Fulham 1 - 3 United

DDG

Rafael(Smalling) Jones Evans(Kagawa) Evra

Valencia Jones Cleverley(Fellaini) Januzaj

Rooney RVP

An excellent first half display paved way to a comfortable victory at a tricky ground. Fulham's defence was all over the place and our players managed to capitalise on the Cottagers' frailties. During the first half an hour, our players were playing a blinder. Precise passes were being sprayed at will, we looked dangerous and our strikers were clinical. Valencia was particularly impressive on the right wing and also did well at right back. He was definitely my man of the match. 

Some good attacking football resulted in three goals scored by Valencia, Rooney and RVP. It was such a relief to see that first half display because, at times this season, I was worried that we've totally lost our ability to attack with pace. However, after that good first half display, we took our foot off the pedal during the second half and our side reverted to the dire football we've played for the best part of this current season. Fulham managed to score a fluke goal and had they managed to find the net again, something they could have easily done, we would have had some nervous final minutes. Thankfully, Fulham's second never came and we can look back at a pretty pleasing Saturday afternoon. 

Some worrying things, apart from the fact that we switched off completely during the second half, are the injuries. Moyes was forced to take off 3 players during the half time break. Rafael will probably be out for a while but I'm not sure what happened to Cleverley and Evans. It was such a shame the trio succumbed to injuries because they were having a pretty decent game. I'm not sure whether it's just a coincidence but our performance became alarmingly appalling as soon as Fellaini replaced Cleverley in the midfield. The guy doesn't know how to change tempo, it's as if he plays the game in slow motion and I'm not particularly fond of that. 

Anyway, it was a good away day. Our away fans were in full voice, our own fans who have been constantly bashing Moyes were muted, we scored three goals, notched our 4th win on the trot and managed to get closer to teams who thought (and still think) they're miles ahead of us. People from the media are only interested in criticizing our players when in reality we're only a couple of points away from City and 3 points off the second placed team. Yes, we've struggled at times but, with the exception of Arsenal, the other much fancied teams haven't been setting the world alight either. The next two games are very important. Win both and I'd be a happy man. Lose vs Sociedad and win vs Arsenal and I'd still be delighted. However, if we lose vs Arsenal, 11 points would be too big a margin to make up. So that's a game we must win. Come on UNITED!