Last January, this blog was just kicking off when Fulham hosted a rampant Arsenal team who put 3 goals past them. Adebayor got a brace, Hleb put in a cross, and the Human Victory Cigar (Rosicky) even got on the sheet with a last minute goal. Moreover, it was the Fulham game in which the fans created that new chant in support of Adebayor. I remember it well; 2500 Gooners drowning out the entire Fulham crowd with the simple “Adebayor, Adebayooor, Give him the ball, and he will score.”
What a difference 7 months can make.
I’m not worried about Fulham any more than I would worry about any Premiership team; Americans, who love a good underdog, would say that on any given Saturday any Premiership team can beat any other Premiership team. Well, they would have said that until they saw Derby play, but I digress. Let’s just say with all of our “famous Arsenal arrogance” that Fulham is one of those teams that Arsenal should beat. Doesn’t mean they will, but they should.
The current injury situation (Rosicky, Cesc, Eduardo, Diaby, and possibly Silvestre) along with the changes to the team (Hleb and Flamini out and Nasri and some children in) might lead to some trepidation on the part of my fellow Gooners. I understand.
I understand, but I see this as an opportunity for the team; Adebayor needs to rebuild his reputation after this summer’s drama, one of the young men need to step up and show they can play central midfield at the Premiership level, and the defense needs to keep a clean sheet against a team that has more firepower than West Brom.
So, it’s a golden chance, in my mind, one I have no doubt that the quality of this Arsenal club will show.
There was a news story this morning
The sky is blue, the grass is green, and Arsene Wenger get’s talent the old fashioned way; he makes it. Let me see if I can sum up the article: it’s a youth revolution, there’s a self imposed salary cap, he cares about the business aspect, he doesn’t care about passports, he’s a product of his upbringing, and he cares about helping people in real life.
SHOCKING STUFF.
I’ve been saying all those things now for 7 months. I thought they were obvious. Huh, I guess not.
Well, I’m off to my friend Patrick Bostwick’s funeral service. I won’t be able to watch the match live, but my friends are going to tape it for me. Wouldn’t it be sweet if Arsenal won, one-nil? If it happens, I’ll raise a glass to Paki and sing the song for him.
Until tomorrow.
Post Match – Most blogs strangely silent today. I and others sounded the alarm bells all summer as we lost experience, most bloggers just brushed it off. We are Arsenal and we will win a boat load of games but the writing has been on the wall and it doesn’t spell titles or trophies. Fulham are not an elite team and we are missing players but they were just better today and the scoreline was fair. We had no man of the match today in my view as we just suffocated under a collapsed midfield; and when that happens everyone just looks poor, no cohesion. It is a long seasnon and we will turn it around and though Wenger does take ultimate responsibility the squad let him down today and Arsene was visibly disappointed. If I single any one out today it would be Gallas who at 90K/wk defended like a girl.
I like Denilson, but he had a stinker. What a midfield pairing — Denilson and Eboue, world class… Man of the match was Danny Murphy, who ate our lunch all day. And our unforced turnovers were shocking. Nasri was v. good, I thought, and Sagna and Clichy were almost as good as usual. Ade was profligate as usual, which cost us. And Van Persie made a hash of 4 close free kicks. And he’s NOT just coming off an injury. Not a fun game to watch. Remember last year, with 15 wins and 2 ties from 17 games? Not this year, already, alas.