Fulham Preview & Arsenal TV Competition 27 February, 2009

Our last three outings in the Premier League has produced three 0-0 draws against Sunderland, Spurs and West Ham. Before that it was a 1-1 against Everton and another 0-0 vs. Cardiff in the FA Cup. All these draws simply aren’t good enough and are resulting in us falling further behind Aston Villa.

Fulham themselves have had five 0-0 draws away from home so it’s no surprise the game is destined for a no-score draw.

We just need to win this one. Cesc has conceded the title and admits it is more important to look at 4th. He is confident that Villa will drop points between now and the end of the season. Wenger is confident we can make the top four and is hoping for a good run in from our young side:

“In football, nothing is unthinkable, but I am confident we will make the Champions League. There are 12 games to go, if we keep our consistency, spirit and attitude, and our focus, we will make it.

We have built a very young team, which is unbeaten since the start of November. Let’s keep doing that and continue to improve, keep our spirit and we will have a great spirit at Arsenal Football Club.
I never consider failure.

If you look at the fixtures, there are a few teams who have difficult fixtures. It is down to us to be consistent. We have 36 points to take, so let’s not speculate too much on the weakness of any other team. If we win our games, we will be there.”

12 games doesn’t seem like a lot but it is, out of the possible 36 points there are left I’m sure Villa will drop some of those, as will we I’m sure but we need to win as many as possible. This needs to start tomorrow. The four draws in a row means that from a possible 12 points we have taken four – not good enough.

Nothing has changed team-wise since Roma so there is no excuse. We did a good job on Tuesday night, I’m sure if we create that many chances against Fulham more will go in. Diaby was ruled out earlier in the week but today Wenger has confirmed he will be fit. Arshavin comes back into the squad but apart from that there are no arrivals. Therefore, I’m expecting the same team as Tuesday’s simply with Arshavin replacing Eboue:

Almunia
Sagna – Toure (c) – Gallas – Clichy
Arshavin – Diaby – Denilson – Nasri
Bendtner -van Persie

Toure and Gallas are forming a nice little partnership at the moment. All those 0-0′s do mean that we’re doing something right at one end of the field. Kolo handed in a transfer request because off his poor relationship with Gallas but he’s now saying that he’s happy playing with the ex-skipper. That’s good news, I’m sure the both of them are very professional about it, even if they’re not best friends off the pitch they’re still doing the right stuff on it.

Up front on Tuesday we played Nasri off van Persie with Bendtner on the left wing. I think tomorrow we will see the Dane back in the middle again with Nasri and Arshavin providing support from wide. Arsene’s been talking about our strikers saying he’s happy with what he has at the moment and not worried about recent missed chances. With Eduardo, Walcott and Adebayor all returning in the next couple of weeks we really are going to have some great options going forward this run in to the end of the season.

Fulham don’t have a single injury concern, which is just unthinkable as a Gooner. However right-back John Pantsil is suspended. I’m not too worried about Fulham; even though they beat us 1-0 at the beginning of the season I think we have enough to beat them tomorrow.

I do see us ending this drawing streak and boosting the confidence a bit with a win. Villa play Stoke on Sunday so we can go temporarily 3 points adrift of them but I do see them beating Stoke.

The game isn’t on TV but you can follow the game live over at Arsenal.com. Arsenal TV Online are offering 3 hours of tomorrow afternoon’s coverage completely free – That includes the full 90-minute audio commentary with Dan Roebuck and Ray Parlour, the first post-match interviews, live video post-match discussion and the chance to have your say throughout the show.

It’s something definitely worth getting involved in, I know I will be. You can find all the information here.

The guys at Arsenal TV Online have also given me a free 6 month subscription for me to give away to one of you guys. If you’re interested then there are two things I want you to do to enter:

1. Firstly I need your feedback for Arsenal TV Online. They want to know what you like/don’t like about the show, what could be added, what could be taken away or any other comments you would like to make about the show.
2. Secondly, a question on one of tomorrow’s commentators. What year did Ray Parlour leave Arsenal for Middlesbrough? Was it a.) 2002 b.) 2003, or c.)2004

Send your feedback and your answers to atvonline[at]the-cannon.com, you know the drill – replace the [at] for an @ sign.

I’m giving you until Monday midnight (English time) to answer, which should give you plenty of time to give any feedback of tomorrow’s free Arsenal TV Online coverage.

Well that’s it for today then. I’m back from Amsterdam now so normal service shall resume. Enjoy the game tomorrow.