Fulham 3-0 West Brom
Whilst Fulham did start the Premier League season excellently destroying the hapless Norwich 5-0, they had struggled in their following 2 games losing to both Manchester United and West Ham in successive weeks. They bounced back well however to inflict their first Premier League defeat of the season on to an off colour West Brom.
Before the season many worried about Fulham's goal scoring threat though they added well to their team over the summer and appear to have signed up a number of threatening players, none more well known than Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov.
It was to be Berbatov who stole the headlines here, netting his first Fulham goal in the 32nd minute to finish off an excellent run by team mate Alex Kacaniklic. West Brom didn't look their usual selves and it showed as the usually mild mannered Peter Odemwingie was sent off for kicking out at Sascha Riether putting West Brom at an even bigger disadvantage. It didn't take long for Fulham to effectively finish off the game as Berbatov netted a second from the spot.
Despite being 2-0 up Fulham kept control of the match well with Berbatov showing just how good he really is as he held up the ball and acted as a focal point for all of the Fulham attacks sadly however he failed to complete his hat-trick. It didn't however stop Fulham from netting a 3rd with Steve Sidwell tapping in from close range late on to seal all 3 points.
Fulham boss Martin Jol will be really pleased by just how good his team looked here following their 2 losses in their past 2 matches. The ability, strength and size of the Berbatov really allows Fulham so many options up front and with the likes of Mladen Petric, Damien Duff and Alex Kacaniklic they are a genuinely threatening team up front with several different options. I'd be genuinely shocked if Fulham weren't a team challenging for a Europa League position by the end of the season.
Whilst the result certainly wasn't great for West Brom, it was perhaps a dose of reality for Steve Clark who had taken a remarkable 7 points from his first 3 Premier League games in charge. Odemwingie's sending off was a moment of sheer madness (and something he has apologised for) though it was the fact that the Baggies simply couldn't handle Kacaniklic and Berbatov that really made the difference. West Brom have a lot of promise and hopefully this match will have awoken their eyes to the fact they need to play well to continue to get results.
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