By Bulldog Drummond
Nothing too dramatic in the injury news so far: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has recovered from his illness and is available for the game. Of the rest of the injured, there is not much change – just some general progress…
Ainsley Maitland-Niles expects to be back to full training in about a week. Petr Cech however is about three or four weeks away which is much the same for Dinos Macropanos who should be in full training by the end of the month. While Koscielny will be training in November.
So what of Fulham?
They were hyper active in the summer with the transfers galore and virtually no money coming in from sales of players (just one or two players sold – depending on which source you use – for an undisclosed fee).
- Jean Michaël Seri; Midfielder — from Nice. £25m
- Maxime Le Marchand; Defender — from Nice. £7.5m
- Fabri; Goalkeeper — from Besiktas. £5m
- André Schürrle; Forward — from Borussia Dortmund (loan)
- Aleksandar Mitrovic; Forward — from Newcastle United. £22m
- Alfie Mawson; Defender — from Swansea City. £15m
- Calum Chambers; Defender — from Arsenal. Loan
- Sergio Rico; Goalkeeper — from Sevilla. Loan
- Joe Bryan; Defender — from Bristol City. £6m
- Luciano Vietto; Forward — from Atlético Madrid. Loan
- Timothy Fosu-Mensah; Defender — from Manchester United. Loan
- André-Frank Zambo Anguissa; Midfielder — from Marseille. £30m
That’s quite a list. Calum Chambers has made three league starts and come on twice as a sub as far as I can see. As a loanee of course he can’t perform tomorrow. And with just one win in the last five league and league cup games (one in seven if we include the Checkatrade) the incomers don’t seem to be delivering too well.
The extent of this problem can be seen if we take a look at the table in the order of goals conceded. Here’s the bottom of that league
| Lge pos | Goals ag. pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 7 | 14 | AFC Bournemouth | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 13 |
| 10 | 15 | Manchester United | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 10 |
| 12 | 16 | Brighton and Hove | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 8 |
| 15 | 17 | West Ham United | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 13 | -5 | 7 |
| 17 | 18 | Fulham | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | -8 | 5 |
| 19 | 19 | Cardiff City | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 16 | -12 | 2 |
| 20 | 20 | Huddersfield Town | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 16 | -13 | 2 |
Alternative league tables, arranged by something other than points, don’t coincide exactly with the points total, but interestingly the goals conceded is not too far off, although the surprise is to see just how far Manchester United have tumbled because of their defence.
As for Fulham, yes they have the worst defence in the league, equal to Cardiff and Huddersfield. Their virtue is that they have scored twice as many goals as Cardiff.
So we might expect them to be open at the back because of their attempt to push forward and nick a goal against Arsenal. They are the only team who have not kept a single clean sheet in a league game this season.
But at home they are a much tighter side having scored five and conceded five, so nothing should be taken for granted.
On the other hand they don’t show up too well in all-London games in the Premier League. They have played 120 matches against other teams from the capital, and have won 25 of them – a 20% victory level. Arsenal have won 123 out of 240 games against other London teams while in the PL – a 51% total.
They also struggle to keep clean sheets in London derbies, so again things could look promising given that we have Aubameyang back, and presumably Lacazette and Iwobi as well. Mkhitaryan could also be part of the front line given that he like Auba didn’t travel.
Fulham are known for poor starts to a campaign. In 2005 for example they opened with
| Date | Match | Result | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug 2005 | Fulham v Birmingham City | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 20 Aug 2005 | Blackburn Rovers v Fulham | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 24 Aug 2005 | Arsenal v Fulham | L | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 27 Aug 2005 | Fulham v Everton | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 10 Sep 2005 | Newcastle United v Fulham | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 17 Sep 2005 | Fulham v West Ham United | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 21 Sep 2005 | Fulham v Lincoln City | W | 5-4 | League Cup |
| 26 Sep 2005 | Tottenham Hots v Fulham | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 01 Oct 2005 | Fulham v Manchester Utd | L | 2-3 | Premier League |
The one great thing about our manager is that with his fanatical interest in detail he does not seem to be a man who could be taken by surprise or accused of a lack of preparation.
More anon…
- Fulham v Arsenal: latest injury updates and Fulham’s weakness
- Matchweek 8 – The Match officials. Expect 17 free kicks to Fulham
- Fill em up v Arsenal. A first attempt at the team and the home/away form
Arsenal will beat Fulham this Sunday, tomorrow in the PL at their Craven Cottage home ground and will of course collect all the 3 points on stake in the match. And will take them to the Emirates Stadium and add them into their points collection bag there to be filling up.
Let no Gooner have no an iota of doubt in mind making him or her to hesitate and not sure if Arsenal will beat Fulham or not. I assure the sundry of the Gooners that Arsenal beating Fulham tomorrow will come to pass. And possibly, the Gunners will push them in the game into the river Thames should the Cottagers become unruly to the Gunners not wanting to submit to their command willingly in the game, not until they are forced to submit at guns point by the Gunners forcing them to submit to their command paying homage to them.
