Fulham v Chelsea; Midweek!

It's Wed., it's the Undead, it's time to give the home supporters a signature win, COYW!!!!!!!!

 

A win would be a wonderful cherry atop an otherwise hohum season-sundae. Probably won't happen though.

 

Only time for a COYW's! No previews this week since I am out of town celebrating my anniversary with the love of my life. Three points taken from the dog track boys would just sweeten the pot a bit.

 

ill take a miracle.

 

I'm feeling euphorically optimistic about this one, for no apparent reason. Perhaps the dog tracker's murderous non league schedule finally catches up to them and we whup the tar out of 'em. 3-nil to the mighty Fulhamites!

COYW!

 

Chelsea are playing their 7th match in 19 days, fresh off a win in Russia 6 days ago in the Europa and a tough FA Cup loss to Citeh on Sunday. In other words, even though this match is crucial in the Scum's CL bid, just can't see them bringing their A game due to mental/physical fatigue. As been stated, it has been a ho-hum season, so here is a great opportunity to change it.

 

I'd love to see it but with all of the injuries and the way our midfield doesn't defend, we're wide open for a Mata or Ramirez to rip us apart.

And the plus side, our back four have been much better of late and we do have a class player in Berbatov, so if we can somehow get him the ball in the box, there's always a chance to pull a result. C'mon Fulhamish!!

 

I have a weekly bridge game, and the winners take home a few bucks. When my wife wished me good luck, I finished dead last that week. So last week, she wished me bad luck as I was heading out the door. Not only did I finish first, but a partner and I made a grand slam and thus got to split the $25 grand slam bonus pot. Kind of Fulhamish isn't it? In that spirit:

There's ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that Fulham will win against Chelsea. They're going to get CRUSHED. They have NO CHANCE.

 

Little mistakes taken in islolation mean very little but when summed they separate and excellent team from and average team.

 

I think it's fair to say the scoreline flattered to decieve, but I don't know that the result did. If we could have converted 1 of our 3 strikes from 18 yds out, it's probably a different match. But both Terry goals were down to poor defending by Fulham. I've rewatched the Senderos header several times on the dvr in super slo mo & I'm convinced it wasn't going in. At best it hits the post. Ruiz probably should have earned a penalty, but it would have been fairly soft by usual Prem standards. He certainly didn't deserve a yellow.

We did better getting shots both on target and off. We still conceded more of both than we took. For me, the offense is still too static and slow too much of the time. And our defending is still too lax, especially in the midfield. I thought Enoh was better to that end this match though. Karagounis looked better in the offensive end again today, but his defending is dire.

All in all, while the result was no surprise, I thought we played better than I was expecting, particularly in the first half. The second half was more a reflection of how we usually look. Maybe we get some of the breaks against Arsenal and can make a match of it.

Damn, I hate John Terry. :twisted:

 

Hey all, I've been a stranger around here lately, so I decided I was going to comment after this match no matter what. Unfortunately, not the greatest result to comment on. I also mostly fast-forwarded through the last 20+ minutes after Terry's second (I stopped to watch here and there). Nonetheless, for the most part I agree with Matt.

I thought we played much better than the scoreline in the first half, we created as many chances (equal on shots) and had as much possession - but didn't quite have enough luck- Berba could've possibly toe-poked that cross in and Ruiz should converted his chance from Riether's cross in the 3rd or 4th minute. The second half we had a couple decent minutes to open the half, but after that we were as flat as can be expected from a team down 2-0. While I think Ruiz shouldn't have been given a yellow, I think at best he was tripped up outside the area and made a meal of it- so I can't blame the ref for playing on from there. I was very impressed by Emanuelson's performance, he was creating a bunch of chances in the first half. Karagounis was great from setpieces. Riether was good going forward, but more shaky than usual in the back as Terry's first goal can attest to. Unfortunate as it is to say, Luiz's goal was a thing of beauty- I though Ian Wright was nit-picking to say he should've been closed down- it was an outrageous effort and a brilliant goal. Yeah, we all hate Terry. I actually didn't mind him when I first started following the Prem- a hardworking Centre half who made acrobatic stops and scored goals (as long as he was doing it for England)- but then it turned out more than a world class defender, he's actually a world class D-bag.

Oh well, better luck against Arsenal...

~ Steve