Arsenal 1 – Fulham 1 : Vermaelen Scores for Both Teams as Winning Streak is Snapped

By: Homey | November 26th, 2011

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Well that was no fun. Despite outplaying Fulham, luck was not on our side today, and we dropped two important points at home. Credit goes to Schwarzer in particular for keeping them in it, while RvP’s prowess around the goal finally let him down today. Vermaelen was the goat for his howler of an own goal, but he gained a measure of redemption with a header to level things late. Unfortunately, the winner never came, and we slip further behind Chelsea, Spurs, and the rest of the leaders.

SOCCER-ENGLAND/
In the first half, the possession stats were roughly even, but we certainly had a lot more of the meaningful possession and chances. This was partly reflected in the corner kick numbers, where we took seven to their two. In the 4th minute, RvP and Arshavin combined well to leave AA in on goal, but he was just offside. Three minutes later, Song passed to RvP, who left it for Ramsey, but his lobbed effort was well saved by Schwarzer. One of Fulham’s best chances came in the 21st, when Zamora was able to turn past Vermaelen, but his shot was well over. Three minutes after that, Walcott, who was having an inspired first half, made a great run through traffic and left it off to Ramsey, whose shot went into orbit. We had another couple of half-chances in the 32nd and 35th minutes, but didn’t fire on goal. In the 42nd, Dempsey (from Nacogdoches, Texas) set up Dembele, but his rocket was saved by Wojo and out for a corner. Finally, on the last touch of the half, Mertesacker flicked a header from a free kick towards the far corner, but it went just over.
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The second half started slowly, with Dempsey having the first chance in the 55th, but the ball from a corner just eluded him in front of goal. We had a terrfic chance four minutes later through RvP, as he controlled an Arteta pass, made some nice moves, beat Schwarzer, but saw his shot cleared off the line by Baird. Fulham got their breakthrough in the 65th minute, when Murphy sent a ball into the box for Riise, who chested to Vermaelen, whose left-footed “clearance” beat Wojo into the corner of our own goal. Fulham almost doubled their lead minutes later, when Zamora put one in the net, but he was ruled just offside. Wenger made a double switch in the 69th minute, inserting Diaby and Gervinho for Mertesacker and Ramsey, and this seemed to give us a little more spark. In the 74th, Djourou had a nice header on goal on what seemed like our millionth corner, but Schwarzer was up to the task again. Again in the 81st, Gervinho and Santos combined well to set up RvP, but his shot in the box was shockingly well over the bar. Walcott set up RvP four minutes later on a lovely through ball behind the defense, but his right-footed chip went into the side netting. A minute later, Santos fired into Dempsey’s arm and body from close range, but no penalty was given. After that, we didn’t really threaten the Fulham goal too much, and the game came to a disappointing finish after four minutes of stoppage time.

Full time stats:

Arsenal…………..Fulham
20(9) Shots (on Goal) 10(2)
10 Fouls 9
13 Corner Kicks 4
3 Offsides 2
56% Time of Possession 45%
1 Yellow Cards 3
0 Red Cards 0
2 Saves 8

This leads to another topic that’s been on the minds of a lot of Arsenal fans lately. I did some research on this topic for a separate blog, but I won’t have the time to write that, since I’m going to be crazy busy at work this week. So I’ll just shoehorn it in here today. And that is the fact that a lot of our key players are playing a TON at the moment. After today, we’ve played 22 total matches this season, not counting anything in the preseason. Walcott and RvP have played in 19, Ramsey and Arteta 18, Song 17, Gervinho 16, and Kos 15. Now of course some of those appearances weren’t the full 90 minutes, but I’m also not counting international appearances either, so it’s still a lot of game action for these guys so far. It’s hard to say how many total games Arsenal will play this season, but a conservative estimate would be about 57. That’s 38 in the league, 12 in the Champions League (advancing to the quarters), 3 in the Carling Cup (losing to Man City in the next round), and 4 in the FA Cup (losing in the quarters). Hopefully we’ll play a few more than that. But anyway, at the current rate, we’ll have multiple key players playing almost 50 times this season, not counting internationals. The ironic thing is that we seem to have better depth this season than we’ve had in recent years, but yet Wenger hasn’t felt enough trust in the squad players to rotate them in. It’s certainly understandable with the desperate need we’ve been in to climb out of trouble in the league standings. And I understand it’s also hard to change a winning lineup. But it’s still interesting when, at the end of the Dortmund game, fans were begging Wenger to take RvP off the field. While the current superb run of form has been a wonderful thing to behold, most of us are going to continue to wonder if some of our team will run out of gas in the spring.

