Arsenal – Fulham Preview

Fulham

Position: 12th, 12-10-15 (46 points, -3 goal differential)

Recent Form: DDLWL

Road Form: 1-7-10

Last Meeting: Fulham 0 – Arsenal 1 (9/26/09)

If a fortune-teller had told me two months ago that Arsenal would have a lot at stake in this game, I would have been ecstatic. Needless to say, this isn’t what I would’ve had in mind.

I put up a pretty lengthy post a few days ago about how bad it’s been over the past month and a half, so I won’t repeat myself here. Well, maybe a little: 1-3-4 over our last 8 matches. A number of terrible defensive and goalkeeping errors. Some lackluster play going forward.

And the situation tomorrow is relatively simple. If Tottenham win and we lose, we finish 4th. Any other combination of results, we finish 3rd. Tottenham are playing against Burnley, and while that could be a pretty tricky match, we’ve got to assume they’ll win it, which means we need at least a point against Fulham.

Fulham are definitely a tough team — you’ll remember that they should have beaten us earlier in the season, were it not for Vito Mannone’s heroics in goal, earning one of only two “10″ ratings I’ve given out in player ratings this season. And they did beat Manchester United at Old Trafford earlier this season. However, that’s their only away match this season, and they’re significantly worse away than at home.

And then, of course, there’s the matter of their upcoming midweek Europa League final in Hamburg, which they’re certainly looking forward to. They requested to move up this match to Saturday, which was denied by the FA. They’ll be missing several key players in Bobby Zamora and Damien Duff. And I suspect that Hodgson will certainly rest at least a few key first-team players, although he’ll probably play enough to avoid a Mick McCarthy punishment from the FA.

But in a way, that worries me a bit more. Fulham’s first-teamers are already looking forward to the match against Atletico midweek, and will be distracted and trying to avoid being injured. But the second-teamers won’t have had a chance to really establish themselves yet, and will be looking to work hard and put in a good performance against a top-quality team in a world-class stadium to show Hodgson they should get more time in the first-team next season. It probably won’t be enough to make up the gap in talent between the sides, but it’s certainly cause for concern, and our guys will need to be careful not to get outworked.

By and large, though, I think Fulham will probably sit back and be content for a 0-0 draw. (A) because that’s usually what they do anyway (they average .66 goals per away game in the league this season); and (B) that’s the best way for them to play a respectable competitive game while keeping their guys from getting too fatigued or risking too much in the way of injuries. But as we found out on Monday, we’re really vulnerable to that type of game, so if Fulham does that it’s far from automatic that we’ll get a point.

In squad news for us, Clichy might be available but will face a late fitness test. Other than that, Rosicky, Song, Bendtner, Gallas, Cesc, Vermaelen, Almunia, Denilson, and Ramsey are all still out. But umm . . . other than those 10 guys, we’re completely healthy, so we got that going for us. The past couple of seasons, Wenger has benched a lot of starters in the last game of the season to give some young players some playing-time. But that’s largely because we haven’t had anything at stake in the last match of the season the last couple of seasons. I have to think he’ll play his best squad tomorrow, and then if we get up he’ll think about some early substitutions. My guess at a lineup:

Flaps

Sagna-Slo-Disastre-Clichy

Diaby-Eastmond-Nasri

Walcott-van Persie-Eduardo

I don’t know how many options he really has — Eboue could be involved somehow, I suppose, and Vela could start again, although after his poor performance on Monday I don’t see why Wenger wouldn’t give Eduardo a chance to state his case to stay with the club next season. And Djourou and Gibbs could be healthy enough to play, I’d love to see them given an opportunity — heck, if Djourou is healthy, I’d like to see him start ahead of Disastre. And some of the guys who were on loan to Championship sides (Jay Simpson, Kyle Bartley, Kerrea Gilbert, Henri Lansbury) could dress and watch the match from the bench, although even if they do, I doubt they’ll see any action.

And that’s about it, really. Hopefully we get 3 points, obviously. And I hope the fans give the players a very warm reception for their efforts this season, and I hope the players return the favor by saluting the fans. I’ll only be able to watch the first-half of the match because I’m off to the Mets game in the early afternoon. So I probably won’t be able to do a full ratings for this one, but will have something up tomorrow evening.

Come on Arsenal.

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Category: Fixtures, Fulham, Premiership, Preview