This match almost entirely concealed its significance. Victory, thanks largely to a pair of goals from Wayne Rooney, takes Manchester United to the head of the table, but there was little sense of occasion. The emphatic result was achieved merely by two late strikes against weary visitors.
There is seldom a good time for a mid-table side to visit Old Trafford, but the scheduling was particularly taxing for Fulham. On Thursday evening they had played a Europa League match at Juventus and Roy Hodgson felt obliged to make four changes to the line-up for the meeting with United. That step may have been made out of necessity more than any conviction that there is such genuine depth in his squad.
Nonetheless, it is the mark of Hodgson's managerial finesse that his side's 3-1 loss in Turin came as something of a surprise. United knew well the effectiveness Fulham have, particularly at Craven Cottage. Sir Alex Ferguson, forced to send out a makeshift centre-half pairing composed of midfielders Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher, had been beaten 3-0 there in December.
It would be a falsehood to suggest United were frothing with desire for vengeance. A match that kicked off at 1.30 looked, in the first-half, like the sort of game that might have been played a couple of hours earlier by hungover men in parks football. Clear-headed though he was, for example, Gary Neville had some feckless moments. In the 14th minute he lost the ball to Simon Davies, with the latter shooting slightly high. Near the interval, Neville then played a pass so poor that it put Antonio Valencia in enough trouble for him to commit a foul and collect a booking.
United still did the bulk of the attacking, but were at risk when Danny Murphy found Bobby Zamora and the striker's volleyed chip went slightly too high. Throughout all the uncertainty, it still looked a certainty that Rooney would make his talent count. The second-half had barely begun when he played a pass to the left-winger Nani, collected the return and shot low into the corner of the net.
The goal did not galvanise United, but they exercised more control and Rio Ferdinand, for instance, volleyed over from a corner. By then, too, the visitors had been destabilised by the loss of Brede Hangeland to injury, with Chris Baird stepping back from midfield to deputise.
When Fulham threatened it was because a deflection put the ball behind Nemanja Vidic, but Zamora dithered and the United centre-half recovered to block his attempt. As if realising that they might still be at risk, Ferguson's team then scored again. Dimitar Berbatov controlled a pass from Michael Carrick, broke clear on the right and picked out Rooney, who shot past Schwarzer in the 84th minute. On the verge of full-time, Rooney fired a pass to the right and the substitute Park Ji-sung's cross was headed in by Berbatov.
