When Raúl Jiménez’s contract ends in the summer it will have been three years since he signed for Fulham. His arrival was all pretty low key. He had struggled, understandably so, after suffering a fractured skull in a game against Arsenal in September 2020.
There had been 30 Premier League goals in two seasons before that collision with David Luiz, and then six in the two full years before he swapped Wolverhampton for London.
His price was supposed to have been £5.5million — Marco Silva said afterwards that it was less — and it reflected a feeling of decline, but right now that fee feels an absolute steal, 2½ years and 27 Premier League goals later.
The two he got in the second half — the first a fine header, the second a penalty — at the Stadium of Light on Sunday took Fulham above Sunderland.
For his header, in the 54th minute from Alex Iwobi’s left-wing corner, his movement was such that it was difficult to tell who should have been marking him, but he skipped past Lutsharel Geertruida and Dan Ballard and then swivelled his body in the air to send a glancing header into the bottom corner of the Sunderland goal. Robin Roefs, the Sunderland goalkeeper, made a forlorn appeal that he was nudged by Sander Berge as the ball came over, but it was the gentlest of touches.
In celebration, Jiménez ran to the corner flag and before celebrating took off the headgear he has been forced to wear ever since the surgery that followed that fractured skull. Perhaps there is something symbolic to him about taking it off. He is 34 and few would have said he would be such a significant performer in the Premier League 5½ years after it happened.
Jiménez rises above Ballard to head home Iwobi’s corner and give Fulham the lead
SCOTT HEPPELL/REUTERS
Jiménez had the chance to double the lead in the 61st minute, when the VAR instructed Craig Pawson to go to a pitchside monitor to assess whether or not Brian Brobbey had grabbed and kept hold of the shirt of Calvin Bassey as another corner came over. He had, and when the penalty was awarded, Jiménez slowly shuffled towards the ball before sending the Roefs the wrong way to score Fulham’s second.
When he was substituted, Marco Silva waited patiently for his hug behind Rodrigo Muniz, to get his turn to offer his thanks. Those eight Premier League goals this season will keep Fulham up, to go with his seven in season one and 12 in season two at Craven Cottage. They are goals that are worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Jiménez slots home his penalty after a stuttering run-up to make it 2-0 to the visiting team
RICHARD LEE/SHUTTERSTOCK
“Before that tragic incident and really bad incident for him and his family, he was doing unbelievably in the Premier League and he was around Harry Kane in the position of top scorer,” Silva said.
“He was not in a good moment in his career. We showed the confidence that we are capable for him to get to his best level. We hope there is more to come. For a striker that we signed at the price we signed he is doing very, very well.”
Régis Le Bris, the Sunderland head coach, pointed to a glorious chance missed by Romaine Mundle in the 52nd minute, when he shot wide from ten yards with just Bernd Leno to beat. Two minutes later the cost of that was felt as Jiménez got his first.
There was the briefest of brief rallies when Enzo Le Fée smashed a penalty for the home side past Leno, in the 76th minute, but within nine minutes any hope of a comeback had been extinguished.
Le Fée slots home his penalty after Ballard was brought down by Sessegnon
LEE SMITH/REUTERS
What a season Harry Wilson is having. In the 85th minute he took possession deep in his own half and ran 60 yards before playing a pass to Iwobi, on his left. There was still the need for a fine finish, under pressure from both Le Fée and Roefs, which the former Arsenal and Everton man found, dinking the ball over the Sunderland goalkeeper on a tight angle.
The result took Fulham to tenth place, on 37 points, and they will feel a win away from being safe, but for Le Bris and Sunderland, it is now two wins in 11.
“You can be in the top six and have a long sequence of poor results and I think we are now in this part of the journey,” Le Bris said. “But resilience and consistency and standards are always the same.
“Key moments defined this game. We had the opportunity to score and they scored twice from set pieces. We won’t give up. It is a bit harder. It is not comfortable and we don’t like it. We will try to find a way to change the situation.”
Sunderland (4-1-4-1) R Roefs — N Mukiele (L Geertruida 12min), D Ballard, O Alderete, T Hume — N Sadiki — Jocelin Ta Bi (R Mundle 39), H Diarra (G Xhaka 71), E Le Fée, N Angulo (E Mayenda 70) — B Brobbey (W Isidor 70). Booked Brobbey.
Fulham (4-2-3-1) B Leno — K Tete (T Castagne 88), J Andersen, C Bassey, R Sessegnon — A Iwobi (J Cuenca 88), S Berge — H Wilson, E Smith-Rowe (T Cairney 88), Kevin (O Bobb 46) — R Jiménez (R Muniz 65). Booked Jiménez.
Referee C Pawson.