It was harsh on Blues who deserved a draw out of a fairly even game, but as with practically every defeat any team ever suffers, they only had themselves to blame.
Had I been picking the team for this one, given Christian Benitez's struggle at Derby, given James McFadden's struggles out on the left, and given the need just to freshen things up, I'd have moved James McFadden up front with Cameron Jerome and brought Keith Fahey in on the left in an otherwise unchanged team. That's exactly what Alex McLeish did, so no complaints whatsoever.
Blues got the best possible start when a promising move appeared to stutter after Jerome and McFadden seemed to be caught cold by getting such an early opportunity to home in on goal. The ball broke to Lee Bowyer however, who clipped a cross into the area. It wasn't reaching Jerome at the far post, but it didn't need to as Chris Baird inexplicably angled a fine header into the right hand corner of Mark Schwarzer's net. A good start.
This naturally seemed to wake Fulham up, who may have started slowly after their Europa League efforts on Thursday night. The rest of the half was fairly uneventful, but followed a theme of Fulham being pretty much on top and having most of the possession, but Blues always threatening to have another goal in them on the break. Joe Hart denied Simon Davies from close range, but otherwise good, clear cut chances were at a premium.
Bobby Zamora was a real handful and Scott Dann struggled to cope with him - it appeared that Zamora targetted Dann as the centre half he'd latch onto, avoiding Roger Johnson. It's always been fairly trendy and cool to knock Zamora and label him as crap, like it is with Emile Heskey. However, those still scoffing at suggestions that he should be in the England squad really should stop reading things on internet forums or jokes in The Sun and actually watch him. Zamora's transformed himself into a fine target man and was exceptionally strong at times, giving the not-exactly tiny Dann the run around and, like a Prime Minister to his staff, bullying him. Zamora is obviously a confidence player, but he is confident at present (as you'll read later) and both he and Carlton Cole really should have leapfrogged the broad shoulders of Heskey in the England pecking order by now.
Whilst Zamora seemed to target Dann, there seemed little doubt that Fulham targetted Liam Ridgewell at left-back with almost all of their play coming down their right, where Damien Duff played in what's becoming the increasingly fashionable Premier League tactic of using wide midfielders/wingers on their unfavoured side. Duff was also a real threat and Blues struggled to cope with him, again, as you'll read later.
Blues led 1-0 at half-time, but had probably been second best football-wise. In the mysterious way that football works, Blues went on to arguably be the better side in the second half, before losing. Blues were much more composed at the start of the second half and got their passing, movement and general control into their game a lot more than in the first half when they were second best. However, it was Fulham who scored the next goal.
Duff went down the right and then cut inside, playing a one-two with Zoltan Gera who played just off Zamora. Duff continued to cut inside and it was all too easy for him with no Blues players closing him down. Anyone who has ever seen Damien Duff play knows that he'll want the ball on his left foot, and Blues invited him onto it, into a good shooting position. Sure, Duff's shot was unsaveable and a fine, fine strike, but allowing him to get there in the first place was sloppy.
With Fulham back on level terms at home, you feared for Blues now, but the home side seemed to ease off and tire and if anyone looked likely to go on to win the game, it was Blues. McFadden hit the underside of the crossbar in Geoff Hurst fashion, thanks to Schwarzer's fingertips, and Blues were on top. McFadden was easily Blues' best player and looked back to his best. I've said a few times lately that I think he's begun to struggle with the demands of being one of four disciplined midfielders and that January's inactivity when it came to strikers really was a great opportunity (with Fahey, Michel and Craig Gardner all available for midfield roles) to view McFadden once again as a striking option. Sure enough, that was what McLeish did and his performance will have delighted his manager. McFadden was tricky, composed, found dangerous areas and was a threat all afternoon. Those who brand him "lazy" will also want to take a note of his workrate which was impressive.
The game was heading for a draw which I think both sides would have taken and both would have accepted was a fair reflection on the game, but then Blues were silly again. Well, their captain was. At Spurs, Stephen Carr presented the opposition with a 2-1 win at the death as Blues looked to be set for a good 1-1 away draw, and he did so again. Carr has started to display a worrying tendancy to become a bit of a liability in the closing stages of games. Take nothing away from what has been a magnificent return from retirement and some superb performances, but whether age and fitness catch up with him after 85 minutes, he does seem to have a few problems. In other games where Blues have got away with it, he's made a decision in the closing stages that is baffling.
His baffling decision here was, with about 20 seconds left, to shoulder-charge a Fulham player on the edge of the area as the ball was dropping from about 30 foot in the air. It was a ridiculous challenge, in the circumstances and wasn't remotely subtle. There was no great danger either, as Blues were back in numbers and whoever the Fulham player was had a hell of a lot to do to manufacture anything in the circumstances. Last time Blues were in London, Scott Dann gave away a free-kick on the edge of the area in similar circumstances and at a crucial point in the game. Then it was Alessandro Diamanti who you just knew would score. This time it was one of Danny Murphy or Zamora. It was such a prime position at such a crucial stage, and you just knew what would happen. It did, courtesy of a fine Zamora strike. Again though, like Duff, take nothing away from the strike, but you have to question Blues' part in allowing the strike.
That was that, and Blues were beaten. Whilst we all rejoiced at Blues' fine unbeaten run, we equally have to point out that this is now one league win in six, and three defeats in the last six games. Yes, those three were all away games, but even so, they're still defeats. It's not doom and gloom - far from it, given the stunning efforts of a few months ago - but it is worth noting that this is now something of a slump compared to what went before. Thankfully what went before was so good that it's not a real worry.
Again, something else I've said a few times lately is that the defence looks rocky compared to that run of games. Blues are conceding in every game that they play, and with a distinct lack of creative midfielders (not those who can pick passes, but those who genuinely create goals) or formidable striking options, it means that it's increasigly difficult to actually win games. If you rarely score more than one goal a game, and you're conceding at least one goal a game, well, you do the maths - you're not going to win many games.
With the defence no longer being so reliable, Blues' results are going to be affected. You couldn't expect them to keep as many clean sheets as they did, but they did so, and that was the foundation for Blues' recent success. Forget Bowyer's goals or Barry Ferguson's passing - it was the fine defence that meant Blues were winning games. With that defence now creaking, it's more difficult for Blues.
Don't forget that here, other than a bizarre own goal and a fine McFadden effort, Blues created next to nothing when it comes to real goalscoring opportunities, despite some of their good play. That's got to be a concern. I don't want to harp on about January all the time, but I said then and I'm still saying now that I hope that the decision not to increase the forward options (and no, I don't mean £12m on players - just one or two additional options) doesn't result in the season petering out. The FA Cup's still there, thankfully, but if that goes and with Blues' current league form, there is a danger of that. Regardless of the attacking options, one or two more in defence might have been a help, because Blues' are looking shaky there, but again, there's no real viable alternatives to look at changing it.
I'm beginning to say this at the end more and more now, but it will be a shame if the final stages of the season end up as a bit of a damp squib after all the hard work that went into the middle third. Yes, Blues are safe and won't go down, but it would be nice to have continued to look up the table, rather than now seeing Everton, Fulham, Stoke and Blackburn all pushing past us.
Next week's home game against Wigan is a big one really. Wigan are struggling and Blues should win. A failure to do so in that one really will give us a clear inidcation of where the season's going.