Fulham-Arsenal Match Preview

Arsene Wenger was just as mad as the rest of the English football world that Thierry Henry was snubbed by ‘the press’ that vote for the European Footballer of the Year Award. However Arsene was absolutely thrilled that Henry won the Gunnerrific Player of the Year Award.

All the news sites and review shows that I watch seemed pretty adamant about how much Cannavaro did not deserve this award.  It’s quite interesting that ‘journalists’ vote for this award, and then the media turns around and disagrees with it.  Why can’t these guys row in the same direction?
We’ve got Fulham away today. It’s a huge, huge match and I can’t stress the word huge quite enough. Just fucking huge. In order to get over the hump with our poor finishing consistency and be competitive with the league leaders we just flat-out have to win this match.

Historically speaking, we own this match.  The last time Fulham scored in this fixture was 2001/02.  Add in the fact that we have won this fixture every occurrence this century, and you should figure this match is a shoe-in. But, as Goodplaya wisely states, the team simply can’t do that.  If we just expect we will win this, Fulham will.  The boys are going to have to work for this win.

Like the rest of the Arsenal blogging family, I think this is the perfect opportunity for a strong 4-4-2 with VP11 and TH14 leading the charge.  I think our strongest midfield for this match would be Gilberto, Cesc, Hleb, and Rosicky. Then I’d keep Ljungberg and Walcott on the bench as wildcards that could come on at any time for added fitness. Given the choice, it would be Walcott.
In defense I think that Eboue, Toure, Senderos, and Clichy would do nicely while Gallas and Lauren are still out.  And as always the permanently furious Jens Lehmann should mind the net. He minds it well, assuming that our defense doesn’t give Fulham’s strikers any time.
Arsenal can win this match easy.  It’s all about consistency in the defense, controlling the midfield, and capitalizing on our opportunities. That’s right, if we have a shot on goal, we need to convert it.  I think that if we can just do these three things, the match will be in our hands.  Easy, right? I think that after last match, these things are even more clearer now. The team has to know it, so I hope that we can do this one right.

American striker Brian McBride has been playing quite well this season, so I’ll be keeping my eye on him during match. If anyone is going to do us in, it’ll be him. Fulham is currently riding the top of the second half of the table and their season has been fraught with much more hardship than ours.
They’re by FAR, the greatest TEAM, the WORLD has ever SEEN!