Fulham Preview: A chance if anything to prove we’re a cut above Tottenham 8 May, 2010

It’s been a funny old season of ups and downs and it finally comes to and end tomorrow. We found ourselves in a late title race, we were outsiders but had a chance and in the end we couldn’t get the results. It was good to be involved again but when we did drop out we dropped out badly. So badly in fact we’re now 10 points off second with Spurs breathing over our shoulder after the winning run they’ve been on.

It’s been a good few weeks for Tottenham, since beating us they went on to beat Chelsea and Man City and have secured a Champions League qualifier spot for next season. Arsene Wenger has said that they deserve to be where they are and has also reminded us that Champions League qualification is no easy thing and says we must not take our position for granted. It’s true, it’s weird seeing them lot celebrate they way they have when we’re just used to achieving that every year. You are reminded how lucky we are. Redknapp is set to be manager of the year for what he’s achieved in the league yet Wenger does it every year without fail, spending nowhere near the twitchy one. Maybe if Liverpool weren’t so shocking this season Spurs wouldn’t be up there but they took advantage of the opportunity and beat Man City into the top four.

If we lose tomorrow and they win they’ll overtake us on the final day and take third. It’s an unthinkable outcome. We need to put in a performance tomorrow and make up for recent results by beating Fulham. Lets end the season with some sort of dignity. I don’t even want to think about that lot finishing above us and going straight into the Champions League group stages. The players and manager plan to thank the fans after the match but if we lose again tomorrow I can’t imagine it’s going to be a very nice place to be. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that so lets not go there.

There was no pre-match press conference so team news is sparse. We know we’re down to the bare bones anyway, Clichy might return at left back but no one else will return. We’re so short of players that the official match preview suggests we might bring in Henri Lansbury who’s returned from his loan spell at Watford. He might make the bench but I expect Eastmond or even Eboue to make up the midfield again:

Fabianski
Sagna – Campbell – Silvestre – Clichy
Eastmond
Nasri – Diaby
Eboue – van Persie (c) – Arshavin

It’s a weakened team for sure but certainly one that should be able to see off Fulham and secure third. The visitors are playing in the Europa League final in the week and are likely to rest players. They appealed to get the game moved to today but it wasn’t allowed. They have nothing really to play for in the Premiership so I’d be surprised to see a full XI. They played almost full strength in the week at Stoke so they’re not 100% focused on Europe but if I was them I wouldn’t want to risk anyone tomorrow. Whatever happens they’ll send out a team that will want to win the game and will be capable of causing us problems.

Against Wigan and Blackburn we took the lead and went on to lose. We have to learn that the game isn’t over until it’s over and that is especially true on the final day of the league. Anything can happen so we have to be fully focused up until the 90th minute and beyond. It would be nice to see us kill off a game too and would be the perfect way to end the season.

So lets win comfortably, take third position and whatever Spurs do they stay in fourth. I can just about take them getting into Europe but I will not be happy if they finish above us.

Enjoy the game those going. Thanks for reading.