Goonersphere Match Review: Fulham 1-3 Arsenal
After a vital win in midweek, it was time for our first Premier League away game. A large proportion of the traveling Gooners made their way to the game via the annual ‘Boat trip to Fulham’ and, despite the rain, seemed to have a magnificent time. It’s a fantastic little tradition that seems to be forming and is another reason why I believe that we have some of, if not THE best away support in league. Fulham is not renowned for its noisy, boisterous support but, as usual, our away fans drowned them out.
On the pitch, it was another comfortable win and it seems the team is starting to gel and find some confidence. You could argue that that’s what pre-season is for, but the Villa game damaged the team and it’s good to see us getting up to speed again quite quickly.
The first five minutes was a little scrappy, both teams seemed to be getting used to a very soggy surface and it wasn’t surprising to see some passes go astray. After that, we seemed to settle down and it was clear we were going to control the game. Our passing flowed well and Fulham, playing with two upfront, didn’t have the bodies or the quality to break up our game. With Podolski on the left, I think our left flank looked stronger and a little more solid defensively. I know Podolski isn’t renowned for his defensive prowess, but he’s better at tracking back than people give him credit for and certainly does a much better job of it than Santi.
Santi looked a lot more free and I think that is very obviously his best position. He’s good out on the wing, but he’s magical in the middle. I was impressed with Rosicky too, he’d been given a deeper role with Wilshere rested and he had to show discipline and curb his desire to bomb forward. It was Rosicky who gave us our first chance too; after good work by Jenkinson, Rosicky clipped the ball over the top to Walcott, who had ghosted in behind the Fulham defence. Walcott took a first time shot, but Stockdale did well to save.
We had full control of the midfield and the game and we were rewarded for it, Ramsey’s growing confidence saw him shoot from 25 yards, Giroud intercepted it and the ball fell fortunately for him to chip past the keeper. Cue a magnificent knee sliding celebration with water spraying everywhere! It was a deserved goal and we looked really comfortable.
The whole team seemed to be playing with confidence and Fulham couldn’t get tight enough. Berbatov was a passenger and we did a good job in forcing their midfield to retreat, leaving a gap between them and the forwards. While we were controlling though, there wasn’t a lot of intensity to the play, the famous handbrake seemed to be on, perhaps unsurprisingly, following a tiring away trip. To me, this is a cause for optimism, I think we’ve got gears to move up and we could be really devastating if we start attacking with the pace and style we’ve seen flashes of so far.
Fulham got back into the game around 25 minutes, partly due to them starting to press us better, partly due to our passing dropping off a bit. Ramsey lost the ball a few times and stray passes started to put us under pressure. Szczesny had made a very good double save earlier and had to make a good stop when a Kasami free kick squeezed through a dodgy wall. It wasn’t backs to the wall stuff, but we had lost our grip on the game a bit.