By Chris Wright

"There's contact...juuuuust...hold on...wait a second...there."

Ne'er does a week go by without some dime-a-dozen pundit rolling it out. That sodding word. 'Contact'. A word which is quickly becoming the bane of my very existence.

Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to a convincing 3-0 win at home over Fulham.

Heading into the Fulham match a lot of questions were being asked about a City side that had lost four of their eight matches in 2012, exiting the FA and League Cups and seeing Manchester United draw level with them on points at the top of the Premier League.

Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to a convincing 3-0 win at home over Fulham.

Heading into the Fulham match a lot of questions were being asked about a City side that had lost four of their eight matches in 2012, exiting the FA and League Cups and seeing Manchester United draw level with them on points at the top of the Premier League.

By Alan Duffy

Manchester City 3-0 Fulham Premier League 4th February 2012

Manchester City put the disappointment of that midweek defeat against Everton behind them at a snowy Etiahd Stadium on Saturday, coasting to victory against a Fulham side who rarely threatened Jose Hart's goal.

I imagine there will be people angry about this but City have won every single home game this year, right? So quite what we were supposed to do about that I'm not sure. People talk about our record at Eastlands but that was before City became CITY and, well, honestly...

The shame was that the game was over before it had begun, Adam Johnson managing to fall over Chris Baird in the area to win a dodgy penalty to make it 1-0, then Baird put through his own goal to make it two before we'd even started to play.

Have you ever seen anything like it?

One of the worst first half performances in memory. Newcastle were very impressive, well drilled, pressurising perfectly, timing their confrontations and ganging up on our players relentlessly. We couldn't keep the ball. They could, spraying it around and running us ragged.

szólj hozzá: Fulham v Newcastle 5:2 GOALS

Clint Dempsey's 50th, 51st, and 52nd goal for Fulham lifted the Cottagers over Newcastle.

The first half was all Newcastle and just before halftime they went ahead through Danny Guthrie's superlative left footed strike. Martin Jol must have mixed chili powder in his half time pep talk as he effected two very important changes, taking Bryan Ruiz from central midfield, bringing on Chris Baird, and introducing Andy Johnson as Fulham turned the game a 180 degrees in the second half

The former Crystal Palace man made an immediate impact troubling the Newcastle defense with his zip.

Will need to step up tonight

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.

Don't look now, but Fulham are tied with Wolves for the most yellow cards in the league (37). We had 52 yellow cards all of last season, 46 in 2009-10, and 40 in 2008-09.

Brede Hangeland, Chris Baird, Danny Murphy, Moussa Dembele, and Steve Sidwell all have 4 yellow cards. Mark Schwarzer has one.

Liverpool's Luis Suárez makes 'offensive gesture' at Fulham fans

• Striker may face FA charge over incident after 1-0 defeat • Dalglish criticises Fulham fans for calling Suárez a 'cheat' The Liverpool striker Luis Suárez could face a misconduct charge after appearing to make an offensive gesture towards Fulham fans at the end of his team's 1-0 defeat here on Monday night.

Some follow-up observations:

The team was hell-bent on keeping shape, which gave us some perhaps surprising (but perhaps not) tackling information. Etuhu and Murphy, and the entire back four, really didn't go for many tackles. Instead Dempsey, Dembele, and to a lesser extent, Ruiz, were doing a lot of the actual harrying.

Video highlights and reaction match report By the numbers

I guess in the context of recent results and the form we've been in yesterday was something of a disappointment. Dropping two points at home can always be criticised but post-Champions League games against well organised, tough opponents are never easy.

This one's at the right end

The winning run came to an end. It was two points dropped on a day where Manchester United drew with Newcastle, where a win would allowed us to close the gap to these two team at the least. Sluggish is perhaps the best term to describe our performance last night.

From the offal:

The Club can confirm that Zdenek Grygera suffered an ACL rupture during the match against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday 6 November.

It is estimated that the recovery period for an injury of this nature is approximately 6 months.

The Club will update further on Zdenek's progress during the course of his rehabilitation.

