Fulham v. the Undead

[AggieMatt]

Well that didn't last long. Less than 48 hrs later and I'm in agreement with most of this VFST...all the way down to Riise as MotM. But Jol as third? Why's that?

Good result, although not necessarily a great game. Short rest and weather conditions played into both defenses' hands. Our lack of forwards didn't help either. Despite that, we had moments where it felt like we could take the match. Unfortunately, it looked like we were playing cautious bringing the midfield forward. Had it not been for what's becoming an increasingly confusing penalty call, it may well have worked for all 3 pts. When we thought the penalty was on Murphy, I thought it a little soft, but given the yellow on Cahill I could see why the ref would call for it. But putting it on Kelly makes it even softer imo.

Good fight back by the boys to level and once again, Dempsey continues to amaze with this run of his, despite playing a large part of the match 1 v 3 with little to no support. I found it ironic that DiMatteo complained that it took us a set piece to score on his defense, yet it took a pk for his to score.

Hopefully we'll see some of our injured players return after the break and we can continue this late push up the table.

[SteveFakeBlood]

Just finished watching the match (I sneaked a peek at the score on my phone at work after about half an hour- but then managed to avoid it until I got to watch the DVR). I'm still not sure about the penalty, Danny went in kind of rough with two feet- but at the same time, he probably got as much of the ball as he did of Kolou. You could argue a soft penalty on Kelly. I wanted to be pissed at Clattenberg, but again the call could've gone either way- usually close calls go to the defending team, but whatever. I'm glad he wasn't afraid to card Chelsea players (even if it was for the wrong fouls- the one on Meireles was hilarious... but it served him right for his earlier challenges), since they seemed especially rough today (thought we were playing Stoke for a minute...).

Other random thoughts (most of which aren't original, but I thought I'd agree with what was already said and/or put my own spin on it):

- As basically everyone has already said, Dempsey missed help up front and we missed having a true forward- the service was there, but not the finishing- and Deuce didn't even get any particularly good chances to finish, anyway, because he was so overwhelmed by the Chelsea defense (I do have to credit Terry and Ivanovic for playing well). That said, there was a lot of great work in the middle of the park. Frei was almost as good today (or yesterday I suppose) as Duff was against Bolton. Captain Danny, Dembele, Duff and Diarra all had their moments of brilliance and this is the best I've seen JAR play for us. He was actually doing something significant at the end of runs.

-Yes, Matt is right that the lack of rest and poor weather helped the defenses a bit, but I still thought it was an entertaining match as both teams weren't afraid to go forward (besides any match where we get points from Chelsea is entertaining in my book).

-It was also nice to see Jol really going for the win rather than parking the bus at the end- maybe a nod to how much this match means to the club and its supporters.

-Watching Frei and Special K play is exciting- add the potential of Trotta and previous play of Briggs to that group and we have the most talented group of young players we've had since... I can't remember.

~ Steve

[tim]

The boys were up for this one. The crowd was up for this one. Made for an entertaining match. Pretty much everything that needs to be said has been said already (and more eloquently than I could), but will just add that Frei thoroughly impressed me today.

[SoCalJoe]

Finally watched the match last night, even though I had already read all the reports. I understand the reasoning why the Prem doesn't have them do it, but there are times where the referee needs to either issue a statement or talk to a reporter about a decision. Was the call on Kelly or not? If it was on Kelly then it was a horrible call. If it is was on Danny then while disagreeing I could see why the call was made.

Steve McManaman...There are times when I enjoy his commentary, then there are times when...
At ManUre he defended the ref not giving the penalty 'It happened so fast, yada yada yada', then kind of admitted that it should of been given when Darke called him out. Then yesterday he said a handful of times that Clattenburg made 'the brave decision'. Then followed it up by saying he couldn't tell if Danny hit the ball?? How small is the monitor in the booth?? He finally set me off by asking Darke if he believed 'in the Big Clubs get the calls nonsense'. Um, what clubs did you play for Steve? Liverpool and Real Madrid?? Of course you would call it nonsense...you got the calls! Old Trafford is the place where refs and linesman go to pay homage to Sir Alex. Even Steve had to admit that it was a blatant offside and dive by Young v QPR. Wigan were hosed not once but twice at Chumpford Bridge on Saturday. Bad calls even themselves out for the majority of clubs, but it's "nonsense" not to admit that the big clubs don't end up in the black by season's end.

Frank Lampard is a complete and utter