We welcome Man City to the Cottage for a 2 o’clock Sunday kick-off
Loosing both Willian and Harry Wilson so early in the game didn’t help our cause against Villa however we now face one of the toughest games of the season. We did OK against them in the reverse fixture last November, albeit against 10 men, and were unlucky not to come away with a draw.
The way that Man City took Arsenal apart in their last game was frightening, 4-1 actually flattered Arsenal, they could easily have been down 8-0 by halftime.
Our recent record against Man City is dire, 1 win, 16 losses and 3 draws however that game against them in the “Great Escape” season will live long in Fulham folk-law.
Current Form: Fulham – LLWWL Man City – WWWWW
I’m assuming that neither Willian or Harry will be available so my team would be…
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Saturday 29th Palace v West Ham Brentford v Forest Brighton v Wolves Arsenal v Chelsea
Sunday 30th Bournemouth v Leeds Fulham v Man City Liverpool v Spurs
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We get to visit the second city to take on Aston Villa at their place for an evening kick-off
Two wins on the bounce, and the double, treble with the FA Cup game, over Leeds saw Fulham back to winning ways. Dan James was unavailable, as Leeds is his parent club, Bobby De Cordova-Reid replaced him to reasonable effect, Bobby is such a versatile player having this season played in defence, midfield and attack! Willian really has rolled back the years and virtually ran the game from start until he was substituted 4 minutes into injury time. Talking of substitutions it was fantastic to see Neeskens Kebano get a cameo at the end of the game.
Villa are one of the “in form” teams, only Man City are on a better run of results closely followed by Newcastle and are currently sitting in 6th. They look a completely different team from the one we beat 3-0 earlier in the season, Unai Emery has done an outstanding job since taking over from Stevie Gerrard. This will be another chance to “do the double” over one of our rivals and a win would set us up nicely for Sundays clash with Man City.
Current Form: Villa – WWWWD Fulham – LLLWW
Our recent record against Villa is reasonably good with 10 wins, 7 losses and 4 draws.
With Dan James back available for this game and Mitro still serving his ban, my team would be…
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Tuesday 25th Wolves v Palace Villa v Fulham
Wednesday 26th Forest v Brighton Chelsea v Brentford West Ham v Liverpool Man City v Arsenal
Thursday 27th Southampton v Bournemouth Spurs v Man Utd
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We welcome Leeds to the Cottage for an early 12:30 Saturday kick-off
Well that was more like it! I really didn’t think that we’d get anything from Goodison Park, having only won 1 league game there previously however, we’ve now won two on the bounce. Who’d have thought Dan James as a striker would work so well? Plan B, or was it Plan C?, certainly worked a treat and it was certainly Harry’s best performance of the season.
I’d give Pereira a “rest” for the Leeds game, he came to us mid way? through the Brazilian season and has played consistently, World Cup aside, for nearly a year.
Ludlow Richard, FoF’s stats man, mentioned over on the forum that the win against Everton was our most ever away wins in a Premier League season (6) beating the 5 wins in 2003/04. With 4 away games to go we have a chance of beating the 2003/04 total of 21 away points, we currently have 20, Villa, Liverpool, Southampton and Man Utd await. The Everton games was our 300th Premier League away game, of those 300 games we’ve won 1-3 just five times. Twice in the 2008/09 season against Bolton and Manchester City; once in the 2004/05 season against Blackburn; once (memorably) against Manchester United in 2003/04; and of course today against Everton. So we tend to win 3-1 away against north western teams. We have now won two league games in a row at Goodison Park, having not won in the previous 28 league games. We drew our 100th PL away game (against Villa) and our 200th PL away game (against Norwich).
Leeds have conceded 16 goals in their four Premier League games in April, eight more than any other side and one more than they let in during January, February and March combined (15 in 11 games). Their last two games, both at home, against Liverpool and Palace they’ve conceded 11 goals, worrying for a team sitting in 16, 2 points above the drop zone.
