Daniel Sturridge wreaked havoc on his return to west London, firing Liverpool to an easy win at Fulham with a superb hat-trick at Craven Cottage. Sturridge had not scored against the Cottagers during his time at the club's local rivals Chelsea or while he was at Manchester City, but he took Martin Jol's team apart with three well-taken strikes.
Manchester United hosted Fulham at Old Trafford in the late kickoff on Saturday afternoon in the 4th Round of the FA Cup. The game was settled very early on, as just two minutes from the start, Aaron Hughes was penalized for a handball in the box. Ryan Giggs converted for Manchester United to put the home side up.
Anderson of Manchester United-Photo by Chris Brunskill/Getty Images
Manchester United take on Fulham in the 4th Round of the FA Cup at the weekend. Both the Red Devils and Cottagers were pushed to the brink in the 4th Round against West Ham United and Blackpool respectively. Sir Alex Ferguson can only hope his squad can get the job done in the first leg at Old Trafford this weekend as the the battle for the Premier League crown heats up, along with their Champions League Round of 16 clash with Real Madrid quickly approaching.
This week in "Back to the Drillboard", we take a look at Arsenal's third goal against Fulham at the Emirates from Saturday's fixture. After a great run, Giroud finds himself on the end of a Santi Cazorla pass. He hits the post before finishing off an excellent cross from Theo Walcott who salvaged the play.
Can I have our ball back? Fulham's midfield were pretty stingey with the ball. Damien Duff
completed 94% of his 18 passes, Diarra 94% of his 90 (Murphy-equque), Dembele 96% of his 73, and
Kacaniklic 96% of his 27. Ruiz, the link man, was at 91% of his 54.
The right stuff: Ruiz made 3 key passes, as did Riise.
Can I have our ball back? Fulham's midfield were pretty stingey with the ball. Damien Duff
completed 94% of his 18 passes, Diarra 94% of his 90 (Murphy-equque), Dembele 96% of his 73, and
Kacaniklic 96% of his 27. Ruiz, the link man, was at 91% of his 54.
The right stuff: Ruiz made 3 key passes, as did Riise.
When I was younger and played 11 a side football on a regular basis, I was a centre back.
Coupled with Italian heritage, I have always been a big fan of this rather unglamorous position. Â
Italy's World Cup success in 2006 was as memorable for the peerless defensive work of Fabio
Cannavaro (later seen being imitated by a stand-in at Craven Cottage in 2010) as for the thrilling
victory against Germany or the Materazzi inspired head butt in the final.
When I was younger and played 11 a side football on a regular basis, I was a centre back.
Coupled with Italian heritage, I have always been a big fan of this rather unglamorous position. Â
Italy's World Cup success in 2006 was as memorable for the peerless defensive work of Fabio
Cannavaro (later seen being imitated by a stand-in at Craven Cottage in 2010) as for the thrilling
victory against Germany or the Materazzi inspired head butt in the final.
That's 'goals' plural for Clint Dempsey, who scored twice in Fulham's 5-0 romp over Wolverhampton.
Dempsey wasn't Fulham's top scorer on the afternoon, with Pavel Pogrebnyak putting the home side up
two goals before Dempsey got on the board in the 56th. Pogrebnyak finished off his hat-trick five
minutes later.
What a wonderful night of football yesterday was, if only for the one game which mattered.
Nicklas Bendtner did us no favour as he squandered an early chance to put his team ahead but
Sunderland won it right at the death to beat Roberto Mancini's Manchester City.
Bah. One of those annoying games that you wish hadn't happened. A decent looking encounter was
spoiled by the needless dismissal of renowned hard-man Moussa Dembele, whose wayward arm sent
Wisla's Nunez spiralling into deep agony. That Dembele barely touched Nunez, that the touch was
on his shoulder, not in his face (as suggested by Nunez in his distressed state), perhaps suggests
a mistake by the referee, and with that mistake went the game: we lost 1-0 to a team that lost to
Odense.
