Gunners struggle against 10 man Fulham

 

 

 

 

 

 Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal toiled to another crucial victory on Saturday, against a Fulham side who were reduced to ten men as early as the 12^th minute of the game. However, as the referee blew the final whistle, victory was the only positive which could be taken out of this match with the Gunners distinctly below par and seemingly lacking in ideas.

Having started the game well, Steve Sidwell’s reckless challenge on Arteta, which left the referee with no option but to give the former Gunner his marching orders, should have enabled Wenger’s side to secure a comfortable victory. However the sending off actually made the game even more difficult for Arsenal as Fulham sat back, as deep as possible with all ten men behind the ball, looking to catch the away side on the break.

There was absolutely no space in behind the Fulham defence and the middle of the park was extremely congested and almost impossible for Arsenal to play through. Wenger’s decision to once again deploy Cazorla out wide, on the left flank, did not help matters either. The Spaniard does not provide any width to the Gunners attack as he naturally drifts inside, into the middle of the pitch, where he is most dangerous. While this tactic may be beneficial in certain circumstances, it is actually counterproductive when playing against a side reduced to ten men.

The best way to exploit a team who are a man down is to spread the play by getting the ball out wide as quickly as possible and engineering two on one situations on the flanks as a result of overlapping runs from the full backs. Yet with Cazorla on one wing and Theo Walcott on the other, also continually moving into the middle as he sought to get on the end of any Giroud flick ons, Arsenal did not have any width to their game and as a result couldn’t manage to get in behind the Fulham defence.

The Gunners just seemed to be content with maintaining possession, slowly passing the ball amongst themselves, but ultimately going nowhere and not posing any threat to the Fulham goal. It can be argued that Wenger should have reacted to this state of affairs and sought to introduce some width to his side with the introduction of a pacey winger such as Gervinho or Oxlade-Chamberlain. However the Arsenal manager does not like to make substitutions until at least the 70^th minute of the game and it would have been a surprise to see him make such a change as early as halftime.

Therefore it was extremely disappointing that Theo Walcott did not take it upon himself to remain out wide and stop drifting into the middle of the pitch in an attempt to support Giroud. The Frenchman was not really receiving any service with which he could hurt Fulham and as a result, Walcott, who was trying to feed off Giroud’s knock downs, became a peripheral figure in the game. The Englishman should have realised what was happening and that if he remained out on the wing, he would become more involved in the Arsenal build up play, benefiting his side greatly. However since signing his new contract Walcott’s form has dipped and he is sadly not the same player who was full of confidence and scoring for fun during the first half of the season. It was no surprise to see him substituted on Saturday.

While the Gunners struggled to create any significant goal scoring opportunities, Fulham actually posed the greater threat, catching the away side on the counter attack and forcing Szczesny into fine saves from Berbatov and Emanuelson. Although Giroud did hit the post, following a clever turn and shot on goal, Arsenal did not deserve to be in the lead at halftime. Yet right before the interval the Gunners did manage to score what turned out to be the match winning goal, thanks to woeful defending from the home side. Laurent Koscielny was completely unmarked in the six yard box as he headed Walcott’s free kick delivery across goal, where Per Mertesacker was able to steer the ball home, with no Fulham defender in sight.

Despite having taken the lead, the game did not change at all in the second half and in fact Arsenal seemed to play even worse than they had done in the first period. Once again their build up play was excruciatingly slow and at times appeared to have no real purpose. The Gunners were clearly content to sit on their one goal advantage as they showed no desire to increase their lead. After the game, Wenger blamed his players’ lethargy on the tough physical encounter with Everton on Tuesday, noting that the Toffees had also not been at their best in their defeat against Sunderland.

In the end, Arsenal were fortunate to see the game out, the defence standing firm under great pressure in the closing stages of the match, especially following Giroud’s red card in the 90^th minute. The Frenchman will now miss three of the last four games of the season, although this may well be a blessing in disguise as he has not been at his best in recent weeks and Giroud’s omission could provide Podolski an opportunity to stake his claim for the lone striker role.     

This was an extremely important victory for Arsenal, especially following Tottenham’s morale boosting comeback win against Manchester City on Sunday and Chelsea dropping two points in the last minute at Anfield. While both teams are within touching distance of the Gunners, their game in hand is against each other. Therefore Arsenal can only concentrate on their own games, seeking to win their remaining four fixtures. This will be a tough order against Manchester United at home on Sunday and then up against two clubs in the midst of a relegation battle in QPR and Wigan before a trip to Newcastle on the final day of the season. While there will be many twists and turns during the coming weeks, one thing is certain, any slip ups now will prove extremely costly. Wenger’s team must give their all to make sure that at the end of the campaign they are not looking back with regret.