Current Form: Fulham – LLLLW Leeds – WLWLL
With Mitro still on his ban, James being unavailable to play against his parent club I’d give Pereira a “rest” my team would be…
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Friday 21st Arsenal v Southampton
Saturday 22nd Fulham v Leeds Brentford v Villa Palace v Everton Liverpool v Forest
Sunday 23rd Bournemouth v West Ham Newcastle v Spurs
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We get to travel to a ground where we never win* a league game, Everton away
*I had thought that we’d never won a league game at Goodison however over on the FoF forum Deeping_White reminded me that we did win a couple of season ago thanks to Josh Maja.
So West Ham got away with another hand ball in the buildup to their goal, VAR not interested, not really a surprise, if it happens again I’ll begin to think theres a conspiracy against Fulham.
Having lost the last 4 games, the last time we were on a poorer run in the Premier League was in 2019 when we lost 9, its about time we got back to winning ways, even a draw wouldn’t go amiss. Marco was a previous manager at Goodison, he was in charge for around 53 games.
With Sean Dyche now in charge of Everton, they’ve picked up 10 points in his first 5 home games in charge, W3 D1 L1, more than their previous 10 home games.
Current Form: Everton – DWDDL Fulham – DLLLL
Our record against Everton, especially at Goodison Park, is another poor one with 4 wins, only 1 of them at Goodison, 11 losses and 3 draws.
my team would be…
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Saturday 15th Chelsea v Brighton Everton v Fulham Southampton v Palace Spurs v Bournemouth Wolves v Brentford
Sunday 16th West Ham v Arsenal Forest v Man Utd
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We welcome West Ham to the Cottage for a 3 o’clock kick off
Well the Bournemouth game started really well, and then the 2nd half happened! It seems that we’ve been on 39 points for ages? We still don’t know, at the time of writing, how long we’ll be without Mitro and we obviously miss him not only for his goals but his hold up play. It was good to see Tom getting a run out and it would be interesting to see if he and Palhinha could work together?
West Ham will be very confident of getting a result, especially after the game earlier in the season, and will be buoyed by their win against fellow strugglers Southampton at the weekend, I think their game against Newcastle on Wednesday may prove more of a challenge.
Current Form: Fulham – WDLLL West Ham – LWLDW
our recent record against West Ham isn’t very good with 3 wins, 9 losses and 3 draws.
my team would be…
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Saturday 8th Villa v Forest Brentford v Newcastle Fulham v West Ham Leicester v Bournemouth Spurs v Brighton Wolves v Chelsea
Sunday 9th Leeds v Palace Liverpool v Arsenal
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We get to travel to the south coast to take on Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium for a Saturday 15:00 kick-off
So we’ll be without Willian and Mitro for this game, Marco will be “in the stands”? At the time of writing we don’t know the length of bans. Marco has also been charged with misconduct for comments he made after the game! The Football Association alleges Silva’s post-match comments “constitute improper conduct in that they imply bias and/or question the integrity of the match official, and/or bring the game into disrepute”. So you can’t complain about multiple and historic poor decisions without it being “improper”, who holds the officials to account?
With Bournemouth currently sitting in 19th they’ll be looking for every point and hoping for better than the 2-2 earlier in the season.
Current Form: Bournemouth – WLLWL Fulham – WWDLL
Our recient record against Bournemouth is 1 win, 3 losses and 3 draws.
Assuming players returning from international duty in good time, no additional injuries, or suspensions my team would be..
COYW’s
Games of interest…
Saturday 1st Arsenal v Leeds Bournemouth v Fulham Brighton v Brentford Palace v Leicester Forest v Wolves Chelsea v Villa
Sunday 2nd West Ham v Southampton
Monday 3rd Everton v Spurs
Tuesday 4th Bournemouth v Brighton Leeds v Forest Chelsea v Liverpool
Wednesday 5th Man Utd v Brentford West Ham v Newcastle
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We welcome Arsenal to the Cottage for a 14:00 Sunday kickoff
Well the Brentford game didn’t go as well as I’d hoped but really we only lost because of a very soft penalty? I wonder what position we would be if Solomon had been available all season? Mitro’s fellow countryman Lukic had a steady game, hopefully he’ll enjoy playing with Mitro and help to get Mitro back to his very best, we really need him to be for the Arsenal game. Leno will looking to show his previous team that they made a mistake letting him go, I’d love for him to keep a clean sheet!
