Fulham v The Gooners

Fairy tale year for Arse as they are still on top of the table, but they don’t intimidate like Citeh. A couple of matches ago, Aston Villa outplayed them but gave up 2 stoppage time goals (the one off the Argentine GK’s face was as funny as it was karma). This past week Bournemouth had them down 0-2, before they scored 3 (the last of which was a full min past the 6 min of stoppage aka Fergie Time). Wouldn’t be surprised at any of the possible 3 results. Just hoping for no injuries ahead of the trip to Old Trafford.

 

This one will be on Peacock Sunday at 10am EDT. Don't forget to move your clocks ahead for daylight savings time!

In the first half of the season, Fulham was one of only three teams to hold a lead against Arsenal (Manchester United and West Ham were the others). In the first seven games in the second half of the season, Arsenal have been behind four times. So some feelings of optimism heading into this one could be warranted. Solomon, Willian, and Wilson weren't even on the squad in August so Fulham will have some other options going forward. However, Palhinha will still be unavailable, Mitrovic isn't 100%, and Pereira hasn't been as sharp recently so I'm a bit down on Fulham's chances. I'd like to see Solomon and Willian share time on the left side so they can play to their strengths and try DeCordova-Reid or Wilson (or even James) on the right side. I don't think Silva will do that and he'll go with the same lineup used for Brentford. I think Fulham will score, but not as many as Arsenal at the end of the day. I'm with @SoCalJoe on this one, I'll be happy if the squad is just in good shape going into the FA Cup quarter final.

 

Ouch ouch ouch. 45 min to go.

 

Oof! At least they drew the second half?

The team looks tired. They haven’t come close to matching the intensity of their opponents for, since, I don’t know. The players on today’s bench also accentuates the lack of depth and ability to rest players.

Also, is there any question now that Palhinha is the glue that has held Fulham in the top ten? The team is totally different with him in the lineup and I’d argue that the center backs are having such a good season because Palhinha has protected them so well.

 

Jedi was off his game today. Aside from him, I don't think we had any poor performances. But to stand up to Arsenal we would have had to play the whole game like we did the second half, and there isn't enough depth and energy left in the team for that. I wouldn't be against Silva resting some players for a week or two, especially Mitro, Jedi, Ream, Reed, and Pereira, in exchange for "inferior" options, including the u21s, to allow them to recover and have a strong finish to the season. The international break can't start soon enough, and I hope Serbia and the US let Mitro and Jedi stay home.

 

The highlights:


I agree Robinson was off, his effort on the second goal was pathetic, but I also think that Diop would have done better than Tosin. Tosin let himself get pushed off on the first goal and his passing wasn't great - but so close to getting a score.

On the plus side, I thought Mitrovic looked good. His hold-up play was great and he was making good passes. I really wish Pereira had tried to get him the ball when he stole it from Ramsdale. Other good news, Palhinha can get all the yellows he wants now!

Fulham has seemed off the pace recently, but I'm not sure that is everything behind their drop in form. I feel like they are playing with too much confidence, too much ball control, too much playing up from the back. There are guys making runs, but there aren't enough attempts to feed the ball. That was happening in the first half, but then Fulham was much more likely to attempt a cutting pass in the second half and it paid off with more chances.

 

Coming into the match, one team was the league leaders that has recently overcome late deficits to attain an almost "team of destiny" feel. The other is an impressively overachieving bunch that has hit a wall in past few matches, and today was missing 7(!) first team players.

I dont normally prescribe as much to psychology and narrative as our English brethren love to do, but you could tell the fact we were so short handed had an impact. I mean, I had to google who Charlie Robinson and George Wickens are, and I forgot Tyrese Francois was back from loan. You can have a discussion about our depth in general, but I'm not sure this game is a good example when you're missing that many players.

One silver lining to today's is of Fulham's remaining eleven games, only three are to sides even in the top 10 (albeit they're to teams in the top 5 and each borderline write-offs). Here's hoping for a fun spring...

 

That was ugly. We just didn’t really compete. Hope we get it back together…soon.