Fulham Travel to Their House of Horrors

For Fulham fans there are three certainties in life; death, taxes, and losing at Goodison Park in league competition. Eighteen straight league matches have all ended with a loss. On Saturday, the Whites will have the opportunity to break the streak (they were meant to be broken right?) on Merseyside. At stake are the top ten positions and the extra money (about a million a pop) that goes to each higher spot. Everton currently sits in 7th on 48 points, 2 points ahead of 9th place Fulham.

Everton is coming into the match after scoring twice in the final 10 minutes at Old Trafford for a 4-4 draw, thus throwing the title race up for grabs between the two Manchester teams. David Moyes (as usual) has guided his team to improvement throughout the season and the Toffees are hitting on all cylinders. Nikica Jelavic had a brace at ManU and since his January arrival from Rangers has proven he can score in this league. Marouane Fellani, he of the huge hair, has the ability to control a match no matter who he is lining up against.

Fulham and Everton have already met twice this campaign. Back in October at Craven Cottage the Toffees won 3-1 in a deceiving scoreline. Tied at 1-1 late on (thru Bryan Ruiz's beautiful chip), Bobby Zamora rounded keeper Tim Howard and somehow missed an open net. Former Fulham standout Louis Saha rubbed salt in the wound as he scored in stoppage time (Rodwell added the third on basically the final kick of the match). The squads also met in late January in the 4th round of the FA Cup at Goodison. Danny Murphy converted from the spot to give the Whites the early lead. However, Landon Donovan spearheaded the comeback and assisted on both goals (Fellani scored the game winner in the 75th) in the 2-1 final.

The majority of Fulham fans have a lot of respect and a soft spot for Everton (unlike their obnoxious red neighbors, whom the Whites travel to on Tuesday). It would be remiss not to mention on a US based site the opportunity given to Americans by the Toffees. Besides Tim Howard; Joe Max Moore, Brian McBride, and Donovan have all pulled on the blue jersey and made contributions.

Prediction; If Fulham have any hopes of finishing 7th then somehow they will need to get a result at Goodison. A point would be a tremendous result and not something that this team isn't capable of. However, until proven otherwise I will have to go with a 2-1 win for the homeside.