The Fulham Disaster Was A Fluke

Predictably enough, we hear a lot about our December defeat at Craven Cottage when Fulham dismantled United with icy cruelty. But do not read too much into that result ahead of tomorrow's showdown with Fulham.

The reason, of course, is obvious: as impressive as Fulham's performance was, United's line-up was little more than a joke. We had De Laet, Carrick, and Fletcher ahead of Kuszczak as our three centre-backs, Valencia and Evra were deployed as wing-backs and we had a midfield three of Anderson, Gibson and Scholes.

Predictably, the front two were isolated, the defence was ridiculously poor and the midfielders kept giving the ball away. Thus the 3-0 result. I'm sorry but essentially, it was a fluke. Fulham might win at Old Trafford tomorrow though their usual poor away record makes that very unlikely but even if they pull it off, it won't be because of any psychological damage or any other thing bandied around in the press.

This time we'll have our best defenders available, we'll have a proper midfield and we'll be playing at home. This will be a totally different game and though that sounds obvious, there are many journalists who haven't grasped it yet.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.