Alvaro Arbeloa buoyed by ‘improving’ Fulham’s hard-earned win at Coventry

Alvaro Arbeloa believes his Fulham side took another step forward in their performance as Oscar Bobb’s late strike earned a 1-0 win at Coventry to make it back-to-back Premier League victories. Bobb produced a moment of individual skill to break the deadlock in the 80th minute, but Fulham always looked to have a slight edge over their hosts, with Josh King hitting the post in the first half.

Coming on the back of last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Hull, the result saw Fulham power their way up the table – having put behind them a six-match winless run to start the season as the pressure on Arbeloa continues to ease. “I think we are improving as a team,” the Spaniard said.

“We are competing for 90 minutes. I talked to the players. It’s not about if we play well for 60 minutes or 30 minutes, we need to understand that you need to compete for 90 minutes.

“Understand the game, understand what you have to do. Sometimes you need to defend your box, sometimes you will control the game. “And I think we did that against a tough team.

It was a game where maybe we didn’t create as many chances as the other day but we were there, we were waiting for our moment and we took the chance. Oscar did really well.” Although Fulham bossed possession, Coventry ended the match having had one more attempt on goal. The difference was that Fulham’s looked the clearer openings, and Bobb had the quality to take one for his first Premier League goal for the club.

“Sometimes you need to win games because of the quality of your players,” Arbeloa added. “I think it was a good game as a team but at the end, the quality of Oscar in one moment decides the game. “That’s important for us because I think we have players that can make the difference, and they need to feel they need to be aggressive when they have the ball inside the box.

“Oscar did really well, and I’m so happy because I think he needs to understand that he has to be aggressive, that he has the quality to win games.” Defeat leaves Coventry second bottom of the table with Frank Lampard admitting the lack of cutting edge in his side is a concern. “If it ends 0-0, I think both say fair play,” Lampard said.

“Fulham are a good team, they’ve been creating a lot of chances – you can see why. They didn’t give us massive problems around our box but they found a moment of quality that we couldn’t find. “We didn’t have any real zip at the top end of the pitch like we would want to get results here, so that’s disappointing.

“Sometimes it can happen. This is the Premier League. They’re trying to stop you and if you want more it’s not always there for you and we’ve got to keep pushing on that.”