It always worries me before any game when the Just Arsenal comments are full of predictions like “We always beat Fulham”; “We will win easily”; “Expect a ton of goals against Fulham”; “Our opponents are weakened right now”; etc, etc.
When we all talk like that, you can be damn sure that we are in for a much tougher game than expected. In fact last season at the Emirates, we only beat Fulham thanks to an 86th minute winner from Gabriel after we had to come back from a goal down. The season before was even worse, where Fulham were winning 1-0 until a Nketiah equaliser in the 97th minute!
So please let us all be a little more realistic and remember the fact that there is no such thing as an easy game in the Premier League. Mikel Arteta obviously knows that, as he made clear in his pre-gane discussion: “I think what Marco and the coaching staff have done is remarkable. The way they played last season, where they finished in the Premier League and especially the way they did it, it was incredible.
“He is a coach that I always admire because they’re really well organised, they have really clear ideas of what they want to do, and you can see his team exactly in the way that he wants them. Tomorrow, we’re going to have a tough match.”
“…. as I said, it is a team that creates a lot of challenges and difficulties. It happened last year when we played there and at home and had tough moments. The way we won at home was in the last minute, and away we were really good in the first half but not so good in the second half, so tomorrow I’m expecting something very similar.”
So, please, please, don’t get carried away if we are not 3-0 up by half-time. Whoever our opponents, the team is still growing in fitness and learning Arteta’s new tactical changes.
Please be patient, but we still need to make sure we get the three points! As our captain Martin Odegaard admitted yesterday: “You are not 100 per cent in your best form at this stage of the season, and it can take time to build your rhythm, but at the same time, you have to win the games. It’s crucial to pick up these points, and build that confidence early on.”
COYG!
JustArsenal Show – NEO discusses and breaks down his in-depth analysis of Arteta’s tactics used against Crystal Palace and what we can expect against Fulham….
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The last campaign top dogs Arsenal and Man City, both start the season with kind schedule whether we want to admit it or not.
Let’s move from the first six games to ten, technically Spurs and Chelsea do have easy starts as do us.
We can play with words as much as we want but I welcome the easy stat for our new signings to integrate as much as possible before we face the real music.