Another huge weekend as the race at the top tightens and the England managerial role remains vacant. Let's focus on club over country for now, though, and preview this week's best potential fantasy performers... I. Liverpool @ Manchester United: Huge. ... Continue reading →

Over the last few seasons Arsene Wenger has gathered an assortment of players, paid them good wages and has waited for them to deliver. Unfortunately, they have not delivered the goods nor have they developed into the world class players we thought they would turn into.

For a few transfer windows we have been expecting these players to be sold, but the ridiculous wages, for their limited wages has meant we have not been able to get rid of these deadwood players.

An unfortunate defeat at Craven Cottage, 1-0 at the hands of Martin Jol's Fulham.
It was a very open game with lots of shots on goal by either team as both Pepe Reina and Mark Schwarzer were kept busy throughout the match.
The turning point in the game was the sending off of Jay Spearing for a crude tackle which was deserving of a yellow card but the ref saw red and sent young Spearing off.

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.

Premier League action later today as we take on Fulham at the Grove.

Regardless of who has been in charge over the last few years this has generally been a pretty tight affair. Ok, there's been an away 3-0 and a home 4-0 in recent years but they've been tough to break down and when we talk about goalkeepers having one of those game Schwarzer has done that more than once against us.

Hows the heart after than one? That second half was probably the most stressful 45 minutes of football I've seen in a long while! Backs to the wall, goal line clearances, lucky to escape with the win. But that's what the top teams do right? Win ugly, it all counts.
The goals I have to say, pretty much all came against the run of play.

The journey toward winning another one of these starts here.

Team news and the like from 2:30pm EDT.

Teams sheets:

Chelsea
Cech
Ferreira-Luiz-Alex-Bertrand
Romeu-McEachran
Lukaku-Kalou-Malouda
Sturridge
Substitutes: Turnbull, Bosingwa, Terry, Mikel, Lampard, Mata, Drogba.

By Alan Duffy

While the red half of Manchester were gunning down Chelsea at Old Trafford, City weren't having it quite so easy against another west London side.

Despite going two up, courtesy of Sergio Aguero, second half goals from Bobby Zamora and Danny Murphy spoiled the visitors trip to the capital.

A bit of the old bulldog spirit saw Fulham earn a rousing home point against Man City's powder blue oil billionaires. For a long time it was one of those bottom of the league afternoons, the players trying almost too hard to do things the right way, the fans nervous and wary.

That City scored first with a soft goal, perhaps a smidge offside, only confirmed what we all knew.

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.

With the benefit of hindsight...

The midfield issue

Injured Murphy + growing realisation that teams can stop him and stop us + Wolves impressive midfield work = dodgy performance.

Murphy's legs will go, but it's as much the team's problem as his. That's why I liked Sidwell coming on and smashing things around a bit.

Well who knows? Did we do well to see off a lively side, or struggle to beat an average one?

Without really working the RNK keeper, Fulham were in the ascendency early on. The returning Clint Dempsey looked quite sprightly, and was combining nicely with John Arne Riise on the left. Zamora and Johnson were buzzing around.

The Kopsource Guide to Fantasy League Success

With the season only a matter of days away, many of you will be preparing your fantasy teams for war. However, many of you would struggle feel right at home on the touchline with Roy Hodgson. Never fear, though, Kopsource has a few tips for those who have been left scratching their heads; or rubbing thier faces as it were.

Danny Murphy's strangely downbeat pre-game comments should be able to be transcribed to his post-game comments as they summed that game up perfectly:

"We played in Europe a few years ago and it became that way. If it was new and the first time I had done it in 10 years then it might be a bit more exciting.

Stevenage entertain Premier League outfit Fulham in their first pre-season friendly of the season at Broadhall Way. We will be providing LIVE text updates throughout the game so you can keep updated with the score and who's playing or not. It's interactive as well, so get involved using the comment section above.

Last summer Arsene Wenger made an early bid for the Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, but his manager Mark Hughes stood by his guns and made the Australian international stick to his contract and stay at Craven Cottage, despite the player's protestations that he was desperate to join Arsenal. Well this year it is the turn [.

This morning I ran a quick survey to see what Fulham fans thought of the squad. It's not meant to provide any great insight into the world, but I did think it would be interesting to see how players are perceived, and the extent to which these views are held. We got 100 responses (the most allowed by the survey system without having to pay) and the results are as follows.

7 goals in 3 matches ain't bad at all... There can't have been many people predicting an exciting clash last night at Craven Cottage and if anyone had a punt on 5-2 then I'll eat my hat! In a game which saw Maxi score his second hat trick in three games, Kuyt score his fifth goal in as many games and Suarez sprinkle magic from the defence all the way into the Fulham net, the travelling fans were

We beat Sunderland without Hangeland, Dempsey and Dembele. If a big club were to sign three of our players it probably wouldn't be these three, but they'd all be in the discussion. So how did we manage it?

My thinking:

A single player doesn't make that much difference in any single game.

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.

Right, let me get this much straight... Orient were not up to much, they hardly peppered our goalmouth with a plethora of moves and shots at goal.. did they? so all this rubbish I keep reading about how fantastically well they did... is just that.. rubbish.

I absolutely do not begrudge them a replay, it's actually wonderful news for the wider economy in general.

Celebrate Valentine's Day with the real gift that keeps on giving a Fernando Torres hat trick.

Hey, Didier's been dropped. Hallelujah.

Teams
Fulham
Schwarzer, Baird, Hughes, Hangeland, Salcido, Duff, Sidwell, Murphy, Dempsey, Johnson, Dembele.

Jamie R was at White Hart Lane today:

No luck at White Hart Lane and another frustrating afternoon for Mark Hughes' toiling troops. Perhaps you could say this was an encouraging performance – we kept one of the league's in-form teams impressively in check and on another day could easily have sneaked a better result.