Before kick-off this match had been widely styled as a collision of the damned, or at least an elimination heat in the traditional midwinter Premier League manager cull. At half-time it appeared to be meandering towards the mutual assured non-destruction of a featureless 0-0 draw. By the end, though, with Martin Jol and Sam Allardyce in contrasting states of animation as West Ham scored three times without reply in the second half, it felt like a horribly decisive defeat for Fulham's manager. It is perhaps more a case of when not if for Jol now, with Tottenham due at Craven Cottage on Wednesday.
Here Fulham failed to have a shot on target all match, a show of attacking impotence Jol attempted to arrest with 12 minutes left by sending on the 36-year-old defensive midfielder Giorgos Karagounis. This was Fulham's sixth defeat in a row. Going back to last season, they have now lost 16 of their last 24 matches in all competitions. The Fulham owner, Shahid Khan, is known for his patience in the NFL, having retained successive embattled coaches of the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it is a parallel that only goes so far.
For a start there is no relegation in the NFL. Khan bought a Premier League team. Hopefully his attention was sufficiently drawn to the clause about the value of investments going down as well as up.
West Ham have also stalled in recent weeks, with two points and two goals in their past five since the striker-free aberration-victory at Tottenham. Upton Park was a toxic place at times last week during the collapse against Chelsea, but as West Ham kicked off here the atmosphere wasn't so much toxic as oddly sterile during the almost entirely inert early exchanges. West Ham at least had a striker on the pitch in the shape of Modibo Maiga, who was lively – these things are relative – from the start and headed powerfully against the post from six yards from Downing's cross. The Malian looked more confused than disappointed: Sunday is the one-year anniversary of his last goal for anyone in any competition. Still, West Ham were the more purposeful, Fulham's only early concessions towards the notion of attempting to score a goal the occasional doomed gallop from Adel Taarabt and a free kick by Elsad Zverotic, ballooned with painstaking care, Cristiano Ronaldo style, into the upper tier behind the West Ham goal.
For much of the first half this looked like what it was: a meeting of two teams trying to compensate for some obvious absences: Fulham's classy strollers, the team without a heart, against goal-free West Ham, the team without a head. Currently West Ham have the lowest shots on target ratio in the Premier League; Fulham, keeping their end up in the deadlock double-header, have had the fewest attempts. Earlier this week Manuel Pellegrini declared that statistics only occasionally tell the truth about football, but safe to say he wasn't at Upton Park, where half-time after a goal-less and almost shot-less first 45 minutes barely disturbed the prevailing sense of ennui.
West Ham had been the more energetic team, and their goal just after the break was due reward. Mohamed Diamé robbed Steve Sidwell, advanced on goal and hit a low shot that was deflected past Jussi Jaaskelainen by Fernando Amorebieta. West Ham's players celebrated extensively by the touchline, as though remembering dimly how this kind of thing is done. It was their second goal at Upton Park in six weeks.
After which, the home team continued to press, as Fulham faded further. Darren Bent cleared off the line after a corner, and Downing hit the angle of post and bar with a swirling cross from the right. With 20 minutes remaining Jol briefly roused himself from the bench, waving his arms around a little disconsolately in an attempt to draw some pep from a terribly flat Fulham team. To little avail: West Ham's second came with eight minutes to play, Carlton Cole, cheered on to the pitch like the returning Bobby Moore, scored with his third touch, tapping home from Downing's cross. The third, swept home by Joe Cole, confirmed West Ham's complete superiority by the end.
via Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663845/s/3446c775/sc/13/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Cfootball0C20A130Cnov0C30A0Cwest0Eham0Eunited0Efulham0Epremier0Eleague/story01.htm
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