Along those lines, many were wondering during the live blog about the legs and energy of Arteta in particular, and Ramsey to an extent. I thought RvP had his usual energy, but he just couldn’t finish like he usually does. And Walcott was our most dangerous and energetic player all game, so he’s not showing signs of fatigue. With the return of Diaby, I’m guessing we’ll see Arteta and Ramsey rotated out a little more. That is, until Diaby gets injured again. But it’s all something to keep an eye on for a while.

OK, on to the ratings.

Wojo – 7. He didn’t have a real chance on the Vermaelen howler, and he did well in the limited action he had otherwise.
Djourou – 8. He was surprisingly awesome today at right back. He shut down numerous chances defensively, and could have scored on a late header if not for a great save. He was a tiny bit to blame for the Fulham goal when Riise was able to touch it first, but I don’t think he deserves too much of that blame. This performance will give Wenger reason to consider him again at RB, then shifting Kos to the middle to pair with TV5.
Vermaelen – 6. This is a tough rating to assess, and it certainly would have been lower if not for his late goal. The own goal was pretty bad, and he also let Zamora get off a shot in the 21st minute. Not the best day for the player who’s usually our top defender when healthy.
Mertesacker – 7. He wasn’t really as noticeable as the rest of our defenders, and that’s usually a good thing. He had a decent headed chance at the end of the first half, and he dealt pretty well with most of the chances Fulham had.
Santos – 7.5. His rating went up in my estimation as the game went on, and he was at the heart of several scoring opportunities in the 2nd half. However, his first half yellow card summarizes the defensive complaints that a lot of us have against him. As a Fulham player broke down the right wing, Santos chose a risky lunge at him. Sometimes those lunges come up good, and sometimes not. But a better, safer choice would be to expend more energy and track the winger down the field until more help can arrive. Anyway, as with several of our other players, we have to take the good with the bad here.
Song – 7.5. I thought he was composed and quality throughout, and he never gave me any discipline worries either. He’s in a pretty good run of form at the moment.
Arteta – 6.5. Perhaps I’m rating him higher than some would, but I thought he was reasonably good. I believe he was partly at fault for the buildup to Fulham’s goal. However, he also created a couple of chances that weren’t converted.
Ramsey – 6.5. He seemed to fade a bit before going off in the 69th minute. Early on, he did force a nice save from Schwarzer in the 7th. But he also missed badly when Theo set him up for a shot in the 24th.
Arshavin – 6. I’m usually not a big Arshavin fan, and if I went off the comments in the live blog, I’d rate him lower. His work rate is never the most brilliant, but he did seem creative and up for it. It’s a shame he was offside on his goal in the 4th minute.
Walcott – 8.5. MOTM. Outstanding from Theo. He showed tons of energy, and his crossing was also quite good. Not only did he set up the TV5 equalizer, but he also earned what seemed like five or six corners. Top notch performance, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the rest of the year.
RvP – 6. Well, he was due for an off game, and it finally came. He did some good things, and had a nice effort saved off the line in the 59th minute. Still, he’s our top finisher, and he didn’t finish a few good chances that he had.

Subs:
Diaby – 6.5. He was pretty good overall, but still had at least one instance of his classic move (that is, dribble straight into three defenders and lose possession).
Gervinho – 7. He was a lively improvement over Arshavin, but didn’t really have the necessary end product either.
Chamakh – No rating. I don’t think he was on long enough to really give him a rating.

Well it hurts to drop points like that in a game that should have been won, but we’re still only about a third of the way through the league campaign. I don’t think it’s time to worry about the standings just yet. If we’re still looking up at Spurs in the table in February, then we’ll talk. Hopefully we can rest some starters and still get by Man City in the Carling Cup this week, although that will be a tall order. Until then, have a wonderful weekend.

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Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. Jeremiah 17:7.

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Category: Fulham, Match Review, Premiership

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Ashwin

I have to say Diaby played much better than expected.
Plus, we really are banking on RvP a bit too much. And to concede an own goal like that is just unlucky.

