English Premier League, Match Preview: Bolton Wanderers versus Fulham F.C
In a mouth watering clash between two English clubs on the first day of the 2010-2011 season, Bolton play Fulham at the Reebok Stadium in a season opening match for both the teams. Bolton Wanderers will look to build on their solid finish to the last English Premier League season while Fulham start their season under Mark Hughes, as their newly appointed club manager.
Hughes was appointed as the Fulham manager after Roy Hodgson’s departure to Liverpool at the start of the summer. However, Mark’s selection as Fulham’s manager came a bit late as the club’s first choice candidate; Martin Jol was under a contract at Ajax Amsterdam. Fulham have not made any significant additions to their ranks thus far and have yet to utilize the transfer window to its fullest extent.
The most prominent arrival to the London club has been the ex-Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos on a free transfer. Along with Senderos, Fulham have also successfully converted Jonathan Greening’s loan deal into a permanent transfer from his previous club West Bromwich Albion. The Cottagers as Fulham and its fans are more commonly known, have parted ways with a lot of players over the summer.
Chris Smalling’s high profile transfer to Manchester United for eleven million pounds stands out from the rest but it should be noted that, Fulham allowed their striker Erik Nevlend to move away from the club on a free transfer to Viking F.C. Other departures from Fulham include, Andranik, Wesley Foderingham, Toni Kallio, Luca Moscatiello, King Osei-Gyan, Dan Owusu and Michael Uwezu.
On the other hand at Bolton, the Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov’s arrival has been the highlight of the transfer window so far. In twenty appearances for Manchester City last season, Petrov notched up an impressive tally of five goals which is not that bad for an out and out winger. Martin was bought by Bolton Wanderers for free after Manchester City released the 31 year old from his contract.
Three players have left Bolton in the summer so far, their names are Ricardo Vaz Te, Stuart McDonald and Chris Stokes while Ali Al-Habsi has been sent on a loan deal to Wigan Athletic. Bolton replaced their previous manager, Gary Megson with Owen Coyle in the middle of the 2009-2010 season due to a bad run of form in the English Premier League. Coyle pulled off a surprising rescue act at the Reebok Stadium and steered Bolton to a fourteenth placed finish at the end of the English Premier League.
Bolton are expected to line up as a 4-4-2 for their match against Fulham with Davies and Klasnic as the two strikers upfront. In a midfield of four, Taylor, Muamba, Petrov and Weiss are thought to be the favourites to start the game for the men in black and white.
In defence, a combination of Steinsson, Cahill, Knight and Robinson will be the best one to combat Fulham’s Bobby Zamora and his supporting cast. Between the posts, Bolton’s long standing goal keeper Jaaskelainen is sure to start in the season’s opening match.
For Fulham, Mark Hughes might go with a 4-4-1-1 formation with Zamora as the singular striker upfront. However, Zamora will be supported by Clint Dempsey from a withdrawn position behind the target man. In the middle of the park, Duff, Murphy, Davies and Etuhu are a tried and tested arrangement which will be able to tackle Bolton’s usually physical approach.
Last time Bolton scored a home victory over Fulham was three years ago in the 2006-2007 season. Fulham’s last opening day win came against Portsmouth, at the start of the 2009-2010 season but they subsequently failed to win 11 of their 18 away games later on in the season. Conversely Bolton only lost one of their last four league games at the end of the 2009-2010 season.
Fulham do struggle quite terribly in their away matches but Bolton on paper do not have what it takes to beat an well organized side, so it is quite possible that this match will end as a scored draw for both the sides.
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