Source: Daily_Mail
Manchester City 1 Fulham 3: Dempsey inspires Fulham to fine victory
Towards the end of last season Fulham visited Manchester City and shocked perhaps even themselves by winning 3-2 and setting in motion an extraordinary run of results that kept them in the Premier League.
The fact they beat City again here surprised nobody.
City's home record may be impressive this season but Mark Hughes's players returned from a UEFA Cup defeat in Hamburg on Friday looking like a squad who perhaps did not have a lot more to give. So it proved.
Tired, without confidence and now lacking in numbers, too. All the ingredients were already in place for a performance like this.
In all honesty, they could not have made it any easier for Fulham if they had tried.
Roy Hodgson's side were impressive as they disposed of City.
Somehow finding themselves a goal down at half-time, Fulham responded with vigour and self-belief. By the end they were very worthy winners.
This,however, said much more about City than their visitors. Suffice to say that it looks like being a difficult end to the season for a team who appear as if they may have gone as far as they can.
Certainly thenext week will be important for Hughes. Progress to the last four ofthe UEFA Cup at Hamburg's expense looks unlikely with the Germans leading 3-1 after the first leg. Victory would, however, bring Hughesand his team fresh impetus.
If that does not happen they must beat West Bromwich at home on Saturday if the dissent Hughes heard fromhis own fans on Sunday is not to grow louder. That criticism was predictable but unfair.
Supporters were always going to react badly to Robinho's exclusion. But the Brazilian's football has been poor for weeks and it was not his absence that caused City to lose this match.
With the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Craig Bellamy missing, Hughes fielded a team short of experience in attacking positions and also - in the form of Martin Petrov and Valeri Bojinov -including players lacking match fitness. Ultimately they were undone by defensive mistakes.
Stephen Ireland's goal, a curling first-halfshot after a 40-yard run from his own half, was spectacular but did notdisguise the fact that Fulham had already proved themselves the betterteam during the opening period.
Once they equalised early in the second half it always looked like City would be over-run.
Fulham's best player was the American Clint Dempsey and he levelled the scoreswhen Pablo Zabaleta conceded possession and Bobby Zamora's run forced Micah Richards into a tackle that could only divert the ball in to thepath of the scorer.
Zabaleta's error typified City. Skipper Richard Dunne was dreadful all day while Richards - whose form has slumped again - was not much better.
Fulham's Clint Dempsey (left) hit a brace in the win at Eastlands
With the score at 1-1, it never looked as though City would recover and Fulham predictably took the lead when Dickson Etuthu, a former City trainee, spanked a supershot past Shay Given from the edge of area.
This was the cue for Robinho. He had been milking the affections of his City fan club all afternoon, although he did not go quite as far as his buddy Elano, who interrupted his own warm-up to plant a kiss on the head of a smallchild in the crowd.
Elano never got on to the field and Robinho could not effect any great change when he emerged with 28 minutes left.
The Brazilian saw enough of the ball but the game was already slipping away from City by then, and Fulham scored again with time running out after Dunne failed to intercept a pass to Zamora and the former West Ham player broke clear to feed Dempsey, who slipped the ball through Shay Given's legs.
City fans headed for the exits in their thousands. At full-time those who were left let Hughes know what they felt.
Only Bolton and West Bromwich have lost more times in the league than City this season and Hughes must now hope the remaining weeks bring a change in fortune.
Nobody wants to limp over the Premier League finishing line these days. Especially when your owners do not know an awful lot about football.