Fulham 3 - Dnipro 0 A big night at the Cottage for Clint Dempsey, who scored twice in a three goal
shutout of Dnipro. Aaron Hughes opened the scoring for Fulham in the 39th minute. Dempsey's goals
came in the 43rd and 49th, with both goals coming off of crosses. Mark Schwarzer kept the clean
sheet for Fulham.
Fulham vs Dnipro Highlights 3-0 Goals Video Europa League 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger.
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Fulham vs Dnipro Highlights 3-0 Goals Video Europa League 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger.
Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Fulham vs Dnipro 2011 ( Fulham FC vs Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk) Final
score and result:- Fulham vs Dnipro 3-0 ( Aaron Hughes, Clint Dempsey*2) Europa League Play-off
Round First Leg, Craven Cottage- 18 August, 2011 [.
With distance comes perspective, and from the very back of the Putney End the view was... well
what was it? Despite my best efforts the game entirely passed me by.  There they were, 22 men
in white and sky blue, back and forth, up and down, then we all went home after an hour and a half
of watching them run about.
Listening to the Guardian's Football Weekly's EPL preview podcast at the gym last night, I
figured to hear a sentence or two about our season outlook. Instead, we got the last word.
As in, only the final few words spoken in the entire 45 minute podcast.
I don't have the transcript but the last 30 seconds or so go something like this:
James Richardson: Well that should wrap things up
Barry Glendenning: I bet we missed a team
Gregg Roughley: Haven't mentioned Fulham
Sean Ingle: Or Wolves
Barry Glendenning: Fulham and Wolves!
Our first View from the Enemy of the day is from Kris Balkin from Cottagers Confidential, who
has shed some light on that awful Michael Jackson statue and Mark Hughes' ridiculous departure.
Scott the Red: Were you happy with your Fulham's performance last season?
Decked out in their new, all-white home strip, a near full-strength Fulham team successfully got
both their Europa League campaign and their 2011/12 season off to a winning start with a
comfortable victory over Nes Soknar Itrottarfelag Runavik at the Cottage last night with goals
from Damien Duff, Danny Murphy and Andy Johnson giving Martin Jol's side a 3-0 advantage going
into the away leg against the Faroese part-timers.
Liverpool may be about to be knocked off their perch by Manchester United, but they showed at
Craven Cottage they might just mount a serious challenge for a 19th league title of their own next
season by destroying Fulham.
The Reds made it 13 goals in their last three games and Maxi Rodriguez completed his second
hat-trick over the same period, with Dirk Kuyt making it 12 goals in his last 13 matches for club
and country and Luis Suarez wrapping up the rout.
What to make of that? First, we must always remind ourselves that playing away to the champions
elect is not an easy thing. Against that, Fulham turned in one of the more empty performances of
recent times. It was as if United were playing against their own U18 side at half pace on a Tuesday
afternoon.
King Kenny's magic is rubbing off at Anfield as Liverpool beat Fulham 1-0 to move up to seventh
place in the Premier League. An own goal from Fulham's John Pantsil was enough to give Liverpool a
1-0 win over Fulham at Anfield and its second successive victory.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last three games and a big reason is the resurgence of Fernando
Torres.
King Kenny's magic is rubbing off at Anfield as Liverpool beat Fulham 1-0 to move up to seventh
place in the Premier League. An own goal from Fulham's John Pantsil was enough to give Liverpool a
1-0 win over Fulham at Anfield and its second successive victory.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last three games and a big reason is the resurgence of Fernando
Torres.
With most of Europe on their Winter break, the English and Scottish Premier Leagues played their
regular schedule on Sunday. In the English Premier League, Jonathan Spector's West Ham United got
the better of a battle of National Teamer Abroad clubs, beating Fulham 3-1. Aaron Hughes had Fulham
up a goal 11 minutes in, but West Ham equalized in the 37th and took the lead for good in the 45th.
