Tag Archives: Fulham

For Mikel, is madness the…method?

Three matches in, and it’s hard to feel like we’re shifting through the gears. Three sputtering results have yielded seven points from nine available, but it’s hard to draw confidence from that, what with Man City taking nine from nine and three others taking the same seven. A soft-ish string of fixtures should have seen us seize three confident, momentum-building wins ahead of a tricky visit from Man U, but, instead, we find ourselves in what amounts to an existential crisis. Just what is Arteta up to? Short answer: he’s pursuing longer-term goals. Long answer: ummm…

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Furious fans DEMAND Arteta be SACKED after Fulham debacle!

Okay, so no, they didn’t. Well, a few did. They’re the same “fans” who demanded Arteta be sacked after we stumbled to fifth place two seasons ago, after we failed to win the Prem last season, and after we lost to Man U over the summer. There are some fans whose emotional stability matches that of a ping pong ball in a bouncy house. Yes, on paper, we really should have trounced Fulham. That we ended up narrowly escaping with a point offers cold comfort. Arteta does deserve the lion’s share of the blame.

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Arsenal 2-2 Fulham​—vote for player ratings & MOTM!

Well, that was disappointing. Borderline infuriating, come to think of it. When you’re at home to Fulham and it’s Paul Tierney who awards you a penalty and sends off an opponent, you have to feel like it’s your chance to comfortably take all three points. Instead, we conceded inside of sixty seconds, fought back to take a lead, and then conceded again to a ten-man side that will be lucky to finish in the top half of the table. We wasted countless chances and misplaced countless passes and really have only ourselves to blame. Well, enough whingeing. Take your frustrations out in the post-match poll below the fold…

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Can a Mitrovic-less Fulham put anything past us?

I’m almost upset that the Serbian bête noire, Aleksandar Mitrović, has joined the exodus to Saudi Arabia. I’d just coined the adjective “Mitrovician”. Then again, that does sound like one of those dinosaur periods. Anyway, Mitrović’s departure is both boon and bane. On one hand, with him in the lineup, we’d know what to expect: lots of balls into the box, lots of crosses and hoped-for set-pieces, and enough shithousery to make Diego Costa green with envy. On the other, without him Fulham get a little less predictable, which is not the same as “more dangerous”. All the same, we’d do well to be wary.

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How do you solve a problem like Magalhães, Arsenal’s “forgotten” man? Sell him?

Last season, Gabriel Magalhães was a rock. He and William Saliba formed one of the best centre-back pairings we’ve seen in the Emirates era. Two matches in to the 2023-24 season might feel too soon to be asking questions, but I can’t be the only one who’s wondering why Magalhães, free from injury, has only played 24 minutes so far. That number is almost surely inflated beyond what Arteta planned; he sent Magalhães to help defend a precarious lead over Palace after Tomiyasu was sent off. There have even been transfer rumours emanating from Saudi Arabia and Real Madrid. What gives?

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