Fulham saw off a potentially distracted Brighton, who have a Europa League tie against Roma on Thursday, in the Premier League at Craven Cottage.

It was roles reversed for the second as Wilson returned the favour when delivering a teasing ball for Muniz to convert with his head from six yards out. It was his fifth goal of the season, with all of those strikes coming in the past five games.

Despite there being two goals in the first half, there were large periods of meandering and dull football, with Brighton enjoying 70% of possession but struggling to create meaningful chances.

The game opened up and became a more exciting spectacle at both ends after half-time as Brighton brought on attacking duo Simon Adingra and Ansu Fati and committed bodies to the attack in search of a route back into the game.

Evan Ferguson had two big opportunities to score, with his first effort rolling agonisingly wide of the far post and his second well saved by a sprawling Bernd Leno, while substitute Facundo Buonanotte struck the base of a post.

With every Brighton outfield player in opposition territory as the game ticked into additional time, Fulham won the ball on the halfway line through Bobby de Cordova-Reid, who raced forward and squared for Adama Traore to score his first goal for the club.

Fulham stay 12th in the table and Brighton drop to ninth.

Fulham build on Old Trafford success

After last weekend’s dramatic late win at Manchester United, Fulham ensured that hard work was not going to waste as they recorded back-to-back wins in the league for only the second time this season.

Marco Silva deployed an unchanged starting XI for the visit of Brighton and that decision was rewarded as the Cottagers claimed another three points, ensuring they maintain their record of never losing to the Seagulls in the Premier League – winning four and drawing four.

Muniz once again demonstrated his importance to the side as he deputises for injured striker Raul Jimenez, scoring and assisting before leaving the field late in the game to a warm reception from the Fulham fans.

Jimenez was replaced by Muniz at half-time in the goalless draw against Everton on 31 January after suffering a hamstring injury, and reclaiming his spot in Fulham’s starting line-up might prove difficult.

Muniz is in a rich vein of form and has helped Fulham enjoy their most consistent run of the campaign – they have lost only one of their past six league games, with three wins.

The Brazilian scored his first league goal of the season on 3 February in a 2-2 draw at Burnley, but has since chipped in with two in a win against Bournemouth, one in a loss to Aston Villa and another in the triumph over Brighton.

Not only did Muniz get on the scoresheet but his hard work and endeavour helped Wilson to score the opener.

Muniz showed strength and bravery as he stooped to head the ball away from Adam Webster and into the path of Wilson, who caressed the ball beyond Jason Steele with his left foot for his third league goal of the season.

With a two-goal cushion, Fulham knew that Brighton would have to attack more aggressively in the second half, but they stood firm and played some lovely counter-attacking football, eventually grabbing their third in that fashion as Traore calmly rolled the ball beyond Steele.

Fatigued Brighton fall well short

Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi admitted that some of his players were struggling with fatigue after they lost 1-0 against Wolves in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday.

The Italian made seven changes to his starting XI against Fulham, with Pascal Gross, who suffered with cramp at Molineux, one of those dropping to bench.

With a last-16 first-leg tie at Roma to come, De Zerbi appears to lack the depth in his squad to rotate and this week’s news that Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma is out for the season has not helped matters.

It was a typical Brighton performance for the most part, with the ball almost glued to the feet of their players for large periods, but they did not have the creative spark required to cause problems in the final third during the first half and were made to pay on the counter.

They did threaten to get on the scoresheet after the break, with Ferguson having two sights at goal, but the Republic of Ireland striker’s barren run in front of goal continued – he has not scored in 19 games in all competitions.

This is the second game in a five-match run during the space of 16 days for Brighton.

Two of those fixtures are against Roma, and De Zerbi will need his players to brush this result quickly to one side as they look to avoid slipping into a rut.