Fergie checks out Ozil at the Cottage

07 August 2010 18:56
Sir Alex Ferguson was an interested spectator at Craven Cottage on Saturday to watch Fulham's 5-1 pre-season friendly win over Werder Bremen.[LNB] Although the Manchester United boss has claimed he is happy with his current squad, the opportunity to take a look at Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil was too much to resist.[LNB]Ferguson even swerved United's annual public training session at Old Trafford to see Ozil in action and given the 21-year-old has said previously how much he admires United, the Scot's presence will only fuel rumours of an imminent transfer.[LNB]Not that Ozil will have been too pleased about the result though as Fulham strode to an impressive 5-1 win, with Zoltan Gera netting a hat-trick.[LNB]Prospective England striker Bobby Zamora was also on target, offering a further nudge to national team manager Fabio Capello.[LNB]Manchester City defeated Valencia 2-0 in their final warm-up clash. Goals from Gareth Barry and Jo saw off their Spanish oppostion at Eastlands.[LNB]Also making their mark this afternoon were Arsenal duo Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere, who were involved in a quite extraordinary encounter with Legia Warsaw.[LNB]Gibbs was among those on target in an 11-goal thriller the Gunners managed to edge despite falling 3-0 down.[LNB]Marouane Chamakh began the comeback, although it was not until Emmanuel Eboue scored twice in eight second-half minutes that Arsene Wenger's men managed to draw level.[LNB]Gibbs' effort put them in front but it took late goals from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Samir Nasri to ensure victory in a pre-season encounter that will live long in the memory.[LNB]The high point of Everton's trip to Germany to face Steve McClaren's Wolfsburg was undoubtedly confirmation that Mikel Arteta has signed a five-year contract extension with the Goodison Park outfit.[LNB]Little went right once the match began as the Toffeemen fell to a 2-0 defeat, which included a Tim Howard penalty save from highly-rated striker Edin Dzeko.[LNB]Robbie Keane's return to prominence at Tottenham continued as the Irishman bagged a second-half brace to seal victory over Fiorentina at White Hart Lane.[LNB]Roman Pavlyuchenko did tap home one equaliser but Harry Redknapp's men were behind until Keane took centre stage, grabbing an injury-time winner to leave Tottenham to head into a crucial two-week period in positive mood.[LNB]Mame Biram Diouf scored on his debut for Blackburn to give Sam Allardyce's men a share of the spoils at Hearts.[LNB]Diouf has moved to Ewood Park on loan from Manchester United and quickly made an impact after Suso Santana's deflected effort had given the Scots a first-half lead at Tynecastle.[LNB]West Ham beat Deportivo La Coruna on penalties, Pablo Barrera converting the winner for Avram Grant's men, who had finished goalless after 90 minutes.[LNB]Birmingham lost their unbeaten record in pre-season as Emilio Nsue's second-half effort proved enough for Real Mallorca at St Andrew's.[LNB]It was not the way Ben Foster wanted to mark his home debut in the Blues goal, although fellow new boy Nikola Zigic did come close to an equaliser late on.[LNB]West Brom suffered a blow before the start of their clash with Osasuna as summer arrival Pablo Ibanez was forced to pull out through injury.[LNB]It didn't stop Roberto Di Matteo's men turning in an impressive performance, with Scotland international James Morrison putting them in front.[LNB]However, it did not last and Oier equalised five minutes from time.[LNB]Wolves ran out 2-1 winners at Molineux against Athletic Bilbao after an impressive performance. Steven Fletcher and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake were on target for Mick McCarthy's men.[LNB]Aberdeen's toughest test of their pre-season programme proved too much as the Scottish Premier League outfit lost 2-0 to Kaiserslautern in Germany.[LNB]Seven days before their opening SPL fixture with Celtic, Inverness had marginally more joy, Richie Foran returning from injury to grab the goal that earned a home draw with Royal Antwerp.[LNB]

Source: Team_Talk