Even Robbie Keane's cartwheel was less over-used.Poor old Harry. One suspects that watching Spurs desperately defend a one goal lead from the touchline is cause enough for coronary problems. But to have suffered through that last half an hour whilst recovering from actual heart surgery at home in Poole can't have done anything for the old ticker.

Tottenham Hotspur picked up their seventh win in their last eight Premier League matches with a thrilling 3-1 victory at Fulham, as Bolton avenged their FA Cup semi-final defeat last season by thrashing Stoke City 5-0.

Tottenham took the lead at Craven Cottage after ten minutes as Gareth Bale found the net from a tight angle via a deflection off Chris Baird.

The International break means there's little Fulham news to talk about. England did what they needed to do and qualified for Euro 2012 but the press had a field day over Rooney's sending off. How perfect for the British media that the man most in the spotlight should rise to the bait and give them something to write about.

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*

Midfielders
4 Steve Sidwell
10 Pajtim Kasami
13 Danny Murphy
15 Marcel Gecov
16 Damien Duff
20 Dickson Etuhu
21 Kerim Frei
23 Clint Dempsey
37 Courtney Harris*
43 Josh Pritchard*

Forwards
8 Andrew Johnson
9 Orlando Sá
25 Bobby Zamora
30 Moussa Dembélé
35 Richard Peniket*
42 Marcello Trotta*

No, the surprise is not Ruiz.

The signing of Ruiz gives us an extraoardinary array of attacking talent. It means we can field a combination of Zamora, Duff, Dempsey, Dembele and Ruiz, which you'd hope would suffice for our needs. They can't all play, but even if we see three or four of them, their attacking instincts need to be covered by someone to defend.

In isolation that was the archetypal Premier League game: even steven, home team edges owing to a few things here and there. In the context of our season so far it's deflating. We never expect to win away, but Newcastle are a team going in the wrong direction, who played extra time in midweek, and who were there to be beaten.

The Insider: Papiss Cisse, Dirk Kuyt, Marco Storari, Chris Baird

Simon Jones is Sportsmail's man on the inside of all the major transfer moves. His column offers an insight into the deals which will be done and those that won't. Here's his rundown for August 22.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-08-22 15:27:27 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

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.

There are several ways to skin a cat. Here are some of Fulham's finest performances in the last two seasons, and the starting elevens for each:

Man Utd 10/11, 2-2: Stockdale, Paintsil, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky, Duff, Etuhu, Murphy, Davies, Dempsey, Zamora

Spurs 10/11, 4-0: Stockdale, Paintsil, Hughes, Hangeland, Salcido, Duff, Sidwell, Murphy, Dempsey, Dembele, Johnson

Juventus 09/10, 4-1: Schwarzer, Kelly, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky, Duff, Baird, Etuhu, Davies, Gera, Zamora

Basel 09/10, 3-2: Schwarzer, Smalling, Hughes, Kelly, Etuhu, Riise, Murphy, Greening, Gera, Zamora

Liverpool 09/10, 3-1: Schwarzer, Paintsil, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky, Dempsey, Greening, Baird, Duff, Zamora, Kamara

Man Utd 09/10, 3-0: Schwarzer, Paintsil, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Duff, Murphy, Baird, Dempsey, Gera, Zamora

It's a team game, no?

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:

• Blackburn vs Wolves
• Liverpool vs Sunderland
• QPR vs Bolton
• Wigan vs Norwich
• Newcastle vs Arsenal (1730)

New first team squad numbers are out.

The curse of the 'proper' numbers continues, as John Arne Riise vacates the number seven shirt recently not worn by Seol, Andranik, and... who had it last year (ed. Sidwell)? In any case, such a prestigious number needs an equally prestigious owner, and Fulham simply haven't come up with one.

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.

We all know about John Arne Riise's traction engine of a left foot, but that's not what really interests me. I watched enough Brazil games growing up to know that having a left back who can belt the ball at or beyond the speed of light is not as useful as it is fun. So while we can be sure Riise will bust a net or two with a thunderbolt at some point, this is the cherry on top of the cake, not the cake itself.

