Comments on: Fulham v Arsenal: a somewhat more serious analysis

By: IndianGooner

IndianGooner — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:03:30 +0000

Mannone was really great and after the 5min start at the CL game at Liege, He hasn’t let in a goal for 265mins!!! That needs some credit…

By: Gerald

Gerald — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:38:23 +0000

And is it a crime for a keeper to pull a string of saves? He IS part of the team. I do not hear any negative talk when Torres single handedly does it for liverpool. If I remember correctly, Lehman was man of the match last time we won the Fa Cup.

By: walter

walter — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:59:45 +0000

Well I confess I fell in the trap. In fact it was a good game with 2 teams going for it and creating chances. Could have gone either way but I really had the impression after the game we had the better chances over all and deserved to win. That is how I put it on the Benelux site minutes after the end of the game and a first impression is mostly my best one.
The notion that Arsenal wins ugly is indeed when we don’t dominate a team like we mostly do.

By: don't believe the hype

don't believe the hype — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:00:07 +0000

I agree Steww. We seem to be held to a different standard than other teams, if we are not totally controlling a game for 90 mins, creating chance after chance and winning by a minimum of 3 clear goals it does not seem to be good enough. Man u won the league last season with loads of 1 – 0’s. They were well beaten by Fulham amongst others, but they faced none of the criticism we’ve had to endure. It was a good game. Fulham are a decent team who played to their strengths. They also have a very experienced manager, who has probably forgotten more about tactics than your average armchair manager has had hot dinners. We did what we had to do to win and our quality came through in the end.

By: steww

steww — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:27:46 +0000

Why buy into this popular myth of the ugly win? We played a very good side with great support in their own backyard. They closed us down well and attacked with speed and flair and we matched, contained and beat them. They closed down so well that our passing game looked less fluid than it can but on occasions we sliced them open with breathtaking ingenuity and slick passing, only poor finishing kept our score down and great keeping kept theirs down.
Far from ugly it was really thrilling to watch.

By: LRV

LRV — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:29:34 +0000

Isn’t it great to win, ugly or otherwise? Isn’t great for Vitto to get such a huge confidence boost? Isn’t it great for Arsenal to dig out a win over a determined Fulham? Our boys showed that they are more determined; that’s the attitude some were saying we do not have. Isn’t it also great for RVP to score such a great goal? “1 – 0 to the Arsenal…..”

By: diceman1984

diceman1984 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:32:15 +0000

Yeah, I said Arshavin was poor but I know why…so no blame for his form last night…

I think RVP was subbed because him, too, just passed the fitness test for the game…

I do want Bendtner to start scoring though, he deserves it from his work rate that has been shown since the start of the season…

By: Phil Gregory

Phil Gregory — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:49:23 +0000

I suppose its to be expected with Arshavin given that he was out for a couple of weeks. We all know what he can do, let’s hope to see him at that level soon.

See you all on Monday for the Olympiakos preview.

By: Adam Smith

Adam Smith — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:37:22 +0000

Agreed Tony about Arshavin, he wasn’t completely match fit.Fulham are a decent team,certainly no pushover,and although Cesc didn’t have his best game,one moment of magic by him and Robin brought the points home.

Vito, only his third senior game,what a display, one we often see at home by the opposing keeper.As someone mentioned a fault of his, earlier in the week, he even managed to keep his legs closed when gathering the ball

Pleased for RVP, though was a little surprised he was subbed for Eboue.

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:34:35 +0000

Arshavin looked like he was having a run out to get him fit again – often happens that way. Will be back at his best by next weekend especially if he can have a further run out on tuesday – just my opinion of course, but I think we’ve seen that sort of thing before.

Tony

By: diceman1984

diceman1984 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Diaby was by far our worst player on the field….

Arshavin was also very poor….

But this win was a great kick in the face to those who say we can’t win ugly…..last night was a combination of winning ugly by scoring a beautiful goal…

By: walter

walter — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:34:33 +0000

Let me join you lordgunner if you have some humble pie left. Manone proved me wrong today and I must say I am rather happy he did.
Just shows you how little we know about those players. He hardly has been called into action in his first games (apart from our horror start in Liège) so maybe was mistaking by this.
Just looking for poor excuses from me part in fact…

By: lordgunner

lordgunner — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:15:47 +0000

decent performance agaist a good fulham team great win .i eat my humble pie for vito , he was amazing and win us 3 points . well done don vito .cesc start to worry me but then we see what he can do with his superb pass alike diaby who slow down all our attack

striker score:check
clean sheet : check
happy me : check

By: walter

walter — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:28:20 +0000

Just read it Gerald.
On my screen appeared a statistic after 40 minutes in the first half wich said that Arsenal had +60 % possesion in that half. So I guess he looked at another game then us.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:21:47 +0000

We won! Has anyone read the post match commentary by Jonathan Stevenson of BBC? Which game is he refering to

By: walter

walter — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:08:42 +0000

The Fulham game is always a very physical game so best to take no risk with Eduardo. We needed 11 warriors today to get a result.

So we won “ugly” as we rather could expect.

Manone played a great game but I must say that he blocks the shots but he has to learn to push the ball further away from his goal and more to the side. But this is what you could call details criticism (this one is lost in translation…. sigh).

It was nailbiting stuff today but Gallas-Vermaelen showed again, good partnership and good strenght when they got a knock, several that is.

I wonder how long it will take the doomersbrigade to tell us this team is nog good enough to win anything ?

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:42:16 +0000

No word about Eduardo, but with a Euro game on tuesday I suspect he is being held over – after all we had 3 forwards playing plus Vela on the bench, and Rosicky, plus the new forward Eboue, plus Diaby who seems to be everything.

So no need, give him a day off, and play him from the start on tuesday, I think.

Tony

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:40:29 +0000

Is Eduardo injured?

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:05:33 +0000

Subs

Wojciech Szczesny

Mikael Silvestre

Kieran Gibbs

Emmanuel Eboue

Tomas Rosicky

Aaron Ramsey

Carlos Vela

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:03:54 +0000

Team

Vito Mannone

Bacary Sagna

William Gallas

Thomas Vermaelen

Gael Clichy

Abou Diaby

Cesc Fabregas (c)

Alex Song

Robin Van Persie

Andrey Arshavin

Nicklas Bendtner