Sir Alex Ferguson was an interested spectator at Craven Cottage
to watch Fulham's final pre-season friendly with
Werder Bremen.
Although the Manchester United boss has claimed he is happy with
his current squad, the opportunity to take a look at Germany
playmaker Mesut Ozil was too much to resist.
Ferguson even swerved United's annual public training session at
Old Trafford to see Ozil in action and given the 21-year-old has
said previously how much he admires United, the Scot's presence
will only fuel rumours of an imminent transfer.
Not that Ozil will have been too pleased about the result though
as Fulham strode to an impressive 5-1 win, with Zoltan Gera netting
a hat-trick.
Prospective England striker Bobby Zamora was also on target,
offering a further nudge to national team manager Fabio
Capello.
Also making their mark on Saturday were Arsenal
duo Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere, who were involved in an
extraordinary 6-5 victory against Legia
Warsaw.
Gibbs was among those on target in an 11-goal thriller the
Gunners managed to edge despite falling 3-0 down.
Marouane Chamakh began the comeback, although it was not until
Emmanuel Eboue scored twice in eight second-half minutes that
Arsene Wenger's men managed to draw level.
Gibbs' effort put them in front but it took late goals from Jay
Emmanuel-Thomas and Samir Nasri to ensure victory in a pre-season
encounter that will live long in the memory.
The high point of Everton's trip to Germany to
face Steve McClaren's Wolfsburg was undoubtedly
confirmation that Mikel Arteta has signed a five-year contract
extension with the Goodison Park outfit.
Little went right once the match began as the Toffeemen fell to
a 2-0 defeat, which included a Tim Howard penalty save from
highly-rated striker Edin Dzeko.
Robbie Keane's return to prominence at Tottenham continued as
the Irishman bagged a second-half brace to seal a 3-2 victory over
Fiorentina at White Hart Lane.
Roman Pavlyuchenko tapped home one equaliser but Harry
Redknapp's men were behind until Keane took centre stage, grabbing
an injury-time winner to leave Tottenham to head into a crucial
two-week period in positive mood.
Mame Biram Diouf scored on his debut for
Blackburn to earn Sam Allardyce's men a 1-1 draw
against Hearts.
Diouf has moved to Ewood Park on loan from Manchester United and
quickly made an impact after Suso Santana's deflected effort had
given the Scots a first-half lead at Tynecastle.
West Ham beat Deportivo La
Coruna on penalties, Pablo Barrera converting the winner
for Avram Grant's men, who had finished the match goalless after 90
minutes.
Birmingham lost their unbeaten record in
pre-season as Emilio Nsue's second-half effort proved enough for
Real Mallorca at St Andrew's.
It was not the way Ben Foster wanted to mark his home debut in
the Blues goal, although fellow new boy Nikola Zigic went close to
an equaliser late on.
West Brom suffered a blow before the start of
their clash with Osasuna as summer arrival Pablo
Ibanez was forced to pull out through injury.
It didn't stop Roberto Di Matteo's men turning in an impressive
performance, with Scotland international James Morrison putting
them in front.
However, it did not last and Oier equalised five minutes from
time.
Aberdeen's toughest test of their pre-season
programme proved too much as the Scottish Premier League outfit
lost 2-0 to Kaiserslautern in Germany.
Seven days before their opening SPL fixture with Celtic,
Inverness had marginally more joy, Richie Foran
returning from injury to grab the goal that earned a home draw with
Royal Antwerp.
