Arsenal v Fulham: the team

By Bulldog Drummond

Depending on which newspaper or blogetta you choose to read Arsenal will either play Ozil or he will be “assessed” prior to the game.

And there is a general feeling that Monreal will be back as will Bellerin.

And before we get too carried away with this being an easy match we should remember perhaps that  Fulham are unbeaten in their last three games – with draws against Newcastle and Wolverhampton Wanderers and then a 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town.

They have in fact scored three against Burnley and four against Southampton in the league, but other than that, it has been tough going for them with zero or one being their normal score.

Ahead of the game Mr Emery said, “We need to keep the balance in the middle, be serious and continue on Tuesday with a big match at the [Arsenal Stadium]. We need to show our supporters there we are standing up after the [last] result.”

And following on from the factoids in my earlier piece here is one other little snip.  Arsenal have only played Fulham once on New Year’s Day, and Fulham won, back in 1966.

This was part of the awful Billy Wright tenure at the club – a period which should have resulted in all the directors resigning and letting people who knew something about football get on with the job.  The results around this period were…

Date	Game	Res	Score	Competition
1 Dec 1965	Liverpool v Arsenal	L	4-2	Division One
27 Dec 1965	Sheffield Wednesday v Arsenal	L	4-0	Division One
28 Dec 1965	Arsenal v Sheffield Wednesday	W	5-2	Division One
01 Jan 1966	Fulham v Arsenal	L	1-0	Division One
08 Jan 1966	Arsenal v Liverpool	L	0-1	Division One
15 Jan 1966	Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal	L	2-1	Division One
22 Jan 1966	Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal	L	3-0	FA Cup 3

Goodness knows what Sheffield Wednesday were up to on 28 December.

Those were the days when as an Arsenal supporter one just kept one’s head down and shut up.  Fortunately Paul Merson wasn’t on TV telling us how Arsenal should change.  But anyway, we all knew how Arsenal should change.  Only the manager was unable to see that he should have gone – along with the board of directors that appointed him.

However these days there are more positives – for we have won the last three home games in the Premier League.  Not to mention winning the last 28 home league games against teams that start the match in the relegation zone.

But we have defensive problems – December 2018 in the league was the worst defensive month in the league since April 1979.

But let us also have a lighter note – only two teams have managed just two clean sheets this season in the Premier League.  Fulham and …. Manchester United.

Here’s the team with alternatives where opinion in the Untold office is divided.

 

Leno

Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi or Koscienly, Monreal

Torreira, Xhaka

Ozil or Iwobi, Ramsey, Aubameyang

Lacazette

As for the beach we are going with Ozil or Iwobi, Mustafi or Koscielny, Cech, Lichsteiner, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi

We travel in hope and a certain amount of expectation.