Too bad we're playing catch up.
Subsonicu571

Well,it seems if RVP does not get in the score sheet, we are likely not to win a match!
Another thing that I could confirm after the match was that we are very poor from corners.I mean we had about 12 corners and we could only manage to test the keeper only on a couple of times.In the first half we had 8 and did not look like we would get anything from the corner really!We have to improve our set play as whole because set plays allow a team to win a match even when we are not playing well(which was the case against Fulham). It was clear that the mid-week antics against Dortmund had its effects on the players.But it is not the end of the world for us is it?Let's hope we improve (esp on our set plays) and learn important lessons from this draw.GO ARSENAL!!!
JG

No joke: According to Twitter, Diaby suffered a "slight muscular problem" after his 20 minute cameo on Saturday.
Sigh. Guess that means Coq on Tuesday.
Gigi_man

Is it true that Man Shitty are planning a bid on RvP?
What do you guys think will hapenn?
Alexinho

I thought this was an excellent performance, regardless of the result. They really deserved to win, unlike a certain Catalan team that also experienced a surprising and disappointing result (and that a loss).

There are so many differences to this year's team when compared to the standard of the Post-Invincibles that you could argue that we are at the beginning of a new era. The differences go further than the absence of Fabregas.

-For the first time in years, our captain is a convincing one.
-We're passing forward again--though this is hearsay and I don't have a source, I understand that we have the highest percentage of passes forward in the Prem.
-I've never seen Arsenal have so much respect for the ball, in terms of protecting the ball under-pressure when in protection. Watch the game again keeping this point in-particular in mind.
-Our defense has the look of a classic back four, and it's playing pretty well. At least I think so. And our best left-back in years--at least I think so.
-We have our best goalkeeper in years.
-We have a starting front-three. Can you name me last year's front three? Or the year's before?

Yes, the midfield is different--we don't have the flare of a Fabregas or a Nasri--but in their functional way, Song (who is just out of control right now), Ramsey, and Arteta are getting the ball to their forwards and doing a great job defensively. I have no idea why so many people are finding fault in these players, apparently in turns.

When was the last time you saw Arsenal pull an equalizer from behind, and than in the last ten minutes, average a winning chance every two minutes? With a bit of luck, this was an epic Arsenal win.
Darren_V

"When was the last time you saw Arsenal pull an equalizer from behind, and than in the last ten minutes, average a winning chance every two minutes?"

Two years ago, we were stealing games in the last stages of the game quite a few times. Bendtner scored a few vital goals for us during that stretch.
Will

Are you referring to Santos at LB? I think our best defensive lineup is something like Sagna-Kos-Verm-Santos or Sagna-Mert-Verm-Kos, but I'm not sure I would call Santos our best LB in years yet.
Gunnerson

Well, this is tragic: Gary Speed hung himself. I wonder how the young captain of Wales will cope...
Martin

Really tragic news. Young, successful man with young family. Really shows that mental illness and depression can strike anyone, no matter how perfect your life appears to the rest of the world. On the off chance anyone reading this does suffer from severe depression/suicidal thoughts -- suicide really is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and help is available. Please seek out professional help, it could save your life and you'll be so very glad you did.
degeros

I actually thought Ramsey had a pretty bad game. His passing wasn't up to his usual standard during the past few games, and not to mention that horrible blast over the bar after good work from Walcott. I thought that the ball smacking his face from an Arshavin cross about summed up his performance.
JG

He's tired. He's played non-stop almost since the start of the season. His performance yesterday, less than 3 days after playing 90+ minutes against an aggressive European team, is understandable. Sitting out of the CC clash (now also for personal reasons) will do wonders to his body.
Gigi_man

Nerves, all over again. Not saying its the end of the worl, stll no panic, and I saw that Manure also had a draw woth Nuevo Castillo so, still in the race but....
Why oh why lse to Fulham at home?, donte get me wrong I think they are quite good, but I just think we are better...and at home.
Dindnt see it because of a day long drive, so thx for the recap!
Homey_Mills

Not to split hairs, but it was a draw and not a loss. Even if it may have seemed like a loss in some ways.
Gigi_man

Yeah I know. its just ...sigh, you know, at times last seaon we had these "everybody draw" moments that we couldnt take advantage of because we draw too. I know its far from over but you know, make changes, give a youngster a chance to shine, I dont know.
In all fairness I didnt see the game so talk is cheap.
Patoux21

Before the game Arsenal was on a 6wins run and Arshavin wasn't once in the starting lineup but today he was and the team didn't win ... so when he started in the PL we had 1 win, 1 draw and 4 losses. To his credit the only victory was due to his goal after a terrible mistake by Swansea's goalkeeper. Against Fulham I strongly believe if he was replaced a lot sooner like at half-time we would have won the game
Mattlamb

Verm's unfortunate own goal, Ramsey's close range miss, Fulhams no-nonsense defene - nothing can bother this guy's paranoid conspiracies.
Perry S.

