- Arsenal v Fulham. The referee is Mr Yellow Card
- Arsenal v Fulham: how the teams are matched this season
By Bulldog Drummond
In the Premier League this season Fulham have been something of an up and down team For example from 1 December to 5 January the club played eight league games and won just two, but drew all the rest of them – quite an extraordinary run of draws. And let’s just consider for a moment the three consecutive games played between 8 December and 22 December inclusive.
All three were draws: at home to Arsenal, away to Liverpool and at home to Southampton. Now those first two games could be called tactical draws, the club deciding to go for a draw from the start because they felt if they threw too many men into attack they might not see the match through without conceding a hatful.
So three games, three draws, three goals scored. But such an approach is not sustainable when one wants to keep the fans happy (and fill the most expensive restaurant in London – wonderful views over the Thams so I am told). So they tried something else and became more adventurous starting with the opening match of this year on 4 January.
Since then they have played nine games and had no draws at all – an extraordinary turn-around. Instead, they have won five and lost four. It very much looks like a particular change of tactical approach – one that won’t make watching the team very exciting but still keeps them in mid-table. A mid-table team in terms of goals scored and goals conceded.
In fact, out of their 29 games only six have been won or lost by more than one goal – which shows exactly the style of game Fulham have focussed on. They keep the defence tight and venture forward when the opportunity is there, but never en masse. If they do get the lead, they hold onto it. Arsenal have won 11 league games this season by two or more goals.
Indeed we can see this quite clearly by looking at a league table I am not sure we have published before – the league table based on goal difference. Here are the teams that have a positive goal difference in a table in goal difference order….
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 29 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 69 | 27 | 42 | 70 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 29 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 53 | 24 | 29 | 58 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 29 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 53 | 37 | 16 | 49 |
| 5 | Manchester City | 29 | 14 | 6 | 9 | 55 | 40 | 15 | 48 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 29 | 16 | 6 | 7 | 49 | 35 | 14 | 54 |
| 10 | AFC Bournemouth | 29 | 12 | 8 | 9 | 48 | 36 | 12 | 44 |
| 14 | Tottenham Hotspur | 29 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 55 | 43 | 12 | 34 |
| 6 | Newcastle United | 28 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 47 | 38 | 9 | 47 |
| 7 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 29 | 12 | 11 | 6 | 48 | 42 | 6 | 47 |
| 8 | Fulham | 29 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 43 | 38 | 5 | 45 |
Obviously we expect clubs that have a positive goal difference to be near the top of the league and this is generally true, although Tottenham Hots in 14th place are as ever the exception to normality.
But generally speaking, goal difference is a good way of considering how forceful a club is in terms of league games – and in fact,0 in this regard, we can see the problem of Newcastle United, who despite all their wealth have a great difficulty of getting a goal difference into double figures.
Fulham’s habit of winning games by the odd goal is of course reflected in this table which shows them as tenth in the goal difference league. Which means in fact that if by any chance they manage to score an early goal against Arsenal tonight, they will be pulling 11 back behind the ball and trying to hold onto it, which is why Saka may well be vital for Arsenal.
Which brings me to the injuries. Premier Injuries website has four players ruled out: Gabriel Fernando de Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori – the latter is actually listed as “currently being assessed.”
We’ll take a look at the possible team in the next article.
