My first visit to White Hart Lane came in February 2001. It was an FA Cup Fifth Round tie
against Stockport County. My uncle had driven up from Southampton on the morning of the game and
surprised me with a ticket.
I fell in love with the stadium and the atmosphere. I loved being part of the crowd and watching
Spurs easily dispose of the opposition as they won 4-0.
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.
Following the International break, we are back in the full swing of club football with Arsenal
playing their third game in a week; what with City on Tues, Wigan on Saturday and Olympiakos the
following Tues, we are busy. Long may it remain thus because it means we are in all
competitions.
Today brings Martin Jol's Fulham to the Emirates.
Come on Robin be honest, you can't dribble past 4 players can you?
One more match before the return of Samir Na$ri to the Grove. Not as if Arsene Wenger sees
Manchester City as any kind of a threat. Such is the confidence of the team at the moment, the
manager looks to put his second string side to face the league leader.
True or False: Damien Duff did not complete a single pass in the second half on Sunday.
Okay, that's a trick question. He didn't even attempt one.
Here is yesterday's passing chart. I don't know if the Guardian staffer fell asleep or it really
was that atrocious.
What may be worse than the sheer lack of passes is where three of the four completed outfield
passes went to: behind and to his left.
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.
Well, we're off to Dnipropetrovsk. Rather than this be some random trip to the heart of The
Ukraine against a side with a really cool badge, there's actually some levels of familiarity
amongst the two sides.
First, the coaches.
Just about four years ago, after a few months of flirtation, Ramos was plucked from Sevilla to
succeed Jol as manager of Spurs.
The most emotional goal we've ever seen?
Having decided not to renew his contract at Fulham Zoltan has come back to the club where he
started his career in England," said Hodgson.
"The last time he played at West Bromwich Albion he was a very popular figure with everyone at
the club, not least of all the fans.
By Chris Wright
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.
First things first: the white shorts do look pretty good. They're still morally incorrect, but a
sartorial triumph. The players look like Imperial Stormtroopers who've hit the gym. The effect is
quite imposing.
Not that it worked especially tonight. NSI Runavik organised themselves into a 4-1-4-1 formation
which could also be described as 9-0-1.
These good people needs a good season end send off from Arsenal
Finally, we've come to the last match of the season. I'm sure everyone of us would still want to
be involve until next weekend, which would mean we qualified for the Champions League final, but
I'm not quite sure we would've deserve that spot.
These good people needs a good season end send off from Arsenal
Finally, we've come to the last match of the season. I'm sure everyone of us would still want to
be involve until next weekend, which would mean we qualified for the Champions League final, but
I'm not quite sure we would've deserve that spot.
Reina
Johnson Carragher Skrtel Flanagan
Spearing Lucas
Kuyt Meireles Maxi
Suarez
Goals:
Maxi 1' 7' 70'
Kuyt 16'
Dembele 57'
Suarez 76'
After months of anger, disappointment and regrets, now we're wishing the season wasn't about to
end.
Simon Davies was awesome against Bolton. The chalkboard shows just how much work he did in that
critical final third. Bolton's defence must have been begging him to leave them alone by the time
90 minutes was up.
Eidur Gudjohnson reminds me of a fairly mobile basketball centre.
The 1958 Cleveland Indians baseball team used two players at First Base. Mickey Vernon, a good
left-hander who was adept at getting on base, and Vic Power, a right handed hitter and flashy
defensive player who once, having been informed that the restaurant he was in did not serve
coloured people, replied: "That's OK, I don't eat coloured people.
There was a joy to Fulham's play tonight, and Bolton took a good old fashioned hammering. It's
the sort of game that encourages a good hard think: if we can defend really well (and we can) and
attack really well (we sometimes can) then is the sky the limit? Probably not, as we won't play a
team as accommodating as Bolton again for a while.
These points all count, you know. Wolves are a poor side by reputation and by league position,
but they are also strangely dangerous, and will have certainly seen today as a great chance to take
three points. That they didn't was a result of Fulham's spirited and occasionally excellent
display, and especially Andy Johnson's late equaliser.
Inspired by Chopper's venture into listmaking...
Number 5: four minutes on the clock at Stamford Bridge, Murphy sends Nevland clear, and
Nevland did what Nevland did so well, and we're a goal up. It didn't last (for Fulham or Nevland
himself: Chelsea got 3; Nevland went off injured) but for a moment there.
Last night Chelsea dropped another two points drawing 0-0 with a hard working Fulham side and it
could have been worse as Petr Cech saved a Clint Dempsey penalty in the last minute of injury time.
That's football and especially the Premier League this season.
Now I could be one of those Chelsea "voices" out there that jumps on the Carlo Ancelotti band wagon
or could sit here being all doom and gloom this morning but I refuse to do that.
Fulham play twice this Fantasy Premier League gameweek and while Clint Dempsey is the more popular
choice owned by 9% of fantasy managers, Simon Davies costs just 4.7M and should also start both
matches. Look for Davies to pick ... Continue reading →
There's a lack to talk about Fulham these days. The euphoria of last season, with the Hodgson
army battling their way to the Europa League final, has somewhat died.
Like an inflating balloon, the media rushed in during their European cup run: all full of praise
for Roy's lads who rose above the odds to scalp Shakhtar, Juventus and Wolfsburg.
Scott Carson produced yet another major gaffe in West Brom's 3-0 defeat at Fulham.
Simon Davies' long-range shot bounced off his fingers into the net to give Fulham the opening
goal..
The wierd thing about this is that just about a year ago,the very same Carson was doing the very
same thing.
Clint Dempsey took his usual place in Fulham's starting lineup and scored the second goal in a 3-0
shutout of West Brom on Tuesday. Simon Davies opened the scoring in the 45th minute, with Dempsey
making it 2-0 in the 56th by heading in a corner kick. Brede Hangeland finished off the scoring in
the 65th minute.
Let's not get too excited - West Brom are a bad team in worse form but you can't beat a good
3-0 home win to boost morale, can you?
A strange game in the end. Fulham bossed the first 20 minutes without looking threatening,
and when West Brom grew into the game it felt like West Ham all over again.
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.