Arsenal have the depth in quality Gunners squad to beat Fulham should it come to them having to draw from their quality Gunners depth to beat Fulham to the collection of all the 3 points at stake in the match tomorrow.
My guess Arsenal 4-2-3-1 starts I think Emery will start against Fulham tomorrow and the 7 Gunners I also think he’ll have on the bench for the match are below.
Starts:
Leno;
Bellerin Mustafi Socratis Monreal;
Torreira Xhaka:
Ramsey Ozil Mkhitaryan
Aubameyang.
Bench:
Martinez, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Iwobi & Lacazette.
Sorry, no rooms for Elneny and welbeck to be on the bench as I think Emery has start having a selection problem on his hands with the return of Kolasinac to the team and having to start Ramsey for the match and the availability of Mkhitaryan to start.
By the way, has Ramsey’s wife given birth to her child? If she has, I congratulate her and Ramsey for the new arrival to their family. And if she’s yet to put to bed, I wish her a safe delivery of her baby.
.
I watched some of the Sp*rs match but I am tired of watching their diving and all-round thuggery. Their forwards seem to foul a lot in their pressing game but rarely get yellows.
So…I watched the Watford Bournemouth match. A couple of tidy sides. Watford seem to commit a lot of fouls. And, today it cost them with a yellow/red. These are a couple of teams that are ahead of us in team development but don’t quite have the skill of our players.
Watford are the only team penalised for more fouls than us after the first 7 games by a grand total of one.
With the massive 0-4 away win Bournemouth had over Watford today that saw them moved to 5th in the table to push us back to 6th. And Tottenham Hotspur narrowly beating Cardiff City 1-0 today as well at their temporary Wembley home, Arsenal are now in danger of regressing in the table unless they beat Fulham tomorrow to take control of the 4th or 3rd positions in the table. But to achieve this, the Gunners MUST beat the Cottagers 0-4 unfailingly tomorrow. Can’t Arsenal beat Fulham 0-4 tomorrow in the PL? I think they can and will beat them that much.
Bournemouth do seem to be benefiting from some much improved officiating. Wonder why the officials have been a little more astute and shown a little more integrity!
What was their previous accuracy? They must be getting an unprecedented 204% of decisions correct these days. Kicking off at 3 is handy hey?!
We kick off at 12 noon tomorrow, we can trounce Fulham, well need a bit more luck and the forwards will need to be incisive is all.
With Liverpool clashing with City and United due to face Chelsea Next, we need absolutely to win.
This is the chance. United will play to stop Chelsea at any cost and they should be able to fashion a draw. I expect that Liverpool and City could well end as a sore draw, with both teams opting to get something from the game rather than gift someone 3 points.
Where could that leave us? Double Dutch on our title chances I suspect.
Who said we could realostocly win the league with a good schedule? Provided we didn’t collapse after the initial 3 defeats which were likely?
Some deluded remoaner.
Football money and politics and Fulhams investment model parallel to that of Everton but not Utd or our deals beloved.
Time to go HAM, 0.07 stops the clock.
Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan also expressed optimism that a deal could be reached before December.
There were also reports from EU officials of a better atmosphere in talks over the Irish border.
The upbeat assessment of progress in negotiations prompted sterling to rise against the Euro and the US dollar.
The BBC’s Brussels correspondent Adam Fleming said officials still “seem to be pushing for the whole withdrawal agreement to basically be done” by the EU summit.
“Although, if we have learned anything from Brexit it’s that the timetable is incredibly flexible, to use diplomatic language,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Downing Street distanced itself from suggestions – reported in the Daily Mail newspaper – that they were concerned Mr Juncker was trying to “bounce” the UK into agreeing a Brexit deal by mid-October.
Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Theresa May meets Jean-Claude Juncker at the summit of the European Council in December last year
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported senior Conservatives had been in private contact with a number of Labour MPs to persuade them to back Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Some Labour MPs who were mentioned in the article took to Twitter to refute the claims. Rachel Reeves tweeted: “All the Labour MPs listed work hard and fight Tories locally and nationally every day.”
It comes weeks after the head of the European Council Donald Tusk said Theresa May’s Brexit plans were unworkable.
Hilarious! It would seem that the 3 players on the outs at ManU have saved Mourinho’s job.
@Andrew… (sarcasticus font)
@Andrew…we are such thugs! (sarcasticus font)
I loved this from Neville, at least he knows how to back his club.
Although the supposed to be neutral part, lol, wonder if I got to him a bit.
He’s right though.
Safcasticus don’t hey!
Moaninho is claiming a “manhunt” to get him sacked. That assumes Moaninho is a man. I think the world would be better off if he gets sacked. No need to examine whether he is a man, just ignore that.
Apparently Arsenal U18 beat State Aid U18 “today”. Here is a link to the State Aid version of things:
https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2018/october/06-october/late-goal-denies-u18s-deserved-point-arsenal
Nothing at Arsenal.com as of yet.
match report is on line