Did Arter steal Parker's midfield crown?

Harry Arter won the spoils on Boxing Day against his brother-in-law. It was always going to be a difficult game for the two players and I was pleased that they did not get into any situation where one of them might have been sent off. Thankfully, it was a fairly clean game with both sides playing some good football. The midfield scrap was full on, but Surman and Arter were more than a match for Scott Parker and Seko Fofana in the end.

Harry Arter scores against Fulham. Something
he'll no doubt enjoy talking to Scott Parker about in
future years.

Arter did not push forward too much early on in the match. He was aware that Fulham were capable of dictating matters if he let them win the midfield, and we quickly saw his usual passing game start to spread the ball to both wings efficiently. It was when the Cherries came under pressure in the second half that I thought, now Harry is really playing. Fulham were on top and were trying to get that equaliser, but Harry was racing around the field trying to cut down the time and space for those who could hurt the Cherries.

Ross McCormack looked most likely to find a gap somewhere, but no one got away from Arter for long and at the end of the game it was just reward for all his hard work that Harry got the final goal to seal the win. He had had chances earlier in the game, but to run from the half way line and to smash in his shot so precisely in the corner was a real champagne moment at the end of the match for AFCB fans.

I still feel that Harry can have even more influence in games, but it is pleasing to see that he is enjoying his chance to get on the score sheet when he can. I am not saying that he is better than Scott Parker yet, but he is going to start to get noticed if he plays like this every week.

An international call up can't be far away for Arter now.

More photos of the game yesterday are on Match Day Gallery.