Gunners made to pay for poor second half

Fulham 2-1 Arsenal

Arsenal naively threw away all three points at Craven Cottage, as they wasted the opportunity to cement their place in the top four. In the press conference after the game, Arsene Wenger  vainly tried to deflect attention from his side’s deficiencies with a series of complaints against the opposition and the referee, however Arsenal only have themselves to blame for a completely inadequate second half performance in which they allowed Fulham to completely dominate.

In the first half Arsenal’s display was very fluid as they created several opportunities to take an early lead. Gervinho fired high over the bar from Van Persie’s corner, when unmarked, before being upended inside the penalty area by former Gunner Philippe Senderos. Referee Lee Probert refused to award a penalty however, much to Wenger’s consternation. Yet although this was another clear penalty which had not been awarded to the Gunners, Wenger’s complaints at the final whistle that the decision had not been given, were unfounded as Arsenal still took the lead in the 21^st minute through Laurent Koscielny. Aaron Ramsey’s attempted cross was deflected into the penalty area for the unmarked Frenchman to head past David Stockdale in the Fulham goal. Minutes later the young English goalkeeper pulled off a great double save to deny both Ramsey and Song in quick succession. At this point, Arsenal were in complete control of the game, but could not find the decisive second goal which would have surely ended this contest. Theo Walcott and Gervinho were both culpable for missing several chances; their abject performances further highlighting Arsenal’s overreliance on Robin Van Persie. Time and time again when in promising positions, the two wide men passed up the opportunity to shoot, preferring to seek out Van Persie who was more often than not crowded out by Fulham’s defence. If Arsenal are to progress further, the rest of the squad must take on more responsibility and go for goal when the opportunity presents itself, or else they will become extremely predictable and easy to defend against.

As the Gunners could only take a one goal lead into the second half, despite their dominance, Fulham were still very much in this game. Martin Jol’s half-time team talk certainly roused his troops as they flew out of the blocks from the very start of the second half. Arsenal could not even manage to get out of their own half, as they came under wave after wave of Fulham attack. Such was the Cottager’s complete control that David Stockdale was rendered a virtual spectator. It is at times like these that I would expect a player such as Mikel Arteta or Ramsey to assert their authority in the middle of the park, put their foot on the ball, slow the pace of the game and enable Arsenal to maintain and gradually build possession to get back into the game. However neither player did this and so the Gunners were forced to defend desperately for the entire second half as with every passing minute, Fulham went closer and closer to scoring the equaliser. Fist Szczesny saved well from Brian Ruiz, before Clint Dempsey inexplicably headed wide of goal when Mertesacker ridiculously decided not to jump to challenge the American in the air.

Then with twelve minutes left Arsenal’s evening completely fell apart with the red card issued to Johan Djourou for a second bookable offence. I don’t believe the second yellow card, for a foul on Bobby Zamora, was actually a foul, but in all honesty, the Swiss international could have received the second yellow card earlier in the game following a clumsy foul on Kerim Frei. Wenger has since complained that once the first yellow had been issued Fulham players targeted the stand in right back in an attempt to get him sent off. Well, Fulham would have been extremely foolish not to apply pressure on a man playing out of position and already in the referee’s book, I’m sure Wenger would have done the same were he in that position. The Frenchman has also claimed that the sending off cost the Gunners the three points. Again, I’m afraid I cannot agree. It is not as though the game’s dynamic completely changed once Arsenal were reduced to ten men, Fulham were already in the ascendancy and had created several chances to equalise. In the 85^th minute Fulham got their just deserts, as Szczesny misjudged a corner, allowing Senderos to head the ball back towards goal for Sidwell to head home into the empty net. The Gunners had no response and in the 92^nd minute got exactly what they deserved for their inept second-half performance as the hapless Squillaci could only head Stephen Kelly’s cross straight to Zamora to fire a volley into the bottom right hand corner of the goal and send Craven Cottage wild.

Despite the manager’s protestations after the game, the players need to seriously look at themselves in the mirror as this was simply not good enough. The likes of Walcott and Ramsey talk a good game, but need to step up to the plate and be counted when it really matters, while the overreliance on Van Persie is becoming a real hindrance which Wenger must address sooner rather than later.