their all.

Late in the game, Fulham got a consolation goal for their troubles as Antonee Robinson, the Fulham left back scored a wonder goal from midfield.

The goal didn't change much though, Fulham lost the game 2-1.