Arsenal vs Fulham: Match Thread.

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Arsenal take on Fulham this Saturday as the Gunners look to get back to winning ways in the League having lost to Manchester United at Old Trafford last week. Robin Van Persie scored against his old team and it was a goal that many expected and Van Persie duly delivered by making Thomas Vermaelen pay for his mistake. Patrice Evra doubled United’s lead in the second half and the game was over as a contest as soon as Jack Wilshere got sent off. Santi Cazorla scored a consolation goal but the score-line did not tell the fully story. Arsenal were lucky not to take another hammering from United in truth. In midweek, Arsenal had to take care of business in Europe and they got off to the perfect start by racing to a two goal lead against Schalke at the Veltins arena. Sadly, the Gunners could not go into half-time with a clean sheet as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar pulled a goal back for Schalke. Jefferson Farfan levelled the scorers and the Gunners were left to rue their defensive lapses. But a point away to Schalke was not disastrous and Arsenal still hold their fate in their own hands in the Champions League. Fulham come to the Emirates having managed to come back from a goal down against Everton to earn a point at Craven Cottage. The Cottagers were on the back foot for most of that game and in the end they were lucky to come away with a point against a strong Everton team. Arsenal and Fulham come into this game level on points and not many would have expected that after ten games into the season. Martin Jol has done a terrific job at Fulham and he has helped Fulham maintain their position in the top half of the table. Last season, the Cottagers came away from the Emirates with a point after Thomas Vermaelen netted for both teams. Fulham’s atrocious away form in the Premier League is well stated but this season, they have picked up some positive results and performances away from home. Arsenal go into yet another London derby this season needing to respond to a defeat, and against Fulham that might not be such an easy task.

Like Arsenal, Fulham lost a few keys players in the summer transfer window. Danny Murphy,Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey all left this summer. While, Murphy’s influence has been on the wane for a few years, he was still a class operator in the Fulham midfield. The loss of Dembele and Dempsey was more of an issue. Both players were very important to the Fulham set up and replacing them was not going to be easy, especially Dembele. But through some shrewd business, Fulham arguably upgraded on Dempsey by signing Dimitar Berbatov from Manchester United. Berbatov decided to reunite with Martin Jol and he is proving to be a big hit with the Fulham fans. The Bulgarian has always been a supremely talented player but he stalled at Manchester United and found himself on the bench more often than not. Berbatov is far too good to be on the bench and he is now rightfully leading the attack of one of the top ten sides in the Premier League. Berbatov has scored three goals and has provided two assists this season and he will offer the biggest threat the Arsenal defence. But Fulham are a team that do not struggle for goals. In the league, they have scored 21 goals, that's six more than the Gunners have managed to score this season. As well as Bertbatov, Fulham have the likes of Bryan Ruiz, Mladen Petrić and Hugo Rodallega in the striking department. So betting against Fulham scoring on Saturday will not be the wisest of decisions. They have already gone to one of the top four teams from last season and scored twice and it was performance that showed a different side to Fulham. Under Jol, they have been slowly improving their form away from home and an away win against one the big four is not that far away for Fulham if they keeping improving on the road. In defence, Brede Hangeland is still the leader of the defence and his steady and clam influence is massive to the this Fulham side.

Theo Walcott got his first start outside the Capital One Cup since August against Schalke on Tuesday. Wenger with little options left, had to pick Walcott and the Englishmen scored his eighth goal of the season, Walcott offered Arsenal that pace to get in behind the opposition defence and Wenger will have to rely on Walcott doing the same against Fulham. With Gervinho and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain injured, Wenger does not have many other options. Lukas Podolski provided the assist for Arsenal’s second goal against Schalke but after the game he spoke about how he would prefer to play in a more central role. Podolski was only used in the central role against Sunderland in the opening game of the season and he was not convincing. But on the left, Podolski has not been able to get amongst the goals. His last goal came against Olympiacos and that was over a month ago. Maybe the time has come for Wenger to give Podolski another chance through the middle. But at that moment the man occupying that role is Olivier Giroud. Despite scoring against Schalke, he did not have the best of games. He was unable to hold the play up and was simply not troubling the Schalke defence. Giroud only has one Premier League goal to his name and that is not good enough. The Frenchmen has to start delivering because Arsenal badly need him to. In defence, Arsenal have kept one clean sheet in thirteen games. After keeping three clean sheets in a row at the start of the season, the Gunners have gone back to their old ways. Having said that, Arsenal still have the best defence in the Premier League having conceded the fewest goals in the entire League. Andre Santos was dropped against Schalke and Thomas Vermaelen was moved to left back with Laurent Koscielny coming into the heart of the defence. Vermaelen did a better job than Santos did, but Arsenal are badly missing Kieran Gibbs. With Jack Wilshere suspended, Francis Coquelin is in line to get another start in the Premier League. After getting a decent result away to Schalke, Arsenal need to get back to winning ways in the League but Fulham are not going to be push overs. With a lot of quality players on show, this should be an enthralling game.


