After winning their third successive Premier League title during the 2008-09 season, Manchester United began the following campaign with seven victories from the opening nine games, but from the end of October, inconsistency started to creep into their game as they fell to three defeats to Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa - all without scoring a goal.
Sir Alex Ferguson's side still occupied second position in the table but by the time they travelled to Craven Cottage to play Fulham on this day in 2009, the levels of doubt were beginning to increase at Old Trafford as they targeted moving level on points with leaders Chelsea. As for the home team, they were continuing to build on their impressive seventh-place finish from the previous year and success in West London would see them close the gap on the top six.
United had been struck down by injuries in their defence which resulted in Ferguson naming Darren Fletcher, Ritchie de Laet and Michael Carrick in a makeshift back three, but during the opening stages, the formation seemed to suit their passing style with Darron Gibson being teed up for a long-range strike on goal.
Chances were still going the way of United, but as the clock ticked past the quarter-hour mark, Fulham began to increase the pressure on the visitors with Zoltan Gera having a well-struck volley parried away by Tomasz Kuszczak and by the midway point of the half, the Fulham supporters were celebrating their first goal of the afternoon.
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Danny Murphy, who was making his first start since October, dispossessed Paul Scholes around 30 yards on goal before wasting little time in firing a low strike into the bottom corner, but Kuszczak would have been disappointed by his effort to keep the ball out. His error caused United to drop deeper into their own final third which played into the hands of Bobby Zamora, but the striker was unable to add a second when heading wide from a John Pantsil cross.
Manchester United were growing frustrated, with Scholes, usually the club's most efficient user of the ball, failing to find a teammate with several trademark long balls, and the front pairing of Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen being starved of service as efforts kept being fired on goal from long range.
The title holders made it to the break still only facing a one-goal deficit but just a minute into the second half, Fulham extended their advantage. Damien Duff's cross found Clint Dempsey at the back post, and the American was able to head into the path of Zamora to lash a half-volley into the net from close range.
Fulham threatened a third through Gera, who drove the ball narrowly over the crossbar after being set up by Paul Konchesky, and that near miss forced Ferguson's hand on the bench as the Scot introduced Dimitar Berbatov and Fabio in an attempt to find a way back into the contest with 30 minutes remaining.
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The alteration almost brought an immediate impact after Rooney drilled the ball across goal and just out of the reach of Antonio Valencia, but despite finding themselves under pressure, Fulham were still enjoying success up the opposite end of the pitch and with 18 minutes left, the three points were sealed when Duff latched on to a Zamora knockdown before slotting the ball past Kuszczak.
Berbatov looked to muster some sort of reply for his deflated side but Fulham weren't finished and Kuszczak had to make a solid intervention to prevent Zamora making it four. However, Roy Hodgson's men settled for just the three and the Cottagers were able to head into the Christmas fixtures in ninth place, just three points adrift of Manchester City in sixth spot.
United shook off the defeat by netting 24 goals in a seven-game spell that brought about six victories, but despite losing just twice throughout the remainder of the campaign, they fell short by a point as Chelsea ended the season as Premier League champions.
As for Fulham, their league form tailed off to leave them in 12th position at the end of the season, but their year would be remembered for their remarkable run to the Europa League final where they suffered an extra-time defeat to Atletico Madrid.
Darren Plant
