Fulham at Arsenal

The Premier League cares not if Fulham are ready to get up from their crushing defeat against Palace! The season grinds on and Arsenal is ready to face Fulham Tuesday at 2:45pm EDT. The match will be available on Peacock.

It seems weird that, even after Saturday's loss, I still have more confidence that Fulham can get something out of this match than I did against Palace. Fulham is in a good run of form against Arsenal and have generally played better against the top teams. Plus Arsenal doesn't have much to play for outside the Champion's League at this point with the title race out of reach, but a finish in the top four almost certain. The main issue will be if Silva can get everyone's head screwed on straight. It was clear that he had them ready to go against Palace given how the match started. I remember seeing a shot of the bench early on and everyone was fixated on what was happening on the pitch. They were all focused. Then the goal happened, and they fell apart. I also question Silva's thinking with the substitutes - it seemed panicked so he's got to get right for this match too.

Arsenal will have Saka available again for the first time in months. For Fulham nothing has changed with the same three still out. This is the start of a four game run that will settle if Fulham stay in the conversation for European spot. Matches against Aresenal, Liverpool, Bournemouth, and Chelsea will prove if they are worthy of a top finish and in the case of the latter two, ding their chances of getting a European spot. I've been waiting for weeks for Fulham to hit the beach, but they haven't yet. On Tuesday it will be 60 degrees and sunny in North London. We should see pretty quickly if that's nice enough for Fulham to kick back and relax or if they have the desire to keep pushing up the table.

 

I didn't like the lineup - the personnel or the formation. It worked okay on defense, but was pretty weak going forward. I hoped for a change to a back four at halftime, but that change came too late. When Fulham did finally go to a back four they looked a lot better, although I know it was a different game with Arsenal protecting a two goal lead.

Raul played well, especially being a nuisance without the ball, but he couldn't get any support. I don't know what Traore was doing when he could have set up Raul on the edge of the six yard box.

When Fulham finally put Sessegnon on he was a real spark. He suddenly did all the things that you would have expected from Traore - bombing down the right, being dangerous in the box. Some of that was also due to Pereira having his head up more than Lukic and seeing the space. At the end of the day, Fulham really may have deserved a draw, but Muniz just couldn't seem to put an easy header away and by the time he did score there wasn't enough time.

I was happy to see a the team come out organized and fighting. They clearly put the FA Cup behind them and were looking to move forward.