Brighton boss hails his 'incredible' goalkeeper following clean sheet against Fulham

Brighton played out the 0-0 draw away to Fulham at Craven Cottage on Wednesday night (December 16) in what could be described as an early six-pointer in the Premier League season, with Graham Potter's men in 16th place and Scott Parker's side occupying the 17th spot.

Big chances came for both sides, Adam Lallana had a goal disallowed by VAR following a handball in the build up, and Fulham were kept out by some top goalkeeping from the Seagulls' keeper, who replaced the out-of-form Maty Ryan in between the sticks for this game.

Graham Potter, speaking about goalkeeper Sanchez after he made a number of excellent saves: "I made the decision to go with Rob, he has some incredible attributes we wanted to use.

"He will [keep his place]. He earned his place on merit and how he has worked and I think his performance was good tonight.

"Jason Steele I feel plays the role of the number two really well, that is where we are.

"Adam Lallana was really good. We are being careful with him but he was a really positive influence."

Potter spoke about the match itself and said he expected a tough game.

He said: "You'd expect a tough game between two sides that are fighting and you saw that. We hit the bar, we had a goal disallowed – I thought the second half performance in particular was really strong.

“The spirit of the players was fantastic, I can't complain about that in any way. There was personality out there, they worked for each other, they had everything but the goal.

“Sometimes decisions go for you, sometimes they don't. I haven’t seen the VAR call back. It’s a good job there wasn't a crowd in here otherwise they would have been going spare! That's the new reality with VAR.

“The overall quality of the performance was there and if we maintain that then I am pretty sure we will score goals. We’ve scored goals over the past few weeks and it will come.”

It was a cagey first half with few chances on goal for either side. Both teams looked like they did not want to concede first. It could be said the stalemate was mostly down to both team's 3-4-2-1 formations, which saw the ball get stuck in a congested midfield.

The little chances created were through the wing backs and centre attacking midfielders for both sides: March, Lamptey, Trossard and Lallana for Brighton, and Antonee Robinson and Ademola Lookman for Fulham.

Fulham had the better of the game in the first 25 minutes, mostly thanks to Lookman's movement and quick feet in between the Brighton lines.

Against the run of play, the first decent chance of the match was fashioned by Brighton after they managed to string a few passes together in the 28th minute. Tariq Lamptey was played in behind by Lallana, but no-one managed to get on the end of the wing-back's low cross into the danger area.

Fulham's first decent effort came through lone striker Ivan Cavaleiro when he fired a right-footed effort from the edge of the box at Robert Sanchez in the Brighton goal, but the keeper was on hand to tip over the bar.

Brighton came flying out of the blocks in the second half; it looked like Graham Potter got into his men at half time, specifically telling his players to stretch the game and get in behind Fulham's wing-backs. They really looked up for it and stepped up the tempo.

Lewis Dunk nearly scored with a close range header and then a makeshift attempt from the rebound while laying on the floor, but Areola produced two reaction stops to keep him out. A mention to Adam Webster, whose marauding run and link up play with Danny Welbeck won the corner.

Moments later, March played a teasing ball across the box which eventually fell to Lallana, who looked like he put his team 1-0 up from six yards but VAR later disallowed the strike due to a Welbeck handball in the build up.

Fulham then went close to breaking the deadlock but for a last man tackle in the box from Webster, who brilliantly dealt with the danger - the incident went to VAR but any claim for a penalty was waived away.

An absolute onslaught of Brighton attacks followed, mostly through good link up play between March, Lallana and Trossard, with Welbeck running the channels - which was proving effective down the left hand side and winning a fair share of corners (eight in total for Brighton).

Webster's thumping header from one of those resulting corners smashed the underside of the bar and bounced back out in the 60th minute.

Webster then nearly became the villain after an unfortunate slip saw Ruben Loftus-Cheek latch onto a loose ball and subsequently reign down on the Brighton goal, however, the former Chelsea man's powerful effort from just inside the box was saved well by Sanchez in the 68th minute.

Fulham came close a few times towards the latter stages of the game. Once through a cross into the box which saw the London side's attacker rise highest, but his header bounced the wrong side of Sanchez in goal, who helplessly watched on.

Lookman then forced a string of close range saves from Sanchez, but the big Spaniard did well to block the efforts on goal.

That was that, a stalemate at Craven Cottage. Both side's could have easily taken all three points, but, in the same breath, they could have gone home empty-handed. A draw was probably a fair result, although Brighton will be ruing their missed opportunities in that second half.

Fulham boss Scott Parker gave his thoughts after the game.

He said: "I think the way the game panned out yes [the draw was fair]. I thought we looked a little jaded today and that was probably from the effort the players put in against Liverpool. We did have some massive chances but overall a point felt a fair result.

"Overall I think we understand that we will need to play better to win games in this division but in saying that we didn't lose so we move on.

"In large parts this season we have not given ourselves a platform and have been chasing games down. A clean sheet is massive for us. Overall a lot of positives but some negatives as well. I felt we lacked a bit of control today.

"This is a team that is moving in the right direction and I am seeing improvements in. We are taking small steps and that is very pleasing."

The draw means Brighton stay in 16th place on 11 points and Fulham one spot below in 17th on nine points.