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As slog their way to a Fulham win with the return of Saka

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo Last night’s 2-1 victory over a pretty average Fulham side (despite the fact they were in eighth before kick off) had a bit of a low-key affair to it, if I’m completely honest with you.

Despite the fact Saka was named in the squad, despite the fact he came on to rapturous applause and even bagged a nice little cameo goal (basically made by a good Merino stretch and pretty tasty Martinelli flick to the back post) which was ultimately the decider, to me in my seat in block five it felt like a weird ol’ game.

There were a fair few unknown faces where I sat. I can’t blame any of my fellow Block Fiveians; I myself have said on here a few times and in a couple of the Same Old Arsenal podcasts since the West Ham game that the league was probably ‘done’. Clearly one or two of the home regulars felt the same and on a midweek school night, when you might still be feeling down about the fact that this ‘pretty-good-at-best’ Liverpool side are going to saunter their way to the title, I can kinda get why there might have been one or two of the regulars not in their seat. It contributes to the atmosphere in the ground for sure. There are far more phones out and whilst I don’t mind people taking snaps – I do it myself every home game – when you are videoing for three, four or five minutes at a time, it gets a little frustrating. I guess that’s what football the product is these days though.

But I still wanted the ‘vibes’ of a home game, I always will, so I made my way to the ground a little earlier than usual to meet up with my mate Steve in the ground for a cheeky one before kick off. The talk was about Saka being on the bench, but given what happened with a couple of injuries during the game, the Ben White absence wasn’t discussed so much as it probably should have been.

There was no Saka from the start (not that anyone really believed there would be) and there wasn’t really any surprises for the starting line up as a whole, but the first half did deal in a little bit of apprehension, albeit not through any of the football played.

Gabriel coming off with an injury isn’t good news. Maybe I’m trying to play amateur body-language expert here, but his face as he trudged off on the side of the pitch in front of us after he’d come off for Kiwior was not a fun sight. He looked a bit sad. That makes me sad. It also massively impacts our chances in the Champions League because Gabriel came off with nobody around him, he pulled up straight away and to me it looked like a hamstring. A pull probably has him out for a couple of weeks. Which will rule him out of both ties. Our best defender. In the most important of all of the Champions League matches we’ve had this season.

Footballing gods…haven’t we suffered enough this season? Can’t you, just for one week, stave off the imparting of sadness of us Arsenal fans with the Real Madrid tie on the horizon?? Why is it we are suddenly not allowed to have nice things (Saka arrives, somebody else departs)? Can we have things go our way for a change?

The answer there was clearly a ‘hell no’, because Timber went off in the second half with a knock too. And, as I mentioned already, at a time in which there was no Ben White in the squad either…This cursed season, man, eh?

We did, at least, get treated to a win and a couple of goals either side of the halftime break though, so that’s some positivity to zone in on this morning. In real time I was applauding the superb elite finish of Merino after a good ball in behind set Nwaneri in behind for the cut back to Merino. The replays showed he did indeed show decent, quick feet, for his finish. But without that deflection he’s merely adding to the ‘shots on target’ tally, because it was straight down Leno’s throat before that timely intervention put us ahead. That’s five in eight for him now and although he seems to not really do very much in that forward position, his goal tally is actually quite impressive, so we need to give him props in a position in which he’d never played in before a few weeks ago. Fair play lad.

Timely and delicious, because it gave a sense of relief at a time in which it feels like scoring goals is still a real slog for us. Fulham weren’t great, they set up compact and organised enough, but it felt very ‘West London’ vibes about the game last night, when you think that we played Chelsea just two weekend’s back. That was a similar game: we were the better team, but we came up against a side who were half decent and resolute but not much more than that.

The second goal scored by Saka should have meant a mere procession to the final whistle and whilst it did for a bit, Fulham’s late Muniz goal from a deflection made it a wee bit more nervier than I think we’d have all liked. Perhaps some Fulham fans will argue for karma on the heavy deflection; we got one with the Merino goal and they got one back with that late one, but I don’t think anyone can argue that ultimately we were good value for the win.

A quick final shout out to Martinelli before I go – thought he was superb for most of the game and had Castagne on toast again and again. His flick for the assist for Saka’s goal was superb too. More of that please Gabby.

As I’ve already said at times it was a real slog, but as I said to a few of the gents in the concourse at halftime, I feel like that’s our life between now and the end of the season. If you look at the games we have remaining, we’re going to see low blocks from Everton, Brentford, probably Ipswich away, Palace at home and Newcastle at home. That’s five our of the remaining eight and with teams knowing that we are struggling to break them down at the moment, I’ll not be too surprised if we saw more like last night where the opposition is well organised and frustrate us at times. We just have to get over the line and secure that second spot by probably winning four or five of our last eight. Then we can be rid of this cursed domestic season – further evidenced by that Gabriel injury which knowing our luck, will probably now see him out until May.

Back tomorrow with more musings as we look ahead to Everton at the weekend, who play Liverpool at Anfield.

Catch you all then.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.