Team News:

Arsene Wenger:

Form Guide:

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Three Key Match-ups:

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Overall Record vs Fulham:

Played: 51
Wins: 34
Draws: 9
Losses: 8
For: 109
Against: 58
GD: 51

Last 6 Meetings:

Fulham 2 - 1 Arsenal
Arsenal 1 - 1 Fulham
Fulham 2 - 2 Arsenal
Arsenal 2 - 1 Fulham
Arsenal 4 - 0 Fulham
Fulham 0 - 1 Arsenal

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Managers Views:

Arsene Wenger on how Lukas Podolski has adapted to the English game:

My Team:

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Final Score:

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Come on Arsenal.

 

I think Vermaelen did okay at LB against Shalke. But their second goal was a calamitous piece of defending from us. Overall though we were much better in that game and but for a **** ref we probably should have won it.

I'm tipping Waclott and Giroud to score again in this game. I think Walcott in particular could be coming into some of his best form, he deserves to start and a pray to God that he signs a new contract, because he will be a massive loss if he goes.

 

Walcott has to start. I can see him giving Riise a torrid time.

 

We also need to keep Riise busy in his own half as he's very direct going forward.

 

It's never easy against this lot. You can be sure they will be as difficult to break down as possible and pose a strong threat on the break... fortunately they are now missing Dempsey and Dembele, two huge players for them. But they have other players that are more than capable of hurting us, i.e. Ruiz and Petric.

 

Anybody watching the Spuds v Marsbar game ?

 

Not really a game that catches the imagination to be honest.

 

I'm only watching it because of the food analogy

 

Team News:

Arsene Wenger:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/team-news-ramsey-szczesny-gibbs

 

So basically it does seem like Diaby will be out for the entire season, I think it's such a shame we're paying him a high wage bill when he hardly plays for us.

 

Massive game for Arsenal, probably as much pressure on AW and the players as I can remember in recent history.
Failure to protect a 2 goal lead in the week has added to the pressure and Martin Jols comments today (correct in my opinion) will have stoked the fire somewhat.
I think if we're not ahead inside 20 mins the crowd will get restless, the players will feel the atmosphere and Fulham are a team who have enough quality to take advantage.
Hope I'm wrong but I can see us getting turned over, that said we've been up against it plenty of times before and made a real statement with a comprehensive performance.
0-1 or 3-0......

 

just as we will expect either Dejagah or perhaps Duff to give Vermaelan a headache if he has to fill in at LB

 

Do clubs not insure themselves against wages for long term injuries anymore ? Always used to....

 

Interesting, balanced comment Grizzly.

As to your predictions..............I will back Fulham (my team) to score.................make of that what you will.

Cheers to all

 

From the training pictures, looks like Chamberlain is back in full training. Despite not starting this season in the best of form, it's great to have him back.

 

Don't think he will be back for this game but im looking forward to seeing Rosicky back in the team. With Rosicky or Diaby in the squad (imagine both of them!) we have some really good options to have in the first team and on the bench.

 

Today we really do need a comfortable victory by 2 or 3 goals, just a result to hopefully get us back into our stride. Even though fulham are level on points with us we know that we can beat them, and i'd like to see a bit more belief from the players, we have 3 games at home in a row now so it's the perfect time to put a little run together, and we have the neighbours next week so a good result here and hopefully our players return from the internationals unscathed.

 

Not gonna happen against Fulham.

They have one of the best defenses in the league. I think we will win but only by 1 goal. Probably 1-0 or 2-1

 

So do we....