“We’re all going on a European tour,” crooned the Fulham support in a corner of this stadium as they basked in climbing to seventh in the Premier League courtesy of Aleksandar Mitrovic’s fine first-half strike. And who can really begrudge them the jovial celebrations, even if tongue in cheek? In truth, a sustained push for Europe feels unlikely but Fulham are surely on course to avoid relegation from the top flight for the first time since 2012-13 under Martin Jol. For Leicester and Brendan Rodgers, relegation worries are going nowhere fast after a third straight league defeat. They were jeered off and remain the only Premier League team yet to win from a losing position this season. Leicester should have equalised through Ayoze Pérez in the first half and came agonisingly close to levelling in the second half when Youri Tielemans rattled the crossbar. The Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno also made several fine saves when one on one with Harvey Barnes and Jamie Vardy to leave Leicester three points above the bottom three. It would be easy to point towards Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall having to pull out of the starting lineup during the warmup and Boubakary Soumaré being forced off with a hamstring problem after eight minutes as factors in Leicester’s bad start but the reality is that would just be papering over the cracks. The manner in which Mitrovic eluded Luke Thomas and ghosted behind Wout Faes to chest down Willian’s cross clear of even the smallest whiff of pressure before smacking in past an exposed Danny Ward with his next touch understandably sparked considerable alarm. On the touchline Rodgers had a face like the thunder. “We started slowly,” Rodgers said. “It’s a mentality [thing]: when you go to the pitch, you have to go to impose your game, you shouldn’t need telling all the time.” João Palhinha, part of Portugal’s World Cup squad, has proved a transformative signing for Fulham, a classy operator at the base of midfield, and he was arguably second only to Tielemans as the best player on the pitch here. Palhinha, topless after giving a supporter his shirt, was the last Fulham player to head down the tunnel amid a toe-tapping backdrop; Luis Boa Morte and Tim Ream joined the fans in rejoicing to Fulham’s tailor-made version of Tequila. “The fans can dream,” the Fulham head coach, Marco Silva, said afterwards. “We are here to work really hard to achieve important things for the club and to remain in the Premier League.” Palhinha and Mitrovic came close to doubling Fulham’s first-half lead before Leicester eventually roused. Tielemans, again captain in the absence of the injured Jonny Evans, did not hide and was the catalyst for almost every Leicester attack, one of which forced Leno into a smart intervention at his front post. But if anything typified a disjointed Leicester performance it was the sight of Thomas needlessly heading clear a harmless Fulham free-kick in first-half stoppage time. Leicester created more openings after the break but their frustrations only increased as Leno denied Barnes and then Vardy with his legs. Tielemans, who aside from undercooking a routine pass before half-time barely put a foot wrong, curled wide approaching the hour and with 10 minutes to play he smacked the crossbar after a corner was cleared to him on the edge of the box. Wilfred Ndidi was fortunate to avoid a booking for catching Mitrovic on the ankle in the first half and was booked for another clip in the second but Leicester finished far stronger. Tielemans pulled another shot wide of a post and earlier the Fulham substitute Tom Cairney was booked for a crude challenge on Pérez on halfway, prompting the referee Darren Bond to award a free-kick rather than allowing Leicester to pour forward four v four. Rodgers was incensed as another attack ended prematurely but ultimately Leicester were punished for their sloppy start.