The always worth reading Republik of Mancunia says this about Fulham:
Fulham have a fairly good record against us at their place, but they haven’t beaten us at Old Trafford since 2003. We have won all of the six games played between us at home since then, including the brilliant 5-1 win on the opening day of the 06-07 season as well as the 3-0 win last February which saw us go five points clear at the top.
They have had a pretty good season so far but this is based on their home form, which has seen them win 9 of the 14 games played there. Away from home, they have won just 1 out of 14, which obviously puts us in a very favourable position.
Bobby Zamora hit some good form for them last month, scoring some great goals and managing four in a row. But he’s gone another four games without scoring whilst Fulham have gone that time without winning either.
Not a lot you can argue with there, apart from the fact that the 5-1 thrashing on that sunny Sunday certainly wasn’t good if you were staring at the Stretford End in disbelief. Particularly as Louis Saha had a blinding game. It was a hint of things to come under Coleman that year – quite what he was thinking pairing the injury-ravaged Christanval with Pearce I’ll never know.
Away from home it’s been poor this season – there’s no getting away from that, even if Hodgson has continued to make us harder to break down away from home. We’ve saved our most memorable performances for our continental travels (think Basel and Shakhtar) and I think the fans are quite pleased about that. And it’ll be tough against a side sure to buzzing from a majestic performance against Milan, even if the Italians were poor.
Zamora’s on fire (in a sort of Kings of Leon non-sexual way – thanks for that Lydia) even if he’s not scoring goals. Normally they come in gluts for Bobby and it’s not as the four games he’s drawn a blank have seen as utterly bereft of ideas in front of goal. We were set up not to concede an early goal against Shakhtar and Zamora still troubled them, went to Sunderland for a point and got it, Bobby should have scored late on after dominating Tottenham and he gave Cannavaro a tough test on Thursday. That last phrase says everything you need to know about Zamora’s fine season.
I don’t feel particularly confident about today, but boy am I looking forward to it. That said I was really excited before we got walloped 5-1.