My first game since Stanley's birth, and while I'd been warned that all was not as it should be
at Craven Cottage, this still came as a nasty surprise.  If you can't beat the worst team in the
league on your own turf, well, what then?  Miserable.
A game featuring two struggling sides almost had to be cagey, so an early goal would really be
useful.
Christmas magic is surely being felt by West Ham United as the bottom table club successfully
lifted themselves out of the last position temporarily after picking up a win in Boxing day despite
playing away against Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Making things more magical for West Ham, the away team picked up their first away victory this
season after trailing one goal first in the 10th minuted when Aaron Hughes nodded home Simon Davies
cross and set the Cottagers' fans on their feet.
Fulham 1-3 West Ham United ( Aaron Hughes/ Carlton Cole*2, Frederic Piquionne) December 26, 2010-
Boxing Day- Craven Cottage, London. West Ham grabbed a welcome win on Boxing Day over Fulham thanks
to two goals from Carlton Cole. Fulham took the lead through Aaron Hughes and dominated the first
half, but West Ham managed to [.
According to the ever-awesome Taiwanese animators, yes; Fulham will be playing at the World Cup
in Qatar 2022. And Chris Baird will be making out, erm, snogging, with Aaron Hughes on the
field.
Samir Nasri is unmistakably transforming into the most influential French footballer since
Zinedine Zidane. This is his second goal, even more sublime than the first. And dare say, after
Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup, Andrey Arshavin seems to have perked up. He had a hand in
both goals.
One of the more annoying message board debates has been around Philippe Senderos' impact on
Brede Hangeland. I remember when Aaron Hughes was regularly criticised by fans, one respected
poster frequently bemoaning how Hughes 'forced' Hangeland to play in the left centre-back slot
which limited him as a player.
One of the more annoying message board debates has been around Philippe Senderos' impact on
Brede Hangeland. I remember when Aaron Hughes was regularly criticised by fans, one respected
poster frequently bemoaning how Hughes 'forced' Hangeland to play in the left centre-back slot
which limited him as a player.
I'm not trying to make one of those posts that exist solely to generate pageviews, but I'm
seriously wondering if it's time for Riise to start the next game on the bench.
What is he offering at this point that is so unique that different looks through Briggs or Baird
or Kelly can't provide?
With the exception of a forced change here or there, it would not be a stretch to say Martin Jol
has settled on HIS lineup as of late.
And, its interesting to note the name and age of the lineup. Especially when looking at the
players who are not playing.
Below are all the players and their ages that saw at list 1 minute of playing time in the last
five matches:
David Stockdale 26 Brede Hangeland 30 Philippe Senderos 26 John Arne Riise 30 Stephen Kelly 27
Danny Murphy 34 Steve Sidwell 28 Damien Duff 32 Simon Davies 31 Clint Dempsey 28 Bryan Ruiz 25 Mark
Schwarzer 38 Chris Baird 29 Stephen Kelly 27 Dickson Etuhu 29 Moussa Dembele 24 Marcel Gecov 23
Aaron Hughes 31 Pavel Pogrebnyak 28 Andy Johnson 31 Mahamadou Diarra 30 Kerim Frei 18
When crunching the numbers, our squad age in this span comes out to be:
Bah. Just as the Odense fiasco represented more than just another defeat, so too did last
night's pathetic exit from the FA Cup. Nobody's pretending it's easy to go to Everton and get a
result if it was we'd manage to get points there once in a while but there's something horribly
wrong about these disjointed farces.
Bah. Just as the Odense fiasco represented more than just another defeat, so too did last
night's pathetic exit from the FA Cup. Nobody's pretending it's easy to go to Everton and get a
result if it was we'd manage to get points there once in a while but there's something horribly
wrong about these disjointed farces.
