Season Summaries--13. Fulham

13. Fulham (My preseason prediction: 13th)

Even though they've played only 13 games, roughly a third of the season, I'm proud to say that so far my preseason prediction for Fulham has been spot-on. As an American, Fulham are a team I root for with Brian McBride (currently injured), Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, and Kasey Keller all on the roster and playing important roles with the London club, possibly soon to be joined by MLS Defender of the Year Michael Parkhurst.

Lawrie Sanchez is an underrated manager, in my opinion, and I'm not sure that people recognize how good of a job he did with Northern Ireland before he left the post to take charge at Fulham at the end of last season. I know that the national team job is different from managing at the club level, but Sanchez was able to get some pretty good results from a mish-mash roster (some of which he took to Fulham) and if he would've seen it through, I believe Northern Ireland would've qualified for Euro 2008.

As it is, the English-born Sanchez has done a good job at Fulham with pretty much the same type of roster: no stars, just a bunch of hard-working players who sail under the radar as far as name recognition goes, but a pretty solid group as a whole. Dempsey leads the team with 4 goals in the Premiership and when fellow American McBride returns from a dislocated knee, he'll provide the Cottagers with a boost and an aerial threat to complement Dempsey and David Healy. The only major disappointment to this point for Fulham was a 3rd Round Carling Cup defeat at home (in extra time) to Bolton. You can bet that Fulham's games will be close until the end; they've neither scored nor allowed more than 3 goals in any match this year.

Season Summaries--14. Tottenham

14. Tottenham (My preseason prediction: 4th)

Tottenham supporters can take solace in the fact that even though their team is currently sitting in 14th place in the Premiership table, things will only go up from here under new manager Juande Ramos. Former boss Martin Jol brought the North London club to new heights with back-to-back 5th place finishes and the roster he left behind isn't too shabby.

Spurs' problem, and it's been the same one for a couple years now, is the fact that they give up way too many goals, and even though they have some talented strikers in Keane, Berbatov, Bent, and Defoe, it's always tougher to outscore the other team in a 4-3 game then it is to win games 2-1 or 1-0. Paul Robinson is probably the second most overrated goalie in the Premiership (next to Jens Lehmann) and with center backs Ledley King and Michael Dawson seemingly almost always injured, it's no wonder Spurs have given up 24 goals in just 13 games.

However, you can expect Ramos to bring in some of his former Sevilla players during the January transfer window, possibly including striker Fredi Kanouté, defenders Daniel Alves and Ivica Dragutinović, and goalkeeper Andrés Palop. Combined with the return of Ledley King and Gareth Bale from injury and the continued good form of Aaron Lennon and Robbie Keane (6 goals in 12 Premiership games), Tottenham will make a run into the top half of the table and could end up in a UEFA Cup spot at the end of the year. To do that, though, they need to make White Hart Lane a fortress again (just 2 wins in 6 home games) and start winning on the road (0 wins in 7 games).