- Fulham v Arsenal, the referee’s form and his favoured results
- Fulham v Arsenal: what has happened in the past
- Fulham v Arsenal: at last we can have a league match again
By Tony Attwood
We are now back into an era where journalists will regularly use the phrase “thick and fast” not because anything is thick or particularly fast, but because it’s a phrase they like to use as it involves three words and doesn’t require any thought. And this week it is all about fixtures, because aside from the game this evening we also have a game on Tuesday night against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. In Spain At Mad lie in sixth place, but in the Champions League table, they are tenth (Arsenal are fifth in the group, having won both games played so far).
So there is a possibility of some rotation in the Arsenal squad for the Fulham game, especially of anyone who has had a bit of a knock, and so might benefit by being saved on the bench ready for a more fulsome outing on Tuesday.
This feeling might also be encouraged by six wins and a draw in the last seven games in all competitions, compared with Fulham’s four wins and three defeats in their last seven.
But as we have noted, Fulham have only beaten Arsenal nine times in 68 games across the centuires, which must be just about the worst average of any club having played Arsenal 50 or more times (although I must admit I’ve not checked all through the tables – if you have please do write in and let us know: which team that has played over 50 games against Arsenal has the worst record).
What we do know is that Arsenal’s record against the other big clubs is looking very good, and solid form against both the weaker sides and the big six clubs is essential if a club is going to win the title.
Transfermarkt did a little piece on this sort of thing a while back, and their table covered 19 games per club (as it didn’t appear that the very end of the season). So it wasn’t complete, but it did give an indication of how the big teams are performing against each other. Which is helpful given that we still find articles appearing which suggest that Arsenal are poor against other bigger sides. The matches they covered run from the start of the 2022/23 season and cover roughly 19 games per club
| Position | Club | Points | Points per game |
| 1 | Arsenal | 38 | 2.00 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 33 | 1.74 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 21 | 1.35 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 23 | 1.21 |
| 5 | Tottenhaam Hots | 17 | 0.89 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 17 | 0.85 |
Thus, what we are seeing is the evolution of an Arsenal team that can take on clubs from all positions in the league, but which, as we saw with the recent games against Fulham, can have the occasional blips. In Fulahm’s case the blip is one win, two defeats and a draw in the last four matches dating from 6 August 2023.
Also, as we have noted, this is rather like the situation we had against Olympiakos, where, leading up to the Champions League game, the media were packed solid with sordid predictions of disaster based on the fact that the Olys had beaten Arsenal in each of their last two games in London. This season is showing that such negative deductions are still being made but still not working, and we can look forward once more to an Arsenal victory. (Kick off is at 5.30 and it is on Sky).
Meanwhile, Arteta made an interesting point about the way things have changed, in his press conference, saying
“Last year, immediately, when we are in total control of the game, in one moment, we concede the goal, and then it’s a different game to be played. But we learn from it. Obviously, we want to make it different, especially the results that we had in the last few years and do our best to achieve it.
He then went on to cite the situations against Newcastle and West Ham last season before pointing out that, “In the last two seasons we lost against them at home, so that’s an opportunity tomorrow. We know that it’s a really tough place to go, they’re a very well-coached team, and we’re going to have to be at our best tomorrow.”
Which is of course, fairly standard stuff, but it does also reflect an interest in the issues we have been raising here – that sequence of results is there to be beaten, not to be taken as an indication of what is inevitably going to happen.
We’ll have some thoughts on the team closer to kick off.
