Fulham at Mancester United - EPL Final Week

The final match of the 2022-23 Premier League season is upon us! Fulham will travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United. The match will be on Peacock (or Bravo! if you have cable) with kickoff at 11:30am EDT on Sunday.

Neither team has much to play for beyond pride. Manchester United would probably like to guarantee third place with a win, but with a Champions League birth secured they'll probably want to focus on staying healthy before the FA Cup final against City - especially after Anthony was stretchered off yesterday against Chelsea. Fulham will want to get at least a point to claim their best PL point total ever and rank this squad among Fulham's best. Win, lose, or draw Fulham will be in 10th place - top half of the table! - when the curtain closes on this season.

Fulham would also probably like to erase some of the memories from their last visit to Old Trafford - the FA Cup quarter final that was a nightmare to watch. I hope this will at least be a fun match to watch and I think that is more likely if United puts out a younger squad looking to prove themselves.

It was 10 years ago that Fulham last wrapped up a Premier League season like this, without the stress of impending relegation. On that final day Fulham got a 0-3 win at Swansea with goals from Kacaniclik (currently playing in Sweden), Berbatov (retired), and Emanuelson (trainer at Utrecht). A lot has changed since then. I didn't think it would take Fulham this long to finally get back-to-back seasons and hopefully they can keep the good times going.

 

I’m looking forward to this match - especially after essentially missing the last three due to work travels. Fulham should have a strong side available that is looking to finish the season strong. Let’s just hope Mitro’s objections aren’t as strong as last time. Before the meltdown, both matches this season we spirited and I expect to see the same today.

And then I can cancel Peacock tomorrow.

 

Very discouraging that Mitro continues to miss penalties. He certainly had plenty of time to work on them during his lengthy suspension. Time to find a new penalty taker.

 

It was a wonderful season. If we can match it next season, I will be happy.

 

The highlights:


I'm thrilled about the season and that the relegation battle could be watched from afar, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed with this match. Once again Fulham played well enough to get points against a Champion's League team, but for the eighth and final time this season they got nothing - zero points from the top four. I was also disappointed in Mitrovic's PK, it was pretty bad and back to the old style that got 4 out of 8 PK's this season. I was also disappointed that after spending 8 matches suspended, he lashes out with a mild head-butt. Apparently no lessons were learned over the last two months.

Okay, I'm done whining! It was an entertaining game to watch. I thought Lukic finally make a case for sticking around next season. Tete did really well keeping a lid on Garnacho and he finally got a goal!

As for the relegation fight, I was bummed Everton didn't go down - I think it is just because Pickford is a twit - but it was fun to watch the roller coaster of emotions the Everton fans went through today.