Dude, Fulham Beat Arsenal 2-1
Four of six points from the Gunners.
One away. Three at home.
Bobby Zamora played. Scored too.
As it all should be. In our dream world at least.
David Stockdale offered a masterclass on making ludicrous saves in the first half.
Don't rewind, or you'll see Arsenal score. No one wants to see that. Over here, at least.
Shots on goal were in Arsenal's favor in the first half, but just barely. If 9-1 constitutes barely.
That's okay. Fulham won. Don't look now, but that's only one loss in their last five fixtures. And the only loss was the 5-0 thrashing to Manchester United, so that doesn't count.
Drawing at Chelsea and beating Arsenal is better. Let's remember those ones.
A bright start to the second half for Fulham.
Possession, possession, possession. No goals. Alas.
John Arne Riise was inspiring. I tweeted about him prolifically. He was everywhere on the field. Crossing the ball and tackling in the box. Theo Walcott was forced off in the 65th for failing to contain the mighty Riise. He deserves a feature of his own later on in the week.
Johan Djourou was sent off for a second yellow card that was, we'll say, marginal. Maybe Djourou's that much stronger than Zamora. Maybe not.
Someone on Twitter said he Djourou should've recieved his second yellow earlier in the match. I'll go with that.
They were the only yellows given. By all accounts, it was a fast paced, clean, competitive game on the whole.
Thus, why I piggyback on Arsenal at times.
Digression accomplished. Where were we?
Djourou was off. So was Robin Van Persie.
Wait, no he wasn't. He just disappeared.
A few minutes passed. His ginger majesty struck. Arsene Wenger said the F-Word.
A point. Whee!
Could there be more?
I urged it on Twitter. Maybe Jol caught wind of it, and urged the boys on. A talismanic tweet.
Seconds left. A ball chipped into the box. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Bounce all the way to Bobby's boot.
There's your goal. There's three points!
Fulham's only in 13th, but the drop zone seems so, so far way, up eight points on 18th placed Wigan.
Great stuff. Hopefully the relatively unchanged first-team of the last few weeks gets a break during Fulham's home FA Cup match-up against Charlton Athletic. It's been a while since we've seen Aaaron Hughes, Damien Duff, Marcel Gecov, Pajtim Kasami, Simon Davies, Matthew Briggs or Chris Baird get a start.
That's a tidy little backup lineup to be able to trot out. A pleasing amount of depth, really, outside of striker.
Let's see how much of that rotation is still around in two weeks.
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Great creative offensive play from the outset...
they never took their foot off the gas. Not that Arsenal’s defense is special or anything (even with Mertesacker in the middle), the ball came into goal from every conceivable angle. From Riise on the wing, from Ruiz and Dembele through the middle. Zamora has found quite a niche recently of putting away second chances (which against Sczenzny are pretty plentiful).
Old addage…you keep shooting you’re bound to score. Just don’t want to turn into last year’s Blackpool team. Nice job Cottagers!
(I like Mr Wenger usually, but damn he’s funny when he loses it…must be a French trait)
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
Stockdale really saved getting any points in the first half. I think it’s notable that Jol trotted out the same essential plan and formation he used at the Emirates (4-2-3-1), which is different than he’d used in the previous two contests (4-1-4-1). Narrow works against Arsenal, not so much against Manchester United.
And yes, totally agree on Wenger. Dig the Arsenal style, but not exactly the most mature man when it comes to reactions.
by Stephen Catanese on Jan 5, 2012 11:26 PM GMT up reply actions

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