Classy Alex keeps his word

THAT Fulham goal was probably the least funny thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
In an instant all the doubts of last season returned - both in the stands and on the pitch. It was profoundly depressing and while I’m not one for over-reactions, I think serious questions have to be asked of Jens. If he was deemed worthy of dropping in 2004 then his form at the end of last season and the beginning of this must leave him seriously vulnerable.
He costs goals and he panick the defence.
It all left us with our usual mountain to climb against a Fulham side who had a bit about them. As I’ve said, the goal left us looking nervy at the back. In central midfield we were being overrun. Diaby was absent and I’m afraid Cesc and Flamini is just not powerful enough for the Premiership.
But while I’ve so far painted a picture of similar failings, up front things were a little different. We were hardly at full throttle but we were being more efficient than last season’s standard fare. For one thing, we were using the wings. Sagna and Eboue were linking up well and so too were Clichy and Rosicky.
Some of the balls in were decent too and credit to Hleb and Rosicky, they were getting themselves in the box and having a go. Gone was the dilly-dallying of last season: Hleb alone had three shots (in one game I tell you) and Rosicky four or five.
All this is not to say we had completely abandoned the intricate through balls. But even then there seemed to be a bit more purpose about them and it was rare to see a move just peter out on the edge of the opposition box in the way they did so often last season.
We were creating one or two decent chances every ten minutes but you just feared time would beat us. Then up stepped Kolo with a jinking run. The contact was definitely inside the box and on balance it was probably a foul (particularly given the one not awarded to Hleb in the first half).
Buoyed by the arrival of Bendtner, we kept going and plugged away. Nothing really proves my point more about our smarter attacking play than the sight of Alex Hleb not only getting into the box in the 90th minute but actually eschewing the chance to pass to two well placed team-mates in favour of a shot than won us the game. He promised us he would shoot more and yesterday he kept to his word.
With Hleb it has only ever been a question of consistency and achieving what he is capable of. We’ve seen enough in the past to tell us he has the quality.
It all sparked celebrations so very familiar to last season - which felt a little odd. I’ve long been of the belief that there is not a huge, huge amount wrong with our attack. We need a winger to chip in with quite a few goals, but otherwise we got a fairly respectable total last year and for all our supposed insistence on walking the ball in, we were actually amazingly effective at getting a goal when we needed one.
My fear remains at the back. Despite the heroic efforts of our forwards in the final ten minutes of games, the simple truth is that if you concede first you will drop points. And although yesterday’s cock-up by Jens was a one-off in one sense, it was typical in another.
A word on Lawrie Sanchez. He may be new to the Premiership but it appears he has already mastered the techniques of small club syndrome. Pioneered by Sam Allardyce, it is the practice where the manager of a so called smaller clubs makes a series of claims about opposition indiscretions (usually by foreign players) or refereeing incompetence.
Their protests will subsequently be widely reported, irrespective of whether there is even the slightest grain of truth in them.
Take Sanchez yesterday, moaning about our attempts to get a penalty and “simulation”. For a start, the Kolo Toure one was in the area and was a foul. Then you have the Hleb one, which was as blatant a penalty as you will ever see.
Then finally there was the one where Steve Davis went down after tripping over his own feet. Now there is nothing wrong with tripping over your own feet. But to then get up and claim a penalty is something else altogether.
So in fact the only diver was on the Fulham team. But did Alan Shearer pick-up on this on MOTD2? Did he heck. Fulham were hard done by by the ref in his world. Bizarre.