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.

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.

Squad sheets: Fulham v Liverpool

Mixed emotions will accompany Liverpool on their annual trip to the Thames. The squad will reflect fondly on how they beat the hosts 5-2 in this fixture last season with a breathless and, at times, awesome, attacking display, but there will also be sadness at the recent loss of Lucas Leiva to a season-ending knee injury.

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.

"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.

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.

I can't believe I came on here yesterday writing with optimism about our new defensive tactics. I really should have known better to expect Wenger to be able to pull it off, however a good idea it may be.

The guy can't coach defence. Time and time again we see decent players come to the club and immediately look like clowns.

Much like the government, a lot of the talk round Downing Street has echoed that of what has been spoken about round the Emirates in recent months; Youth policy. What are we going to do with the kids?

Since the arrival of Wenger, Arsenal have placed youth policy high on the agenda.

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.

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.