Iwobi’s Opening-Day Nightmare Returns as Fulham Star Suffers Familiar Double Defeat

Alex Iwobi has suffered defeats in his first two Premier League matches of a season for the third time in his 12-year career after Fulham’s disappointing start to the 2026/27 campaign.

The Nigerian midfielder started Fulham’s 3-2 home defeat to Chelsea at Craven Cottage on the opening weekend before featuring again on Sunday as Alvaro Arbeloa’s side slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

The back-to-back defeats have revived a frustrating pattern in Iwobi’s Premier League career, with the 30-year-old having previously endured the same fate with Everton in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.

In 2022/23, Everton opened their campaign with a 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea before losing 2-1 away to Aston Villa, with Iwobi featuring in both matches.

The following season produced an almost identical nightmare, as Everton again lost their opening game 1-0 at home, this time against Fulham, before suffering a 4-0 thrashing at Aston Villa, with Iwobi involved in both fixtures.

Interestingly, Iwobi has never suffered defeats in three consecutive opening Premier League matches of a season. In 2023/24, a hamstring injury ruled him out of Everton’s 1-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers in their third league game, shortly before his move to Fulham.

His record also stretches back to his Arsenal days.

In 2018/19, Arsenal lost their first two Premier League matches against Manchester City and Chelsea, although Iwobi was an unused substitute in the 2-0 home defeat to City before playing 75 minutes in the 3-2 loss at Stamford Bridge.

Iwobi will now hope Fulham can halt the unwanted sequence quickly, with the Cottagers still searching for their first points of the new Premier League season.