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Sunday Showdown: Can Fulham scupper Arsenal's title charge?
41 Plays13 days ago
Gavin assesses Fulham's prospects against an Arsenal side that seem to be clicking into gear. He looks at the opposition and identifies areas where Fulham may be able to get some joy.
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Transcript
Match Preview: Fulham vs Arsenal
00:00:06
Speaker
sports podcast network work network Welcome back to the Daily Fulham Podcast or welcome along if it is indeed your very first time. We hope you can stick around. My name is Gavin Ruffle and I am bringing you your preview of Fulham Feet Arsenal. It's been a cold and blustery weekend for a lot of you so hopefully this fixture will give you that bit of warmth you're looking for.
00:00:27
Speaker
and it's actually the first of a double header of Westfield North London as luck would have it with Chelsea travelling to Spurs after this game is finished. So let's get into it then and Fulham come into this game with a spring in their step with a bounce after that midweek win against Brighton. Not the most scintillating performance but they got the job done, they got the three points, three goals in the process and that's all that matters really isn't it and There's a little bit of pressure I've gone into this weekend with a lot of expectation pinned on Arsenal.
Fulham's Confidence and Arsenal's Pressure
00:00:57
Speaker
Many people fancy them in another game away from home to do the business, having scored 10 goals in the last two games and in Europe and then against West Ham.
00:01:07
Speaker
So have they hit top gear? Have Fulham got them at the wrong time? i'm not I'm not too sure about that and with regards to is the pressure off? In some respects yes it is but I don't think there is a time when their pressure really is ever off. There's always that level of expectation by your own fans to put in a performance. If Arsenal go and beat Fulham By five here, I don't think Fulham fans after the game were saying, oh, it's all right. We played Arsenal. They're expected to challenge. So the lead pressure was off. No, you always have the pressure that you put on your team. And off the back of recent performances and performances, this what we've seen this season, I'm sure a lot of Fulham fans go into this game with a hope, maybe not necessarily an expectation, but a hope that they can put in a performance and really test this Arsenal team, which seems to be firing on all cylinders again after a little bit of a sticky patch towards the back end of October, start of November time.
00:01:56
Speaker
It isn't over London Derby which full of them have had success in. Eight London Derbys now without defeat going back to January of this year when they lost narrowly at Stamford Bridge. Although I do remember them losing to Manchester United in August so I'm not sure how how accurate that stat is.
00:02:13
Speaker
But no it just it just shows that they go into these games, these London Darby's now with the belief rather than that hope that I mentioned before that they can come out and will come out with a decent positive result and this was a this was a fixture that had Big consequences for Arsenal in terms of their title challenge last season. For them, getting four points from the two games, the game at the Emirates, they managed to somehow secure a 2-2 draw despite being down to 10 men. For a large portion of that game, Joe Pelina popping up with a late equaliser and then the win at the Craven Cottage.
00:02:46
Speaker
only their fourth win in the Premier League against Arsenal as you would expect. that is It has been a fixture Arsenal have dominated but one of those four wins did come last season towards the back end of the year. I think it might have even been the last last day of the year. I think that was actually the last time Arsenal took the lead in the Premier League game and went on went on to lose rather than him being one of the scorers that day. and After that fixture, Arsenal we're were a different beast towards the end of last season but it wasn't enough to prevent Manchester City winning the league again. I think they only lost the one game in that period of time to Aston Villa at home. So yeah, this is a fixture from last season that will haunt many Arsenal fans and people watching the game on TV or watching it at the ground, they'll have that eerie feeling maybe of what happened last year and how it could have been so different if the result had gone the other way.
Player Spotlight: Emil Smithrow and Alex Iwobi
00:03:38
Speaker
And I'm sure Arsenal fans would have had a keen eye on the progress of Fulham this season, with there being a lot of Arsenal connections at the club. Ben Leno has been at Fulham now a couple of seasons. Alex Will became at the start of last season. Reece Nelson's on loan, but the player I want to focus on is Emil Smithrow.
