Marco Silva believes Fulham will improve as unbeaten leaders ease past Stoke

Fulham v Stoke City – Sky Bet Championship – Craven Cottage
(Image credit: Ashley Western)

Marco Silva insists there is more to come from his Fulham side after sweeping aside Stoke to maintain their unbeaten start to the Championship season.

Silva’s side completed a comfortable 3-0 victory with goals from Harry Wilson, Bobby Decordova-Reid and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

And the manager admitted the margin of victory should have been even greater.

Silva said: “It was a very good performance from the first minute until the last. We were the dominant team and controlled the game.

“The only thing was we should have scored more goals. 1-0 was not enough from the first half with the chances we created. We should be more clinical.

“We did a really good job. But it’s just five games and nothing more.

“It’s a process. We are building something and creating something inside the football club. The players have to buy the idea of the manager and they are doing that.

“They are working hard, they are winning games. But it’s so early to talk about it. It’s not the moment to look to the future and say what we can do.”

Wilson put the home side ahead after five minutes and Decordova-Reid added the second in the 53rd minute before Mitrovic completed the scoring in the 72nd minute.

The Serb signed a new five-year deal last week and would have had a second had his penalty not been saved by Stoke goalkeeper Josef Bursik.

Silva added: “He (Mitrovic) had a good game for us and he is happy. And he is an important player for sure, no doubts about it. He missed a penalty, that doesn’t matter, he will score the next one.

“But so many players did well it would be unfair of me to just talk about him.”

Stoke manager Michael O’Neill admitted his side had been handed a harsh lesson after their own unbeaten run had come to an end.

He said: “It was disappointing. We knew it would be as tough as you can get in this league. We were disappointed with the way we started.

“We didn’t get to the right people at the right time. And then we had a good period in the game and should have done better.

“But the second goal was poor and then we were chasing the game. But overall the speed of their play was better than ours and the level of their players is better than ours.

“There is a lot of quality in their side at this level, especially the front three. Mitrovic is obviously excellent and it was a big challenge for a young back three.

“Of course the players are disappointed. We were unbeaten coming here and in a buoyant mood. We weren’t in any way arrogant about the situation.

“It could be a good thing because it shows the players what we have to do to get to this level. We are very attack minded in terms of the system we played.

“We look at it as we are going into the international break with 10 points and we haven’t had a an easy start. Had you offered us 10 points from the first five games we would have taken that.”