Pedestrian Everton Stroll into Fifth Round; Fulham Watch Passively

And that’s about it. A relatively out-of-form Everton, considerably weakened in central defense, and featuring two central attackers with a total of one goal between them, had little trouble in knocking Fulham out of the FA Cup. The Mighty Whites can now go about ensuring their 17th place finish. Sad, really, because I'm running out of years to see Fulham run out at Wembley, and I honestly thought we had a good shot against this side today.

Zamora and Senderos made way for Ruiz and Hughes, but this was actually a pretty creative side. It just didn’t create much. As was the case last weekend, the only Fulham player to look threatening in the first half was Duff. Dempsey was largely anonymous, Ruiz spent too much time in the wrong half, and Our Late President seemed to have lost his close-control touch. Everybody looked as if they were doing the right thing, but nothing seemed to quite work out. Kelly and Riise were – frankly – useless in supporting the attack, and Baird and Murphy were not filling out their career highlight reels. Someone – Murphy? Hughes? Godzilla? – presented Duff with a good scoring opportunity, but the ball richocheted off Heitinga’s hand for a cor … oops; Howard Webb called the penalty. Murphy converted, and we were up 1-0. Whee!

Arsenal & Fulham Exchange Scripts: Gunners Concede Late TWICE!

I must tell you that even halfway through the second half when we were down a goal, I found myself watching and saying, “What a match. What an effort by the Whites.” And then it all came good.

There were two changes from the side that played a brilliant 45 minutes in Norfolk a couple of days ago, and those two were Sidwell for Frei and Zamora for Sa. So, how did those changes work out then? Arsenal fielded yet another weird looking back four with attacking midfielder Coquelin slotting in at left back. Djourou, the center half turned RB continued, and Koscielny partnered Mertesacker – certainly the worst German product since some demented Berliner invented rapsberry beer. For Fulham, Sidwell took the more forward central midfield role and Zamora – who has had a history of torturing Arsenal – replaced Sa as the lone man up front.

Yes, we conceded early; yes Arsenal had a mass of possession, but Fulham played well. The goal came from a fluke. A good cross by the impressive Gervihno was deflected by Kelly’s boot into a high looping soft pop fly that Koscielny did very well to get to first, to head, and to head with power. Watching it “live,” I thought that Stockdale should have claimed it, but upon 15 or 20 repeats, I think it’s doubtful he could have done much to keep it out. Fulham, did not fall back and allow the walls to collapse on them as they did against United. Rather, they continued their passing game and looked for opportunities to score.