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From Freepik
Morning all
With Man City hitting the top spot of the table for the first time since possibly the last day of 2023/24 season the gauntlet had been well and truly thrown down by Pep Guardiola as in a way, he announced he isn’t going off anytime soon despite the rumours. Why would he with a cyborg at centre-forward?
Are City morphing into a one-man team?
Liverpool had yet to show if their stumble had stumbled again as they play later today and so it was up to the Gunners to show that they’re in it to win it this time and with that in mind Arteta went full-strength against a team and manager who has often caused us heartache. With ‘finishers’ on the bench Mikel had the options, five of them, to rest, rotate and save legs if we got the job done early, ‘if’ though can be a big word.
Fulham were as organised and as obdurate as we’ve come to expect in recent years and pretty much held Arsenal at arms length in the opening exchanges. The game was already developing into something familiar for Arsenal fans as we pushed forward but allowed the opponents some hope on the break.
During the opening 15 minutes the Gunners did seem to exhibit signs of a lack of sharpness probably due to the Interlull, but as the opening 15 minutes drew to a close a long accurate pass to Trossard opened up the Fulham defence and his cross was met beautifully by Calafiori who swept the ball into the net. Unfortunately, he was offside just as Saka was at Craven Cottage the previous season. Eze up to this point had been peripheral and a little disappointing, we were definitely missing Odegaard prompting us from midfield.
On 26 minutes a sharp incisive pass from Iwobi found Harry Wilson who fortunately put his shot wide – a warning we heeded and the defence closed ranks for the rest of the half. On 37 minutes Gyokeres was found by a cross from Saka but his hard low drive was parried by Leno in the Fulham goal and the chance was cleared.
Arsenal were increasing the pressure and a minute later another Saka cross was met by Calafiori but his shot sailed over the bar. A couple of minutes later a promising attack for Arsenal was stopped in its tracks by the referee because Josh King had got smacked in the face by his own player Jimenez and had gone down holding his face. It seemed a bit unfair but that’s the rules I’m afraid. Almost immediately Fulham‘s best defender Andersen went off injured and a couple of minutes later a nice build up lead to Declan Rice shooting just wide. Half time 0-0.
The second half opened with Arsenal on the front foot following no doubt some stern words from Arteta. On the 48th minute a strangely undercooked Eze burst forward on the right and whipped in a cross towards Trossard loitering on the far post but he wastefully shot wide. On the 49th minute a Saka dribble into the box caused confusion but his ball into a melee of players was cleared.
The game was beginning to become a little stretched although Fulham were still basing their tactics around the low block, but a misplaced pass by Rice saw Fulham flood forward and for a moment I was concerned but our brilliant defence dealt with it.
Then came the winner and predictably it came from a corner. Saka chipped his corner into the mixer and Gabriel got a flick on to Trossard who again was loitering but this time he put the ball into the onion bag, and that really was that. Well except for the controversy on the 65th minute! But before that Merino came on for the disappointing Eze as the first of only three changes, which surprised me with Atletico due up next.
Then the major talking point of the game, Saka got the ball on the edge of the box dribbled along the edge of the box and was fouled, it looked a clear penalty to me and the referee pointed to the spot. However, after a long protracted VAR investigation it was decided that the Fulham defender got his foot to the ball before he fouled Saka, even thought it was clear to me that he had caught Saka’s knee fractionally before he had touched the ball (it only seems to happen to Arsenal) anyway the boys dug in.
Well we’ve been here before but we are a bit more streetwise now and the players reacted calmly and didn’t let the injustice of the penalty decision knock them off of their stride. The rest of the game had a slight end to end tinge about it but Arsenal never looked like they were going to concede and probably should’ve added to the one goal that they scored.
Martinelli came on in the 81st minute for Trossard and probably should’ve come on a bit sooner and even though there was nine minutes of added time there was enough time for Nordgaard to come on for Viktor in the 96th minute and for Leno to make a double save from Gyokeres and Martinelli just before the last sub.
And so we march on.
**By Kev.**