Fulham head coach Alvaro Arbeloa has insisted his players will improve as they look to bounce back from their home defeat against Chelsea when they visit Sunderland next Sunday afternoon.
The Cottagers handed debuts to the likes of Gonzalo Garcia and Cesar Palacios as they faced their West London rivals at Craven Cottage – but found themselves a goal down inside the opening 60 seconds as Joao Pedro found the net for their visitors. Joshua King got Fulham back on level-terms midway through the first-half but Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer scored either side of half-time to take Chelsea out of sight and they held on to claim all three points despite former Real Madrid striker Garcia marking his competitive debut with a goal.
The West London derby clash handed Arbeloa a chance to experience managing in the Premier League for the first time in his career and marked his first return to English football since he had a short spell with West Ham United during the final years of his playing career. The Spaniard admitted his side are facing some tough challenges during the campaign – but urged them show character and ambition to improve ahead of their trip to the Stadium of Light.
Speaking after the defeat, the former Real Madrid boss said: “I think we keep improving and that will take time. But it’s the first game of the season and I have been seeing all the games in the Premier League and you can feel that no one is ready. But I saw tonight the energy that I want to see, the high press that we want to make. And like I said to my players, we are going to play in this way and we’re going to try to play in this way no matter who is in front of us.
“So that’s not easy because we are going to face very good teams with very top players, but we are going to try for sure. And we need to play with that character and that ambition and that energy that is very important for us that we fight from the first minute until last.”
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