Fulham Preview

By: Martin | September 25th, 2009

Fulham

Last Season: 7th, 14-11-13 (53 points, +5 goal differential)

Recent Form: WLLWL

Home Form (last season): 4-4-11

Last Meeting: Arsenal 0-Fulham 0 (2/28/09)

Back in league action tomorrow with a VERY tough match-up against Fulham. This is one of those very tricky match-ups that is not going to be much fun at all.

Fulham took 4 points from us last season, and we only took 1 point from them. In two matches, we failed to score a single goal against them. Their defense was better than ours last season, and they finished 4th in goals allowed, behind only Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool.

Their game plan isn’t complicated, but it can be brutally effective. They concentrate on staying tight at the back and hitting teams on the counter. Mark Schwarzer is one of the league’s better keepers, and their backline of Hangeland, Konchesky, Aaron Hughes, and Pantsil is one of the best and most cohesive units in football. Arsenal will again have their hands full trying to break the unit down, which they were unable to do for all of last season.

In better news, Fulham’s offense is much less effective. Fulham’s top goalscoring threat is Andrew Johnson, who was the only Cottager to tally double digit goals last season with 10. He’s got some skill and guile, but he’s small and relies on pace to beat defenders, and Vermaelen and (especially) Gallas generally deal very well with forwards like that. Beyond that, we should keep an eye on Clint Dempsey, who it must be said is starting to show his age, and midfielder Danny Murphy, who’s capable of popping up with the odd goal every now and then.

Fulham’s one of those teams who always give you a tough game. They play well as a unit, are made up of a group of solid veteran professionals, and are well-managed by Roy Hodgson. This is particularly true at Craven Cottage–their home record last season was 6th in the Premiership. They’ve been a bit less impressive so far this season, but they’ve had a tough early schedule, having to play Chelsea, Aston Villa, Everton, and Manchester City (in the Carling Cup) already. 3 points is a possibility, but it won’t come easy.

Adding to the stress is that, for a game this early in the season, I think this is a pretty important fixture for us. At the moment we are 9 points behind Chelsea in the table. Chelsea is playing Wigan tomorrow, a game you have to think they’ll be taking full points from. If we fail to win, and go 11 or 12 points down, that’s a tough gap. I think we’re as good as any team, but making up 12 points over 32 matches on a team like Chelsea is not an easy task at all, and having our title hopes on life support so early in the season would be a real drag.

Almunia is still out with this mysterious “chest infection.” When I first heard about it I thought he had just picked up some sort of virus and would be back within a matter of days, but apparently it’s more serious–with Fabianski still out, this presents Wenger with a bit of a dilemma: does he use Mannone, who’s looked a bit shaky so far, or Wojciech Szczęsny, who apparently looked very good in the Carling Cup mid-week. If it were me I’d say stick with Mannone–he looked better against Wigan, and Fabianski was fantastic in the Carling Cup last season but got exposed a bit when called into first-team action.

In better news, Arshavin is back and available for this match, and will likely start. Theo also makes his return, but Wenger hesitated when asked if he would start. My prediction is he starts on the bench, makes an appearance as an impact sub, and is in contention to start in the Champions League match mid-week. Other than that, I’m not aware of any new injury news. My prediction:

Mannone

Sagna-Gallas-Vermaelen-Clichy

Rosicky-Song-Fabregas

Arshavin-van Persie-Eduardo

I think Arshavin starts, but the only question is whether he comes in for Bendtner or Eduardo. My guess is Bendtner, but it’s pretty much a toss up. And especially because Fulham is a counter-attacking team that is so tough to break down, putting in Diaby ahead of Song makes a fair amount of tactical sense as well.

That’s it for now. Here’s hoping for 3 points going into Tuesday’s match against Olympiakos, and then a soft stretch of league matches: Blackburn, Birmingham, and West Ham. Also, Carling Cup draw takes place tomorrow, and it seems to be dominated even more than usual by Premiership clubs–only Barnsley, Peterborough, and Scunthorpe remain from the lower levels. So hopefully we’ll draw one of them, but last year our youngsters spanked Wigan Athletic’s first team only to be well beaten by Championship side Burnley, so who knows.

Come on Arsenal.