- Arsenal v Fulham: is this Arsenal team shattered or does Arteta know his stuff?
- Arsenal v Fulham: the referee – Jarred Gillett for the third time
By Tony Attwood
So as we have noted, Arsenal face the difficulty of playing their semi-final in the Champions League without the postponement of the preceding league match, while PSG and possibly Real Mad are allowed to juggle their league games to suit their Champions League commitments. At least Atletico Madrid have the decency to carry on regardless and are playing Valencia today at 3.15 pm. Maybe there could be something of an enquiry into how PSG endlessly get around the rules. But then I suppose if there were, they would get around the enquiry too.
So back in England, after 33 games played so far in the league, they have scored 56 and conceded 37. The current fourth-placed English team (Liverpool) has played 34, scored 57 and conceded 34. So not too much difference between the countries when it comes to fourth place.
Arsenal have only conceded 11 goals in 17 league games at home this season, while scoring 37, the highest league home goalscoring total so far this campaign. But in April, Arsenal only managed two home goals in three home games. That compares with six in three games the previous month and eight goals at home in February. So scoring at home has become a bit of a problem.
In their last six games, Fulham have scored three goals. Which suggests either Arsenal can roar ahead by getting a couple of early goals, thus shaking Fulham out of their defensive mode, or else this could be a dreadful goalless draw.
But overall, there is a rather lovely balance between Fulham and Arsenal on the goal-scoring front. Arsenal have scored 20 more goals in the league than Fulham, and Fulham have conceded 20 goals in the league more than Arsenal, A 40 goal greater goal difference for Arsenal.
Actually, there is another amusing goal difference comparison at the moment. Arsenal’s goal difference is +38, and Wolverhampton’s is -38. I know that doesn’t signify anything much, but I am not sure I have seen such a balance between top and bottom before.
Meanwhile, the Fulham manager has been mentioned in connection with the Chelsea job
Anyway, Arsenal have won 33 games against Fulham in the league (they have never ever played each other in the FA Cup or League Cup, save in their very first game against each other in 1904 where Arsenal won 3-2 in Plumstead.
Fulham has won nine games against Arsenal, although only one in the last 15 matches, which takes us back to 2012. But before we get too carried away, we should also note that in the last five games, it has been two wins to Arsenal (those were the two games in 2025), two draws and a defeat.
But we should note that Arsenal have been slipping down the table over the last six games. And in the table below, I have included West Ham as they have surprised me by rising upwards, along with Fulham of course and our three usual entries at the foot of the table, now including Chelsea, who seem to have thought that Tottenham were looking a bit lonely and have sunk down to keep them company.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Arsenal | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 5 | +3 | 12 |
| 6 | West Ham | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 11 |
| 12 | Fulham | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
| 18 | Tottenham | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 5 |
| 19 | Chelsea | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 12 | -8 | 3 |
| 20 | Burnley | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 13 | -10 | 1 |
But I can also add that Arsenal have not lost any of their previous league home games against Fulham since 1904. It is apparently the longest run of its kind of one team against another in the history of the League, although I haven’t personally checked that.
For Arsenal, both Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka came through their run-outs in the last game and should be in the squad.
The Metro has a lineup of
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Calafiori
Rice Zubimendi Eze
Saka Gyokores Trossard
Football London goes with
Raya;
Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Rice, Lewis-Skelly, Eze;
Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard.
Sportsw Mole go with
Raya;
Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice;
Saka, Gyokeres, Eze
So there we are. A look at recent games suggests Arsenal should get through this easily, but then, when have predictions based on the past ever been right?
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago regarding the psychology part of players returning from injury and how they are jointly assessed for match fitness by both the psysio (80+) and the sports psychologist (20+) to start today on a ” joint 90+” mark, or be sub benched for later on if assessed to be jointly “only 80-85+” match fit. I use to assess rugby players, but I know from colleagues that football carries similar fitness pass marking.
With the 80+20 rule (Body fitness+Mental Fitness), judging from his last game where he came from the bench, Saka seemed below the combined required 90+ pass mark, to start today and would not surprise me to be on the sub bench again, unless Arteta has no other choice fitness wise for selection.
If Arteta has no choice for Right wing then Saka (at probably 85 fitness mark) will be risked and start today, but if he has a choice of fit players then he would rather Saka was benched today as he is not fully Mentally fit due to repeated injury “worries” effecting his state of mind (mental fitness) and therefore this effecting his required overall 90 pass mark to start. In my opinion judging from his last game time.
He needs that positive mental edge to play against 50 50 tackles and to brave it and take players on and not worry about getting injured again before the England International’s, otherwise he will be just making up the numbers on the pitch and performing safe sideways and backwards passes without taking any forward chances of 50 50 Duels.
Only Arteta knows where Saka and Odeguards heads are right now from seeing them train behind close doors and whether they have improved mentally (20+) as they are both physically (80+) fit, but just physical fitness is not enough for the required 90+ start mark, and is a risk that can effect the team. Let’s hope from yesterday’s and this mornings assesments that both Saka and Odeguard are ready to start.
My worry is still the same, with our second string full back positions and lack of captaincy effecting the team since mid march by effecting the teams physical engin room and mental confidence to progress forward. I hope we have the right players starting today.
The question of anti-Arsenal media biased is often discussed here on UA. Watching the women play this afternoon there was a perfect, and completely undeniable, examnple of this. On talking of how good it would be for Arsenal to have Michelle Agyemang fit, the commentator went on to say that it was, nevertheless, a great experience for her to be at a big stadium with a big crowd.
So the fact that Arsenal women have played several home games in front of crowds bigger than the maximum capacity of Lyon and have actually played in front of the 15 biggest crowds in WSL history, counts for nothing. Add that to the fact that the Lyon Stadium looks only half full and Arsenal women have sold out the Emirates on several occassions and you begin to realise what absolute nonsense these people talk about our club.
Saka has got his full match fitness back and we have our best left back back in the engine room. Yippee, yes!