Michy Batshuayi has an immediate impact as Palace for Misery in Fulham | Soccer

As weeks go by and defeats pile up, Fulham's hope for a miracle fades away. Although it is still time for Claudio Ranieri to get his naive side of the quagmire of relegation, the players of the Italian start to give the impression that they have already accepted their fate.

A quick return to the championship draws attention to the evidence of this deplorable effort against a team from Crystal Palace who has rushed into mistakes to appease his own fears and move away from the last three.

Any momentum generated by Fulham with this intoxicating return against Brighton Tuesday is gone. Supported by an encouraging come-out from Michy Batshuayi, Palace deserved a victory that left Ranieri's team seven points behind fourth-placed Burnley, 13 games down the line.

It was an anguished battle, with every misstep and every dangerous contact of extra importance, and Fulham did not have the courage to deal with the tension.

A first victory of the season has never been the rendezvous, even if they managed to restore beautiful figures in the first half. They were fluent in their 3-4-3 system and Tom Cairney was sometimes influential, appearing between the lines, disturbing Palace with its elusive movement and intelligent inducement.

Yet visitors had trouble getting caught in the third third. They should have taken a fast lead when a fluid movement came to an end and Joe Bryan tried to find the unidentified Aleksandar Mitrovic, who had flown between Mamadou Sakho and James Tomkins. Instead of inflating the net, however, Fulham's top scorer disappointed Vicente Guaita's goal.

Normally so murderous in the air, Mitrovic looked dismayed at a man who knew he could not rely on his supporters to mitigate the impact of his debauchery. The striker has seen enough of Fulham's defense attempts this season to know that the mistakes are never far off and that shortly afterwards the most elusive team in the division had found a way to show their hosts the most useless gifts.

In the 25th minute, James McArthur threw a harmless diagonal ball into the Fulham surface. Yet Christian Benteke's muscular presence disrupted Cyrus Christie, who made the inexplicable decision to jut out an arm in a doomed attempt to disappear. Michael Oliver, the referee, has almost excused himself by sanctioning the back wing for handball, thus giving Luka Milivojevic the opportunity to beat Sergio Rico on the go.

The palace captain inflicted a penalty with enough power to defeat the Fulham goalkeeper and the relief shook Selhurst Park after a nervous start from the home team. The crowd woke up and Benteke, who seemed determined to make up for lost time after receiving his first start since September 1, was unhappy to see an acrobatic kick over the bar.

Perhaps the arrival of another Belgian striker on the day of the deadline has agitated Benteke after a difficult campaign. Palace has more competition in the attack after signing a loan agreement for Batshuayi, who made his debut as a substitute, and they rarely seemed to suffer without the suspension of Wilfried Zaha. Instead of going backward to protect their advantage, Hodgson's team stayed on the right foot in the second half, Sakho standing out, Jordan Ayew and Jeffrey Schlupp making the back a wide goal, binding Rico.

Ranieri reacted by changing his system and launching Luciano Vietto at halftime. Still, Fulham, who failed to get a single shot, struggled after failing. Ryan Babel's dyed red hair reminded everyone that the Dutch striker was on the ground and Ranieri wondered if his players would ever be able to compete with the professionalism and robustness of teams like Palace, which sealed the points when Batshuayi fired, Rico saved and Schlupp engulfed the rebound.