Arsenal v Fulham: how the teams are matched this season

 

 

 

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By Bulldog Drummond

We do like to consider Fulham as a lesser team than Arsenal, and they are in fact lower in the league than Arsenal: 13 points lower in the league than Arsenal   (This and other League tables in this piece are from 11v11).

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
2	Arsenal	29	16	10	3	53	24	29	58
8	Fulham	29	12	9	8	43	38	5	45

 

But just thinking about Fulham as a smaller side holding not much threat against Arsenal can be a bit of a misrepresentation – although if we do take the whole season we can see that Arsenal have done better at home than Fulham away. 

That all looks set fair for an easy Arsenal win, but if we then look at the last six games the two clubs have played this might give us a certain pause for thought.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	6	4	2	0	13	6	+7	14
2	Brighton	6	4	1	1	13	11	+2	13
3	Crystal Palace	6	4	0	2	11	5	+6	12
4	Fulham	6	4	0	2	9	7	+2	12
5	Arsenal	6	3	2	1	9	3	+6	11

 

Yes in fact surprising though it might seem, Fulham’s recent form has been better than Arsenal’s.  Indeed we might think that last six match table looks a bit odd throughout – the only thing that is reassuringly expected is that Tottenham Hots are nowhere to be seen.

But the fact is that when we come to compare the last six home games for Arsenal and the last six away for Fulham, although Arsenal come out better, they don’t come out that much better.

 

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
4	Arsenal home	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	13
5	Fulham away	6	4	0	2	11	8	+3	12

 

In fact, when we have a look at Fulham’s recent games we can see that they beat Newcastle 1-2 away, beat Wigan 1-2 in the FA Cup away, beat Wolverhampton 1-2 away, beat Manchester United in the FA Cup 3-4 on penalties away, lost to Brighton away 1-2.

So yes they are doing much better than we might expect, but they have not been having the toughest of games.

But perhaps most worrying of all Arsenal have only won two of the last six games between the two clubs.  The last three games have in fact been two draws and a 2-1 to Fulham on New Years Eve 2024 at the Cottage.

The problem for Fulham is that they are now trying to exceed their best position which was seventh in 2008/9.  And in fact they have been a bit of an up and down team with six seasons since 2014/15 in the Premier League and the rest in the Championship.

Last season they ended with 47 points and their best Premier League total ever is 52 points achieved in 2004 and 2012.   So these are positive days for Fulham.

Arsenal however have slipped back a bit this year compared with the last two seasons, as we are all aware, due to the multiplicity of injuries that the club has suffered.

Interestingly as the current table shows, after 29 games Arsenal’s defence is as strong this year as it was last year at this moment, but the attack has dropped by 17 goals.    This of course is due to the repeated injuries of our front-line players, leading to the media and their fellow travellers in the blogs.  This of course started the game of speculating who Arsenal are going to sign as a new centre forward and from that the reporting of Arsenal as a club in crisis.  They are the only club who could be second in the league and in crisis, but that’s how it goes.

But although Arsenal’s attack has been reduced in power, the defence this season has held firm despite injuries occurring in the back line as well as with the forwards.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
2	Arsenal 2025	29	16	10	3	53	24	29	58
2	Arsenal 2024	29	20	5	4	70	24	46	65

 

So yes we might bemoan the injuries but it is interesting to note that despite those, the goals against are the same as last season and we have actually lost one game fewer than last campaign.  Obviously the problem is with those wins turning into draws, but nothing can be done about that now.