A trip to The Cottage is full of nostalgia. Cosy ground by the river, no longer owned by that clown Al-Fayed (now owned by a Pakistani American) and managed by a chap from Serbia, Fulham are a fine club
A family club (whatever that means).
They have some decent players as well … the wonderkid Sessegnon, the powerful Mitrovic, the speedy and very expensive ex-Chav Schurrle, a very good Italian MF named Seri. They are a decent team who have yet to find their feet in the PL.
If you need to know more, read GN5’s excellent post from yesterday.
I expect a tough game this lunchtime. We returned from a very long Spursday trip to Baku late Friday morning and had only a day to prepare for this one, though many players were rested for the Qarabag tie.
The team almost picks itself with only the Holding or Mustafi selection in doubt. My hope is that Emery rewards Holding with a starting role but I suspect he will give the shirt to Mustafi (AWTH).
Oh … I forgot. We still have the Ozil & Ramsey quandary. I much prefer Iwobi to play instead of Aaron but think we will see a repeat of the early subs with Ramsey starting but not finishing the game.
My Team:
Leno
Bellerin Mustafi GB Monreal
Ramsey Terrier Xhaka
Ozil
Lacazette PEA
As usual we will have a very strong bench.
Much is being made of the possible 9. Given we have yet to see a solid consistent 90 minutes in any of our victories it is proof that good fortune remains important in a fledgling managerial career. Had our opposition taken the many chances on offer we would be discussing Emery in a very different manner.
Should be an entertaining game and, if we can score early, a positive result.
COYRRG
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Not around for the game but luckily it is being shown on TV and as such recordable.
Will be back for banter later this afternoon.
Cheers, BR.
Here’s the team, Iwobi, Welbeck….No big Sok
No Mesut – feck!
Well Emery just solved the Ozil/Ramsey conundrum — don’t play either of them.
This one I have got to see.
Thanks Erik
Your lifestyle is the envy of many far younger than you. Well played 🙂
Fascinating team. Unai rewarding hard workers AND getting some balance into the XI
Not sure how they’ll line up but as I asked during the week, could Mkhi do the midfield to attack connector role? I think so
Perhaps he’s gone into labour in sympathy wih Rambo’s missus.
Not that I’ve heard anything about her current state of dilation!
Ooooh looking forward to seeing how this front four works out ……
Hello all, or is it both?
Up the Gunners and all that
thank you, Raddy. Perfect as ever. 🙂
sorry knot bin ear, but following now.
COYG. haf to kip the pressure on the skums formerly from the swamps down in N17. Need to get St Totts day back to the calendar
very very nice
Iwobi having a good game
Blimey, I’m late to the party. I didn’t even know the game had started and we’re 1 nil up.
Thanks for the PM Raddy, it seems we have a squad deep enough to be without several big names … that augers well for the rest of the season.
Radio London commentary ” They used to say you couldn’t see that Riverside stand sometimes in the 50s and 60s for all the cigar smoke from Tommy Trinder and all his show biz mates”!
Shit!
Fred
“straight up saucing” ha ha love it 🙂
Fulham 3 chances in that 45 – all from shitty passing out from the back.
It isn’t working today.
Bollox, it’s my fault … we were 1 up until I started following 😦
From the stats it looks like they’re creating more chances than us ….
Just read chas’ comment … maybe not then …. the flashscores app has them having 12 goal attempts compare to our 4?
Fulham’s confidence should be lifted, last season we would have crumbled, should be interesting to see how the team responds.
Rasp
They’ve peppered the Arse fans behind the goal with ludicrous attempts from outside the box which would have been decent attempts at rugby conversions.
Lacazette 😁
damn, missed goal, scorcher?
wow, thanks Fred
Laca having a great game
Mustafi plays so well when playing alongside holding
iMO mkhitaryan has been poor today
wowwwwww
Iwobi probably pissed
Brilliant brilliant goal
Thanks chas …. it’s quality that counts 🙂
It sounds like Ramsey’s is a candidate for goal of the season the way they’re raving about it on BBC Sport …
It sounds like we’re playing with real freedom now ……
“C’est manifique”……..with not a Wenger in sight!
no5 🙂 🙂
Passing out from the back at its finest
Super second half ….. brilliant brilliant goals
fantastic performance
off for a canoe
back later to gloat and savour
😲 WOW
Look up Spurs – yes that’s the Arsenal above you!!!!
Brilliant 2nd half
Nice one Raddy,
That was as good as it gets from Arsenal, but yet again we could so easily have been undone by our defense giving the ball away in dangerous areas. I like Leno and Torreira is the reincarnation of the Duracell non stop battery TV ad.
Chas
There is something in drafts, feel free to chop, change or add to it.
Hope it helps.
That was a fine performance. We dominated the first half and I was worried we may be down hearted after the equaliser, instead we came out and smashed th Cottagers.
Ramsey’s goal is just a work of art with Bellein’s scorpion pass the highlight
LB
Thanks a lot, much appreciated.
Erik
Agree about the Ramsey goal and the Bell flickette
Bigger picture for me is having two top strikers in Auba and Laca. GN5 rightly points out that we came close to conceding more, however, Fulham don’t have our quality of finishers. We do 🙂
Furthemore, I reckon our two are as good as any other top four side
I’ll be very interested to read the LB match analysis and also to hear everyone’s view of the Mkhi central midfield performance
I suspect you are going to be disappointed on both counts as there is only a sentence on each 🙂
Still there are other things
Maybe Micky could write a Monday post on Mhiki’s performance?
We are going to need some posts as we go into another flipping Interlull
I think LB has monday covered 🙂
LB
One sentence? Really clever people tend to use less words. Now I want to read that sentence even more
Naturally I’m inching towards the Mesut : Mhki discussion
Couple of observations:
First negative, Mustafi should have been across to snuff Schurle.
Right that’s that done.
Positives :
Is Lacazette Ian Wright reincarnated? His two finishes today reminded me so much of him, both taken before keeper knew it was coming so little backlift.
Torreira, finally we have a replacement for Gilberto.
The rest very good, people will rave about the Rambo goal, started well by Laca, but felt Fulham should have stopped it twice. Especially after Rambo’s poor first and second headers, Mikhi did well to retrieve.
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