This seems to have flown under the radar a bit with all the hand-wringing about Sunday, but our
squad for the Europa League group stages has been announced. Not too many surprises, except
one.
Goalies
1 Mark Schwarzer
22 Csaba Somogyi
38 Neil Etheridge*
41 Marcus Bettinelli*
44 Jesse Joronen*
Defenders
2 Stephen Kelly
3 John Arne Riise
5 Brede Hangeland
6 Chris Baird
14 Philippe Senderos
18 Aaron Hughes
26 Zdenek Grygera
28 Matthew Briggs*
39 Stephen Arthurworrey*
40 Alex Smith*
The new 2011/12 Premier League season is finally here! It's the battle of the new managers at
Craven Cottage today, although Martin Jol does have several competitive games under his belt in the
Europa League.
Here are the confirmed line-ups for both sides:
Fulham Aston Villa 1 Mark Schwarzer 1 Shay Given 18 Aaron Hughes 2 Luke Young 14 Philippe Senderos
6 James Collins 5 Brede Hangeland 5 Richard Dunne 7 John Arne Riise 3 Stephen Warnock 16 Damien
Duff 10 Charles N'Zogbia 20 Dickson Etuhu 16 Fabian Delph 13 Danny Murphy 19 Stiliyan Petrov 23
Clint Dempsey 18 Emile Heskey 8 Andrew Johnson 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 25 Bobby Zamora 9 Darren Bent
Subs Subs 38 Neil Etheridge 22 Brad Guzan 2 Stephen Kelly 21 Ciaran Clark 6 Chris Baird 7 Stephen
Ireland 28 Matthew Briggs 17 Jean II Makoun 4 Steve Sidwell 12 Marc Albrighton 10 Pajtim Kasami 25
Barry Bannan 30 Moussa Dembele 14 Nathan Delfouneso Probable Formation: Castrol Football Prediction
Today's other Premier League fixtures:
There was an interesting comment on Twitter today from Tor-Kristian Karlsen, a football scout.
Karlsen noted that while Premiership clubs do have an overview for the world's footballers, most
are, I quote:
Tor-Kristian Karlsen
karlsentk Tor-Kristian Karlsen
many people (justifiably) puzzled that few premier league clubs were seriously in for arturo vidal
(no idea if arsenal interest was genuine)
personally i think the reason is lack of contacts and connections.
Some players like lots of time and space, others can operate in crowds.
To play in central midfield you need to be at one end of what we'll call the space-time
continuum; if you are not at the right end you may struggle in that role. In that case you need to
find somewhere else where you will get space and time.
Collective "awww" as Roy Hodgson and Fulham are reunited at long last.
What, you're not feeling all gooey and gushy inside? Heartless bastards, the lot of you.
I've actually been a bit surprised at the lack of the aforementioned gushing in the build-up a
few mentions here and there, but for the most part, the aim has been on the need for Liverpool to
start to play with some sort of consistent quality.
Mais um jogo das eliminatórias da Eurocopa de 2012, foi realizado no dia 10/08/2011, na cidade de
Belfast-NIR, onde jogaram as seleções da Irlanda do Norte (62º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção
das Ilhas Faroe (112º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Toftir 12/10/2010 FRO1:1 (0:0)NIR 1992Landskrona 11/09/1991 FRO0:5 (0:3)NIR Group
matches1992Belfast 01/05/1991 NIR1:1 (1:0)FRO Group matches
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Emir Alekcovic-BIH
O primeiro gol foi de Aaron Hughes, aos 5 minutos do primeiro tempo, seu primeiro gol pela
seleção nacional.
Today Aaron Hughes paid for 25 kids to become Fulham FC members.
You had to keep an eye on twitter, then at 12 o'clock, retweet the club's announcement of the
competition. The first 25 people to do so got free membership for their children, courtesy of
Aaron.
Well I'm off this week andwas on the spot when it mattered, so managed to sort out a membership
for Stan.
