Arsenal 3-1 Fulham – 29/04/07 – (Premiership) 29 April, 2007

The result looks alright on paper, but in reality it was a completely different story. Baptista scored a good headed goal inside 5 minutes to get us of to a good start. It was Adebayor with the assist, he made a good run and a short range cross was directed nicely into the top corner by The Beast. I thought maybe we were in for another 7-0 type thing…and it could’ve been that score line easily by half time but somehow the ball wouldn’t go in the net. Baptista could’ve had a hattrick in half an hour but he missed an absolute sitter and any hopes that maybe he might be improving were dismissed.

When I say it could’ve been 7-0 by half time I’m not joking, ok maybe a slight exaggeration but seriously, we could’ve easily been 5-0 up in the first 45mins. We completely dominated the first half, we were playing good football once again and it was some sort of a miracle that we weren’t way ahead by now. We were winning though; if it was 0-0 at this stage and we’d had all of these missed chances it would’ve been incredibly frustrating. We’ve been in that situation a few times this season at the Grove but luckily this time we had that one goal lead.

The second half was a different story. After Ade had smashed a close range effort over the bar in the opening minutes it was all Fulham. They came out a much better side and I think they were probably the better team. Don’t get me wrong we carried on our run of missed chances but the away side were getting a lot more of the ball and were searching for that precious equalizer.

Al these missed chances does make you wonder if we’ll regret them and in the 78th minute we were punished. Lehmann was pissing about way off his line trying to collect a cross but missed and the ball fell straight to ex-Tottenham scum Davies. He took the ball down and lobbed Lehmann and beat Toure who did all he could on the line. To be fair it was a difficult goal to score so he did well but he never should’ve got that opportunity. Sometimes things go through Jens’ head that should really stay there, this, another example of ‘Mad Jens’. The Fulham fans woke up, they are so desperate for points at the moment and somehow when they should’ve been several goals down, the found themselves level.

It seemed as if it wasn’t going to be our day until Adebayor popped up 5 minutes from time to score the winner. Fabregas put him through and Emmanuel finished calmly. This time the home fans went mad in sheer relief. Surely it wall all over now for Fulham, it looked for a while like we were going to drop points but we were back on track. We were awarded a penalty 3 minutes later when Hleb was brought down in the area. Gilberto finished perfectly, job done.

With that win we’re now a point behind Liverpool, 3rd is very much a possibility however our remaining games are Chelsea and Pompey, but the Scoucers have Fulham and Charlton. It’s fair to say we’ve got the harder run-in but with Liverpool turning their attention to the Champions League, there is a chance they could slip up. If we put the pressure on them you never know.

A quick mention to Clichy who I thought was excellent all over the pitch today. Our old left-back Ashley Cole makes his return to Arsenal next week and his replacement showed yesterday just how much we’re not missing the money-grabbing cunt. We look forward to Sunday’s big game now, the away side have the Champions League to focus on in the week and I hope they crash and burn, c’mon the Scoucers.

Thanks for reading.