Patoux's girlfriend was stolen by Arshavin.
Bumblefock

Yuliya? NO way! Patoux you dirty old tiger!
Bumblefock

i have a broken record at home by a singer named Patoux too
Patoux21

I was far from the only bashing Arshavin during the live blog and I didn't even start it. You can't deny he's been poor the few times he played this season and I am going to blame him for every disappointing result until he decides to perform or even better leave the club
Bumblefock

"I am going to blame him for every disappointing result"

0_0

no comments
Perry S.

Patoux must intimately know Arshavin. I feel like Arsha stole his girlfriend in their teen years or something.
Patoux21

In fact Arshavin was my boo but Mert took him from me and now I am mad at both
Darren_V

Don't worry, you still have Diaby. And no one will take him from you.
Martin

I think the team had many more problems than just Arshavin, and in fairness to him, he very nearly had a goal but for a very close (but ultimately correct) offside call.

But the difference between the team with Arshavin and the team with Gervinho was pretty clear, I thought. I think it's pretty clear now that Gervinho should be in the first-choice XI when fit, and Arshavin should not.
Martin

Walcott was outstanding. Thought Santos was good, too, especially when we were chasing the game, when he just kept pressing like a mad dog. For all the concerns about his fitness, he seemed to get better as the match went on. And Djourou as well -- Djourou's a hard worker that's always been loyal and passionate to the club, so it's nice to see him rediscover some of the form that made him so valuable for a stretch last season.

Overall, though, while we were a bit unlucky, we just weren't good enough to win. Team just looked complacent for most of the match until we went down. A lot of the guys looked tired. I think we will see a lot of guys not in the regular first XI against Man City on Wednesday, because like you said, these guys have logged so many minutes lately and have the December fixture congestion coming up, and this will be a crucial rest for them.

My predicted XI for City: Fabianski, Squillaci, Djourou, Miquel, Yennaris, Coquelin, Diaby, Rosicky, Arshavin, Benayoun, Chamakh
TJ_UGA

I don't think we played as badly as most people thought, a little stagnate in midfield with Arteta and Ramsey, but overall I do think we played well enough to win, and were a little unlucky not to get the result, though I would have liked to see Gervinho on the field earlier. Overall, it's unfortunate, but we're only 2 behind Chelsea, 3 behind Newcastle and all likelihood points to us still above Liverpool....Unlike most, I don't think we need an upgrade an upgrade in wingers (just play AOC/Ryo over Arshavin if it comes to it). Could use one more midfielder, and definitely a 2nd quality striker.

Regards to Man City:Any team with Squillaci in it scares me half to death, rather move Coquelin to the back, and start Frimmy. I'd much rather see Park over Chamakh in this game, we could use his clinical finishing as we probably won't have many chances. Also, I'd like to see AOC get a start, with maybe Arshavin coming in at the 70 minute mark. Excited to see Diaby back (as you know), and let's hope we can sneak away with a win against City.
Martin

I certainly agree that we played well enough that we could have won, I guess I just feel like at home, against Fulham, we should play so well that there's just no other possible outcome, and we didn't do that. We were the better team on the day, but we never just grabbed hold of the match and shook it til we were up by a couple of goals.

Congrats to your football team on a good season, btw -- really bounced back strong after a rough start, and I'm not counting you guys out in the conference championship game.
TJ_UGA

Agreed, we should have slammed the door and didn't. Oh well, we're not out of the battle for 4th, but Tottenham looks to be showing some resolve.

And yeah, we really balled out. I said after we lost to you guys, a game in which we absolutely dominated but lost due to weird turnovers and fake punt, that we ought to lose MAYBE one more, and we played great since then. If only we had beaten you guys... but LSU is up, that'll be tough. Mathieu is a fucking player.
Homey_Mills

That would certainly be a pretty second string lineup against City, and one very unlikely to win. I can't say I disagree though, as we have to keep certain priorities in place. Maybe Kos could start instead of Squizz though, since he was rested today. And I'd like to see AOC and Park too.
TJ_UGA

damnit, you beat me to it.