SoccerBlogs

AC Milan 4-0 Arsenal

I have not been blogging recently and I must say, I've not really missed it. It would not be fair to solely blame the gradual declining form of Arsenal for the gradual declining form of this blog but the seemingly perpetual cycle of poor defeat followed by gentle recovery followed by poor defeat does not help.

Arsene Wenger says this current Arsenal squad is the strongest he's ever had.

As the dust settles on Saturday's painful and embarrassing defeat, perhaps it's time to examine that claim.

It seems important that Arsene referred to his strongest squad, not his strongest team (even he wouldn't expect us to swallow that Saturday's bottlers are the best team he's ever had).

Interested in your views on how replaceable players are. I remember a few years ago, getting to White Hart Lane and finding that Hangeland was out and the much maligned Chris Baird was playing instead. The result: comfortable enough 0-0 draw.

If Hangeland were to break his leg tomorrow I would be reasonably happy that a combination of Hughes, Baird and Senderos would be more than adequate to keep us broadly where we'd have been with Hangeland.

Interested in your views on how replaceable players are. I remember a few years ago, getting to White Hart Lane and finding that Hangeland was out and the much maligned Chris Baird was playing instead. The result: comfortable enough 0-0 draw.

If Hangeland were to break his leg tomorrow I would be reasonably happy that a combination of Hughes, Baird and Senderos would be more than adequate to keep us broadly where we'd have been with Hangeland.

2:45pm ET, live in the US on espn2

Last four head-to-head:
0-1 Fulham (a) 12.05.11
5-2 Liverpool (a) 05.09.11
1-0 Liverpool (h) 01.26.11
0-0 (h) 04.11.10

Last three matches:
Liverpool: 3-0 Norwich (a); 0-1 West Brom (h); 2-1 Everton (n)
Fulham: 0-4 Everton (a); 2-1 Wigan (h); 1-1 Chelsea (h)

Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Suarez 11; Bellamy 6; Gerrard 5; Carroll, Maxi 4; Adam, Kuyt, Skrtel 2; Coates, Henderson, Johnson 1
Fulham: Dempsey 16; Pogrebnyak 6; Johnson 3; Duff, Murphy, Ruiz 2; Dembele, Diarra, Sa, Senderos, Sidwell 1

Referee: Lee Probert

Guess at a line-up:
Reina
Kelly Skrtel Coates Enrique
Henderson Spearing
Kuyt Shelvey Maxi
Carroll

There will be changes.

A solid, professional job in the end. Charlton, as the third division table shows, are a tidy enough team, but in the end class told. Clint Dempsey scored a hat-trick, Damien Duff whopped in another, and Fulham are in the hat for the 4th round.

We scored early, Murphy's through ball finding Dempsey, who lifted the ball home expertly.

A solid, professional job in the end. Charlton, as the third division table shows, are a tidy enough team, but in the end class told. Clint Dempsey scored a hat-trick, Damien Duff whopped in another, and Fulham are in the hat for the 4th round.

We scored early, Murphy's through ball finding Dempsey, who lifted the ball home expertly.

Fulham 2 (Sidwell 85, Zamora 90) Arsenal 1 (Koscielny 21)
(Premiership)

It is always difficult to write a match report after a game like this. I was tempted to pen my thoughts in the immediate aftermath, but decided to let the game settle a little and write in the morning.

Arsene Wenger has been known to scrutinize the officiating in the Premier League, particularly when it is against his Arsenal side.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that the Frenchman has once again questioned why some of the key decisions in recent matches have gone against the Gunners.

Despite being 1-0 up with 12 minutes to go at Fulham, Wenger's men completely lost control of matters following the dismissal of defender Johan Djourou for a second bookable offence.

Well, that was frustrating, but let's start at the beginning (always a good place to start):

* We had, in many respects, an excellent first half. We raced out the box and dominated the game - I think we had something like 60% of possession at certain points in the first period, which is brilliant for any performance away from home.

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has expressed his disappointment with the result at Fulham last night, and he also revealed his surprise at one of Kenny Dalglish's key personnel decisions.

Speaking on ESPN, Nicol - who won a bucketload of trophies as Liverpool player, including 4 league championship titles - noted:

"Disappointing is not the word; it's frustrating.

"Danny Murphy is a fantastic player and he was great for me last year but he is not getting any younger and his influence on the team is huge.

"He knows and everyone knows that at some time in the near future he will have to be replaced and to replace his input, that will have to be a quality player.

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.

Lineups are in:

Fulham: Starters: Schwarzer, Hangeland, Sidwell, Johnston, Murphy, Senderos, Hughes, Dempsey, Zamora, Greening, Briggs Bench: Stockdale, Salcido, Gera, Etuhu, Gudjohnson, Kakuta, Davies

Arsenal: Starters: Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Wilshere, Ramsey, Nasri, Van Persie, Chamakh Bench: Lehmann, Walcott, Denilson, Squillaci, Arshavin, Eboue, Miquel

Last game of the season.

Fulham could be handed an early Christmas present this year, with the news Phillipe Senderos is edging closer to making his long awaited debut for the club. The defender joined Fulham on a free transfer from Arsenal in the summer, only to rupture his achilles heel in training days before the start of the season.

On the whole Senderos Hughes thing, I decided to look at all the games Philippe has played in and compare them to the games Aaron has played in. Except I couldn't do that because Hughes has barely played CB in league games this year.

Instead I looked at the games Senderos has played in this year versus the equivalent games from last year:

I don't know really.

We've done this thing before, how tap-ins are only tap-ins because someone had the nous to get into the right position (e.g. Gera v Hamburg).

Note the following, then. Dempsey initially shapes towards the far post, then holds his ground in the middle, possibly in expectation of a Murphy cross.

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.

Este será un post que no hablara del contexto ni de los jugadores rayados olímpicos en específico, sino será un post en el cual quiero mostrar en palabras, lo bien que me hizo sentir saber que por fin y a costa de muchas cosas, pudimos o quizás sea correcto decir, pudo el equipo TRIcolor olímpico llegar a la instancia en donde se encuentra actualmente.

A nice enough evening stroll for the men in white. It wasn't especially pretty or effective, but a 7-1 aggregate win is emphatic enough.

The goals were all fairly routine and made us wonder why there weren't more of them. For 1-0 AJ slipped through, and calmly finished, for 2-0 Senderos sent Duff scampering clear, and he calmly finished, then Zamora scored at the far post to make it three, then Sidwell overcame a serious case of finishing yips to make it four.