We all know about John Arne Riise's traction engine of a left foot, but that's not what really interests me. I watched enough Brazil games growing up to know that having a left back who can belt the ball at or beyond the speed of light is not as useful as it is fun. So while we can be sure Riise will bust a net or two with a thunderbolt at some point, this is the cherry on top of the cake, not the cake itself.

Putting the snippets together into a small home-made blanket:

It appears that Mark Hughes very nearly didn't survive 2010. After the West Ham defeat he was in big trouble, but senior players persuaded MAF to put his axe away. This was partly because they understood how important Bobby Zamora was to the team, and partly because of a general belief in what they were doing under the new manager.

Clint Dempsey is Fulham's player of the year. Thank goodness.

This should have been the most one-sided vote in recent memory, and by the sounds of it Dempsey did win by some way. Simply put, without Dempsey we'd have been in huge trouble last season.

Brede Hangeland might quietly feel a little miffed, having established himself as arguably our *best* player, but for whatever reason centre-backs just aren't as glorious as their team-mates, and I doubt he'd have been surprised at not winning.

And now for the grownup response.

If anything Hughes' resignation makes me more glad I renewed my season ticket. Which sounds odd, but at no point did I especially warm to Mark Hughes. Not that warming to a manager matters a hill of beans in the big scheme of things, but Hughes and Fulham never did feel quite right.

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.

All a bit FA Cup third round. Fulham jogged to a 3-0 win against a desperately ordinary Blackpool side, and this really should ensure that we're safe from relegation.

Which is more than can be said for our opponents. Just like Hull before them, a surprising start to the season has been followed by a 'told you so' collapse, and on this form it's hard to imagine them staying up.

This thought springs from a comment Tony Gilroy made at TiFF. It really is a team game, so most praise and criticism of individuals needs to be seen within that context.

Remember Juventus? Our midfield that day: Duff-Baird-Etuhu-Davies

There was a game at Spurs a couple of years ago.

Andy Gray and Richard Keys in iffy comments about female linesman shock! #getthesesmugbuffoonsoffthetv

Paulo Bandini, via Twitter, reports that Gazzetta Dello Sport (Italy) only referred to "the beautiful lineswoman".

Ho hum.

Also on Twitter, Matt Holland, former Ipswich captain, made a point of praising Chris Smalling's display for Man Utd yesterday.

Fulham have been offered a boomerang deal to take back Paul Konchesky, with Liverpool keen to use him in a transfer deal to buy Clint Dempsey.
Konchesky, a Roy Hodgson signing, has been a flop in front of the Kop in his four months at the club - failing to prove his credentials at left-back.
Frozen out of first-team plans since Kenny Dalglish began his reign, Konchesky is limited in his movements due to Premier League rules stipulating a player may not play for more than two top-flight clubs in any one season.

There's nothing to get the pulse slumping like Wigan away, and the first half was suitably dire. Chris Baird, revelling in his 'long range specialist' role, had our first two shots, the first a daisy cutter that Ali Al Habsi saved easily, the second flying into the crowd. Wigan bounced back with a relatively exhilerating break down the right flank, Stam's crossed at full-speed, Rodellega got on the end of it but hit the post with a good header.

Chris Baird (left) and Clint Dempsey. Admirable enthusiasm, but useful? No. (Getty Images/Daylife)

With the Kickette staff rueing the missed opportunity of having run a Festive Fail File (alliteration is our second favourite thing in the world after peach schnapps, after all), we would like mask our disappointment by starting 2011 as we mean to go on.

1. Chris Baird (Stoke v Fulham, December 28, 2010)

2. Gareth Bale (Tottenham v Newcastle, December 28, 2010)

3. Dani Luengo (Extremadura U16 vs Asturias U16, December 28, 2010)

4. Khaleem Hyland (Zulte Waregem v Gent, December 30, 2010) (0.

Chris Baird must be a manager's dream. Europa League Final right back; Europa League group stage centre back (remember his work with Chris Smalling?); left back of last resort; centre midfielder of some ability (remember Juventus?). He does whatever the club needs him to do, and does it well.