Fulham vs. Arsenal

Fulham host Arsenal on Sunday with kickoff at 9am EST on Peacock. The weather could be a factor again with storm Darragh already causing postponement of the Everton/Liverpool match.

After picking up four points from the previous two matches, my feeling for this one is "What does Fulham have to lose?!" There is no shame in dropping points to Arsenal, but Fulham has certainly shown in the past they can go toe-to-toe with Arsenal. They should go into this match (especially Iwobi, Smith Rowe, and Leno) with something to prove and a lot of desire to come away with a win.

However, despite Fulham being capable of getting a win, I still feel like Arsenal will be too much to handle. I'll be happy with a good showing, no fifth yellow for Bassey, and no additional injuries.

 

I don’t envy Silva having to make lineup decisions for this game. Where to put Iwobi? Who starts on the wings? Ask Berge or Lukic to play the 6 instead of 8? Does Smith Rowe start? Does Pereira? Castagne or Tete on the right? Really, the only automatic starters are Iwobi (but where?), Leno, Jedi, and Bassey. And Diop because of injuries (but he’s really stepped up).

 

Why aren’t we the feature match of the day on USA? Leicester vs. Brighton? C’mon NBC, get your heads out of your arses.

 

I was so mad when Shaka scored (more so because Jedi had just sprinted 50+ yards on an attempted give and gone/Iwobi, so him switching off for a second was a result) that I switched off Peacock..only to check my phone to see we were still at 1-1 in 92nd . I thought their tying goal was off, so VAR threw us a lifeline to a point. Pretty damn gritty performance, and I’ll steal @astroevan Evan’s line after Brighton game, I’ll gladly take 5 points from these 3 matches.

 

I’ll take the point as well but why can’t we beat this damn team?

 

What a great result for Fulham! Is Arsenal the better team? Yeah, but Fulham had a plan today and they executed it almost perfectly. I was listening to some post match commentary and they were talking about how badly Arsenal played and Fulham did nothing. Excuse my French but f&#! you commentators. Fulham was almost flawless on defense. Anthony Robinson shut down Saka for most of the match. Tete handled Martinelli really well after he came on. Lukic and Berge clogged up the passing lanes. Diop and Bassey prevented anything coming through the middle. And Silva's game plan for set pieces almost kept Arsenal out of the net. Fulham did nothing? Whatever.

My only critique of Fulham is when they tried going forward after the first time they went forward! Raul had a brilliant finish, but after that it was a number of wasted opportunities. Especially that odd touch from Smith Rowe when he was in on goal. I'm not sure why he sent it away from net. That was a shame along with the typical missed opportunities from Traore.

I thought Arsenal was offside on their first goal too. But then on the VAR close up I realized that Saliba doesn't have three arms - that third arm was actually Robinson's leg. Bummer.

Overall though, an excellent showing. That's how you get a result against a bigger team.

 

I know I should be happy with a point (and deep down I genuinely am) but it’s always frustrating when Fulham take the lead but don’t hang on.

I also hate the commentary every time Fulham plays one of the big boys. Obviously Fulham played defense first and were intentionally well organized, but they can’t understand that for some reason. The narration around the two VAR checks was fairly comedic - telling the audience that certain camera angles can be deceiving for the first one and then trying to make the second closer than it really was.

Diop has surprised me during Andersen’s absence. No howlers and barely any nervy moments.

I struggle to select a man of the match as this was such a strong team effort.

 

Credit to the two Robbies, they recognize Fulham didn't get the result through luck:

 

Good point - and I don't generally let commentators annoy me (bc in general, Fulham aren't given much credit whether warranted or not), but these asshats on Sunday were poor in their fawning over Arsenal.

(EDIT - the two Robbie's clip warmed the heart...gracias a Micah!!)
COYW

 

Not a fun game to watch but satisfying. I was thinking afterwards that coming out in such a low block was a risky strategy from Marco but then realized it was the best one against this Arsenal team. If we had left space for them behind our defense, we wouldn't have earned that point. I'm dreading the next match a little, though.