Wasn't it great to see a reverse and us scoring 2 in the last 10 minutes. The most pleasing thing was that we didn't try and hold on to the one point after the equaliser - top marks to Senderos, Riise and especially Frei. And the winner - here it is again http://http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/bobby-zamora-v-arsenal/ Terrific also to be among the 20,000 who stayed behind to cheer the team. I would love to see a video of the 'bear hug' celebrations between Jol and Bobby - if they are not bestest friends after that they never will be. Man of the Match? Impossible to single anyone out, so the lot of them. No doubt Wenger will moan about the sending off but I thought their guy could have gone earlier. Also just arrived back and heard a 5Live snippet suggesting that Arsenal "controlled the game and went down to 2 late goals after the sending off". Not the game I was at, not at all. This was a deserved win by a Fulham team who wanted it more than Arsenal. Thanks for the memory lads..
Agree Cottager, its one thing to be unfashionable,but it is time that reporters give the facts, together with credit when its due.
Stupid stupid radio reporters, biased and plain dumb, we would have got at least a draw without the sending off, And should have scored twice before. Agree with everything you said, except Riise, he was dire, out of place defensively, well placed when attacking but too hesitant when crossing
Should Arsenal have been 3-0 up at half time? Probably. But we dominated the second half, had 3 golden chances which on another day would probably have been goals, and honestly should have been in front before the sending off. As for Riise, he's been bad. But seeing as how I endorsed signing Warnock & Hutton over the past two summers, who have been 2 of the worst players in the league this year... I don't think I should be allowed an opinion on fullbacks!
Agree with the most of the above comments, particularly how exciting it was to stay behind after and cheer the team. Brought back memories of the Juve and Hamburg nights at the cottage. Thought riise improved as the game progressed but the jury is still out on him, though this evening this is of little significance to me. Big mention to ruiz, showed immense improvement from when we first signed him tonight, really developing into a fine player. And as for zamora, the goal rounded a good performance, where he finally looked interested again and didn't spend the whole game moaning. If hes happy to do this week in week out then by all means we should keep him, if not then thank you for the good times and goodbye. Special night for all involved, long may it continue!
Riise's problem remains pace (although most A's fans don't rate Walcott) and straying into the centre. However his runs forward can be match-winning, especially with pin-point passes from Danny. Per over posts: Ruiz is showing good progress and Bobby was up-for-it. A guy who rang into 606 rang to highlight that the press will focus on Arsenal's failings rather than how well Fulham played - it would be nice to give MJ and the team some credit. Not helped by Arsene Whinger who thought it was all the referee's fault that they lost. C O Y W The comparison to Hamburg was noted, as was the 20,000 who stayed on to applaud.
Gera I think has put the problem with Riise on the right dimension. It is his pace. His style of play is/was based on pace. Going forward and then runnning back to cover the ground. As he gets older this pace is diminishing leaving him more exposed when he goes back. Don't think he played that bad but not to his best either. Generally was a great performance. One point I wanted to make is regarding Dembele and his position on the pitch after Murphy's sub. He moved futher behind and effectively got Murphy's role interchanging with Ruiz at certain points. Think that is Jol's plan once Danny hangs his boots. Dembele is defending much more than his first year and running back tracking his opponent. Ruiz not yet but he will learn. (Actually we were betting on Ruiz if he is going to tackle or mark closely any Arsenal player... He did it once and won the ball.) A good result on Saturday and there we go. All teams are up for taking given the second half performance. The team will start recovering from the season with one game per week and will be fresher.
Amazing how quickly, as Cottager says, the tables are turned. We've gone from that wretched 5-0 defeat (don't know why I'm mentioning that again as it annoys me whenever its mentioned in the press) to one of the in form teams in the league. Last night was fantastic and I really hope it means the second half of the season will be one of great play, great results, more goals and most of all consistency. We've got a good run of games coming up so lets start looking up (and moving up) the table.
I'd say our Christmas holiday went pretty well, despite the ManU thrashing. Eight points from the last five games, starting with the away win at Bolton, isn't bad considering we played three of the big four and took 4 points on away games. Best of all, I think we're playing much better than we were in Aug, Sept and October, and our second-half performance against mighty Arsenal was probably the best I've ever seen from Fulham. Aside from Manchester City away and Newcastle at the Cottage, we've got a fairly easy run of games coming up with most of the teams in the lower half of the table and plenty of home games. I'm looking forward to a climb up the table in January and February.
I think another brilliant sign is we're not bemoaning missed chances and unrewarded good performances, like the ones against Everton and especially Spurs. We're picking up points to show for our displays and even getting a bit of luck our way too.
Agreed Bidley - we're now getting the points our performances deserve which we weren't earlier in the season. Jol kept saying it was going to happen and he was right
To be fair, Bidley, until the 85th minute, last night was exactly shaping up to be one of those games where we were left bemoaning missed chances and an unrewarded good (second half) display. My point isn't that we should be moaning now (as if!), rather it's that the margins are very fine and maybe we should remember that the next time we fall just the wrong side of the line. If you'd offered me five points from Chelsea, Norwich, Arsenal, I'd have bitten your hand off. I just would have assumed that the three would have come against Norwich, not Arsenal.
Although I would have been upset with the result if we had not have got the any points at the end, at 80 minutes I'd seen enough to show me that MJ is starting to get things right (yes, I know that's unfashionable), and would have just added the result to the unjustified defeat to Spurs. C O Y W
What Gera said. What I mean is we're finally falling the right side of the fine margin rather than the other.