I also talked in my preview yesterday about the “worst case scenario”–if we didn’t come out with 3 points, we would have come out of this game with either 9 or 10 points. I had assumed Chelsea would beat Wigan, which would have taken them to 21. I said that already being 11 or 12 points down would virtually put our title hopes to the sword. Well, what happened today table-wise is probably the best-case scenario. Wigan upended Chelsea, and we got 3 points from Fulham. Now we’re 6 points off the lead, with game (against Bolton) in hand–if we can win that game, that puts us basically 3 points off the pace. Our title hopes are still very much alive.

As for the game itself, we just weren’t very good–we gave up possession far too easily, and our passing game never really clicked. Part of it has to go to the credit of Fulham’s defense, which was stellar as usual, but part of it has to go to sloppiness on our part. Diaby, in particular, was awful today, and seemed to give the ball away every time it came to him.

After Sagna sent in a good cross (yeah, I was surprised, too) into the box, Vermaelen headed over. On the other end, Dempsey created space and tested Mannone, who made the save. It would not be the last save he needed to make today. In the 15th minute, Andrew Johnson made solid contact on a point blank header, which Mannone saved spectacularly, and then somehow got up and in position to save Clint Dempsey’s point blank rebound.

Shortly thereafter, Cesc had a good chance and fired just over the bar. A few minutes later, Cesc and van Persie played Arshavin into the box but the Fulham defender got back to deflect the shot over. Not long after, Bendtner shot weakly from just outside the area. The two sides went in scoreless after an even first half.

Out of the break, Cesc floated a beautiful ball ahead to van Persie, who took about as good of a first touch with his chest as you’ll ever see and fired it home into the corner of the goal with his “chocolate leg.” He touched the ball twice–once to knock it down, one to put it in the net–it was a world-class play. 1-0 Arsenal. That’s what it would stay, but not without some drama. Bendtner had a good chance to make it 2-0 shortly thereafter, but dragged it wide of the goal. In the 55th minute, Zamora put in an excellent chance to Johnson, who again forced Mannone to make an excellent save.

Bendtner missed another chance in the 61st minute. In the 66th minute, Clint Dempsey had a great opportunity that was deflected by Sagna off the post for a corner. A very scary moment, and it was inches away from an equalizer. On the ensuing corner, Mannone collided with Zamora and went down, appearing to hurt his abdomen. van Persie and Bentner combined to put late sub Rosicky in a good position, but the shot was blocked for a corner.

In the 77th minute, Johnson had another great opportunity from a set piece, but Mannone again made a great save to push it away. Two minutes later, Mannone made another unbelievable save off a Zamora header. Eboue, who was brought on for van Persie late, left a good chance begging in the 85th minute, and Bendtner missed a header in the 87th and a good chance in the 89th after he created a chance for himself.

The referee somehow decided that there was 5 minutes of injury time, and despite conceding a couple of set pieces, Fulham never really put a scare to us in injury time. Vermaelen took a shoulder to the face which stopped the game for a minute or so, Eboue squandered another chance, and that was that. 1-0 to the Arsenal, despite getting outshot (shots on target: Fulham: 8, Arsenal: 4) and probably outplayed. An amazing performance from Mannone and a moment of absolute brilliance from van Persie were the difference. On to the ratings:

Mannone 10 Man of the match. Before this match if you had told me that (a) Mannone was going to turn in a confident, assured, world-class performance to snatch 3 points; or (b) that Mannone was actually born with a tail, I’m honestly not sure which I would have found more believable. Probably the tail. But he came through big-time for us today–I’m not sure when we last saw such a spectacular goalkeeping display by someone in an Arsenal shirt. Wenger is loyal to his players, so Almunia is definitely still our first-choice keeper when he comes back. And this is just one game. But it’s worth asking whether Fabianski is still second string when he comes back. We’ve never seen Fabianski do anything like what we saw Mannone do today–if Mannone puts in some more good performances in the Carling Cup, I think Mannone becomes our second-string/Carling Cup/”of the future” keeper. Also, he needs a nickname–I vote for “The Godfather.”

Sagna 7. Struggled with Dempsey at times, but generally did his job defensively. And did well keeping the ball and making passes to keep Arsenal’s moves going–even put in a few decent crosses.

Clichy 7. Another solid performance, although there was a weird moment where he didn’t chase down a ball sent down the flank by Arshavin. Not sure if it was laziness or just a miscommunication, but didn’t look good.

Vermaelen 8. Another great performance by Vermaelen.

Gallas 8. A good job of recovering, and used his speed and positioning well.

Song 8. Showed a lot of energy and aggressiveness today–when he’s on his game, he absolutely rules the Arsenal half of the midfield.

Diaby 4. Didn’t create any chances at all. For Arsenal, that is. Created plenty of chances for Fulham by repeatedly giving the ball away–I couldn’t believe Wenger didn’t pull him in favor of someone else at some point.

Cesc 7.5. Some shaky passing in the first half, but put in a joyous ball to set up the goal, put Arshavin through on goal in the box, and made several other very strong passes.

Arshavin 5.5. Pretty anonymous game–was clearly rusty from the injury layoff, and aside from a ball in the box where the shot was deflected because he delayed too long, never really threatened Fulham

Bendtner 7. I’m just cutting and pasting it at this point–good effort, good energy, but his finishing was bad again. I know he’s a first-team guy at this point, but I think it’s worth considering for Wenger whether or not Bendtner should maybe get a Carling Cup start to relax and build some confidence.

van Persie 8.5. After last week’s game, which was not van Persie’s finest hour, I said, “but he’ll bounce back.” Did he ever. A good all-around performance, but mainly this rating is about the goal itself, which was absolutely perfect.

Eboue 6. Good energy, but his main contribution to the game was missing two easy chances.

Rosicky 7.5. Came on and put in a strong substitute performance, and had one really good chance in addition to some good passing and teamwork. After Diaby did everything short of drop his pants and take a dump at midfield, is there any reason Rosicky shouldn’t be starting at this point?

That’s it–12 points from 6 games, and in the title race. We’ve got our Champions League match-up with Olympiakos on Tuesday–it’s important for us to win that match so we can clinch our place in the knockout rounds sooner rather than later, given our tight and tough fixture list in November. And then Blackburn on Sunday.

Oh, and we also drew a home matchup with Liverpool in the Carling Cup Round of 16. Obviously, this is a tough match-up, but given that our chances of/commitment to winning the competition were questionable anyway, this will at least give our young players a chance to play against some world-class competition.

Starting lineups have been posted and Bendtner has been shoved to the bench (where he belongs after two dreadful performances):

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Arshavin, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri, Van Persie, Vela. Subs: Fabianski, Ramsey, Song Billong, Djourou, Bendtner, Eboue, Gibbs.
Fulham: Schwarzer, Baird, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Davies, Murphy, Etuhu, Dempsey, Johnson, Zamora. Subs: Zuberbuhler, Nevland, Gera, Kamara, Dacourt, Stoor, Kallio.

Arshavin is back in, hopefully Vela can perform better than last week, Diaby needs to stay healthy and play like he did against Roma. The defense needs to keep doing their job, but goals are a must today. Here’s to three points.