First thoughts: Fulham (A)

My raw reaction on the final whistle to Fulham vs Arsenal

Here are my initial thoughts at full time, giving my big picture view, what positives I am taking from the match, and the negatives.

Main takeaway: Arsenal take care of business against a tough mid-block

There are not many teams that give Arsenal problems over the last 3+ seasons but there has been an architype that the ones that do generally share.

The pattern of dropped points has often been against teams that sit in a very disciplined shape, making it so Arsenal do not have access to the middle of the field or opportunities to get the game flowing back and forth and say here we are break us down while looking for the opportunity to capitalize on a mistake.

That is something that Fulham have done in the past, and they have picked up points against Arsenal in three of the last five matches.

They did it again here and it took until the 58th minute for Arsenal to get on the board (they nearly got it in the first half from what would have been an excellent strike, but it was marginally but correctly called offside).

This was a match that was a bit shaky to start (as things often are after an international break) but Arsenal grew into the game. The attacking pressure graphic I think is a good view of this match. Really showing the overall flow, where Fulham had some good chances early in the match and then it swung pretty heavily to Arsenal.

We all would have liked to have seen things go more in Arsenal’s direction and to win this sort of match by more than a goal to give us a bit more comfort but ultimately the chances were there, they just didn’t end up in the back of the net here.

It wasn’t the most sparkling performance but the opposition have a bit to do with that and they didn’t really give Arsenal the opportunity to exploit space. Maybe if that goal that is scored in the first half is onside, or the penalty is not overturned, they come out a bit more and attack, leaving more space but that was not the match that we got today.

In the end, it is a win and Arsenal stay on top for another weekend.

Positives: