[h=3]Everton Travel Down to The Cottage in Search of Their First Win in Three Games:[/h]After the 90 minutes of sheer frustration on Sunday, Evertonians can relax, safe in the knowledge that, due to a key decision finally going our way, we don't have to suffer the fact that we bottled it again, against a dead average Liverpool team - despite the best efforts of that cheating pleb Suarez. Poor little Liverpool, never getting any luck. What made it even better was Gerrard been shot down in the media and having to publicly apologise, to both Everton and Stoke, after comparing the playing style of The Toffees to the, shall we say, more physical style of The Potters. It seems that if you don't spend the majority of the game passing sideways, then your a shoddy excuse for a Premiership team. And then they go and lose to Swansea. Oh well...
Anyway, onto the weekend and a trip 'darn sarth' to the Capital - Craven Cottage, to be precise. If you can't find it, just Google Earth 'Michael Jackson Statue' and you'll be there in no time.
As for Fulham themselves, they are currently sitting steady in mid-table, probably where they should be with the squad they have at the moment - no disrespect intended, but whenever a team loses their most two influential players (in this case both to London rivals Spurs), it's not going to be a quick adjustment. However, Martin Jol has done a good job in 'stabilising', for lack of a better term, the team; Dembele was a big loss, and would be to any team, given his early season form, and Dempsey was Fulham's only real goal threat last year. However, Jol has managed to recruit his former Spurs prodigal in Dimitar Berbatov - a terrific signing, and it shows the respect the Bulgarian hit-man has for the big Dutchman that he would rather move to Fulham than a big-spending club from Russia, China or The Middle-East.
Berbatov is the obvious danger man for Fulham, although he may not be fit come Saturday (fingers-crossed). The lad Ruiz can also do a job, as he showed against The Toffees last season. Hangeland is a solid defender, and Schwarzer is a consistent keeper. The right-back Riether, on loan from Cologne, looks decent, while the young winger KaÄaniklić has played well so far this season.
As for The Blues, after dominating at least two thirds of the Derby, and after three draws on the trot, it's probably about time we got a win. Hopefully, with the return of Steven Pienaar from suspension, Fellaini hopefully being back to full fitness, and Kevin Mirallas likely to be fit after his sensational derby performance was ended by the sadistic stamp from Suarez.
I imagine that, due to his performance and goal on Sunday, Naismith may start, with Mirallas likely being brought on from the bench as an impact sub later on. However, midfield anchor Darron Gibson wont be fit. That means that Osman (who played very well last weekend) and the ever-present Neville will sit in central midfield, with Pienaar on the left and Fellaini behind Jelavić, who will hopefully have a better game than he had on Sunday. The back-four will likely be the same, with Howard in goal.
We always seemed to struggle down at The Cottage, but, in recent years at least, since breaking the duck on the last day of the memorable 2008/09 season, we have had better results down by the Thames. We struggled to a flattering 3-1 scoreline in this fixture last season, with two stoppage time goals from Louis Saha and Jack Rodwell.
I never like to predict how an Everton game will end, but saying that, I do think we'll have enough to get a result, and we're overdue a win. Hopefully, with a relatively fully fit squad bar Gibson, Evertonians will be happy travellers on their way back from the Capital tomorrow night.
