Fulham can look back on a mostly disappointing campaign in which they dropped off badly at the end. Martin Jol was hoping to build on a solid mid-table finish from the previous campaign and signed some interesting players in the summer like Mladen Petric, Hugo Rodallega and Ashkan Dejagah. The main signing was Dimitar Berbatov though who arrived on a cut-price deal from Manchester United to get reunited with his former mentor. Yet, the loss of Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele was inevitably going to hurt the team and deprive them of some genuine quality. It was still a very positive start of the season as Fulham won three of their first four games and gave Manchester United a proper scare at Old Trafford as well despite losing 3:2. The players were enjoying themselves in these early weeks, playing with freedom and fluency and Berbatov slotted in very easily into the system too. They had actually lost only to West Ham and the two Manchester clubs in the first 11 games of the season while also displaying some superb football in a 3:3 draw at Arsenal where they should have won. However, the freedom and fun from the early autumn weeks started to dissipate as the season went on. And Fulham found themselves on a poor run of form after winning none of their seven games from October to mid-December. Indeed, a narrow win over Newcastle was their only one in the space of 12 games until beating West Brom on New Year's Day. The loss of tough-tackling midfielder Mahamadou Diarra to a season-ending knee injury was one of the reasons for the poor form as the other players in midfield were unable to protect the back four as well as he did. There was a slight improvement in terms of form, albeit not in performances, in the first two months of 2013. Once again, only City and United got the better of the Cottagers in a run of ten games going to early April. There were hardly any standout displays during this run though, yet Jol secured a sweet 1:0 win at Tottenham in March. There was a feeling of lack of motivation and purpose from the players who just seemed to be going through the motions with little on the line Fulham completely collapsed in terms of form since beating local rivals QPR on Easter and lost five games in a row after that. While facing some top sides during this run, Fulham played some extremely incoherent and poor football and were always being caught at the back. The loss to Liverpool on the last home game of the season prompted angry jeers from the fans aimed at Jol who looks like staying on for next season but may have to deliver a bit more to make the locals happy.