Taking on the League leaders, even at home, is going to be a tough game however we didn’t really deserve to loose the corresponding away fixture and we were “in the game” right until the end, this would be a great game to get something from!
Current Record: Fulham – DWWDL Arsenal – LWWWW
Our record against Arsenal is dire with just 3 wins, 22 losses and 6 draws.
Hopefully Tete will be fit enough, my team would be…
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Saturday 12th Bournemouth – Liverpool Everton v Brentford Leeds v Brighton Leicester v Chelsea Spurs v Forest Palace v Man City
Sunday 13th Fulham v Arsenal West Ham v Villa
Wednesday 15th Southampton v Brentford Brighton v Palace
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We get to make the short trip to the Gtech Community Stadium to take on Brentford at their place
Manor Solomon to the rescue, what an impact he’s made in his last 3 subs!, it’ll be difficult for Marco to leave him on the bench for this game? Missing Palhinha for both this and the Arsenal games will definitely be a loss, time for Lukić to shine, he’ll relish linking up with Mitro as they do for their national team.
Another chance to get to “do a double” over another of our local rivals presents itself. Our 3-2 home win back in August, a game that wasn’t as close as the scoreline would make it appear?, sets this up nicely, Brentford will be looking to gain revenge.
I wonder what the odds are on how long a ban Ivan Toney will get now that he’s admitted the 262 gambling related charges?, whatever it is it’ll not be in time for this game. I don’t think he’ll mimic Mitro’s hand wave again, he’s going to score against us isn’t he, after last time, if he does lets hope Mitro puts him in his place again.
Surprisingly, our record again Brentford isn’t that good with 4 wins, 7 losses and 3 draws.
Current Form: Brentford – WDWDD Fulham – LDWWD
my team would be…
Over on the forum Ludlow Richard came up with an interesting stat about this game:
“It will be our 1100th top flight league game and it will be our 4,398th league game. This means that for the first time in our existence as a league club we will have played more than 25% of all our league games in the top flight of English football. “
COYW’s
Games of Interest…
Saturday 4th Arsenal v Bournemouth Villa v Palace Brighton v West Ham Chelsea v Leeds Wolves v Spurs
Sunday 5th Forest v Everton
Monday 6th Brentford v Fulham
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We welcome Leeds to the Cottage for our FA Cup 6th round tie for a 19:45 kick-off
Our league form seems to have dropped off a bit in the last couple of games, Solomon to the rescue, so I’d give the lad a start for this game. I’d also give our two latest additions some game time as I’m sure they’ll be needed in the coming weeks. Whilst a “cup run” would be something to savour, after all Marco has said how much he admires the FA Cup, some of the “first team” look a bit leggy so I wouldn’t necessarily start our strongest line-up, if we get past Leeds I’ll probably change my mind with Wembley being “in sight”?
Leeds have a new manager and I’m sure that Javi Gracia will stress the importance of getting a “winning habit” however it will be interesting to see if he wants to concentrate on the relegation battle or be distracted by the FA Cup? Their win against Southampton on Saturday lifted them out of the bottom three but only by a point, if Fulham were in Leeds place what would be your priority?
With our injuries and suspensions my team would be…
COYW’s
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0
We get to travel to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light for the fourth round replay
So after the “proper” FA Cup game at the Cottage ended in a draw we get a Wednesday evening 17:45 kick off to see who will face Leeds in the next round. Sunderland really gave it go and will be full of confidence that they can get a result at their place? It was an uncharacteristic mistake by Issa Diop that allowed Sunderland to take a sixth minute lead, however Tom Cairney came to the rescue with a wonderful bit of skill weaving his way past a couple of defenders before scoring past the very impressive Patterson who had an outstanding game. 15 year old Christopher Rigg thought, as did the travelling Sunderland fans, that he had scored the winner, and made FA Cup history, I think he would have been the youngest ever FA Cup scorer?, but unfortunately for the lad and Sunderland the goal was ruled out as he was offside. More bad luck for Sunderland, Ross Stewart was carried off with an ankle problem, his 10 goals in 13 games will be missed?
Assuming the our two new players can’t feature as they weren’t available for the first game and as Marco Silva has said that he wants to take the FA Cup seriously my team would be…
COYW’s
come on over to the forum and join in the conversation… https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0