00:03:54
Speaker
because I just got the feeling when I was on the crossover as well that there's sort of mixed mixed emotions about that that transfer. I think a lot of Arsenal fans still wish he was at the club despite him maybe not playing a prominent role under Arteta having some injury problems. I feel like him growing up there as well being a boyhood Arsenal fan a lot of people wish he didn't move on but I think you've got to give credit to the player and his ambition as well the fact that maybe he felt Under Arteta, his game time at the club was going to be limited. He's got obviously competing with top quality players, someone like Martin Udegaard, who's in his position. The realisation is that I'm going to be limited limited to appearances off the bench, maybe playing the odd cup game, maybe playing the odd league game. That's not what he wanted. obviously He obviously has the ambition to make a career.
00:04:40
Speaker
in the Premier League and show that he can be a Premier League player and ultimately get back in the England squad where you where you want to be. and If any Arsenal fans wanted to know how his progress has been, I think it's been i think it's been good. He obviously cost a lot of money. What is a lot of money in today's world? I guess it is a lot of money for Fulham.
00:04:57
Speaker
to spend over £30 million pounds on one player. And we've seen flashes, we've seen glimpses. He's not been able to sustain it to a consistent level week after week, but what we see there, his ability to go past defenders, run with the ball at composure at times when he's in the box, when he's presented with scoring opportunities.
00:05:16
Speaker
It gives you a sense of what he's capable of and what his ceiling is. And we've we've not seen him reach his peak yet. So I won't go overboard with Hyperbole and saying he's been amazing. He's been brilliant. He's he's been fantastic. But what we've seen is a player that's probably had that spell where he has had the injuries, match fitness hasn't quite been there. ah He's not one to complete 90 minutes. So it's an important game for him. And it's always interesting, I find, when players go up against their boyhood club,
00:05:46
Speaker
how they react to that. Does he go into this game feeling there's a point to prove or does he get a bit emotional because it it can can work sort of both ways? that Does it spur him on the fact that he's had to move on to forward his career where he feels he probably could be a big part player at Arsenal and does he give him that little extra edge to want to do well in a fixture like this? So that'll be interesting to watch as well.
00:06:10
Speaker
And as we talk about many times, what I've talked about many times is Alex Owobi, two goals in midweek, continuing to put on impressive displays for Fulham. And he's another one who he did that he does actually play a lot of games for Arsenal before going to Everton. And I think we've seen the version we're seeing of Alex Owobi now is the best version we've seen of him in the Premier League because he's got that end product now.
00:06:33
Speaker
He's contributing with goals and assists and even if he isn't racking up those, he's always he's always a threat and makes an impact on games. Marco Silva, when asked about this game, as you would expect, he said Arsenal are a great challenge and a great test. He also singled out Rodrigo Muniz for praise, Rodrigo Muniz coming in midweek.
00:06:50
Speaker
a bit of rotation for Ralph Jimenez and saying he's been putting in the hard work and was pleased with how his players from the bench as well were able to make an impact and just want to re-emphasise that's that the full of scored more goals with players coming off the bench in any other side this season so it just shows there's competition for places, health and competition, players pushing one another, they know if they're not on the game then they've got someone jumping at the bit ready to come into the team and that's exciting because it is a squad game as well which you may mention of it's a squad at 26, it's not just 11, you have injuries, you have suspensions you have to deal with so whenever players are called upon to start, when they haven't started for several games they've got to be on the mark straight away.
00:07:31
Speaker
The one thing he did mention as well was the schedule among the the scheduling with this game, not having the time to recover necessarily. I know Arsenal had an extra day playing at home to Manchester United on the Wednesday, so we'll have that will that have an impact on the game? Possibly. yeah You'd hope not. You'd hope not.
00:07:49
Speaker
the way players are able to recover these days and you hope they don't come out laggy and a bit fatigued and tired and you wouldn't expect that it's a big important game for Arsenal certainly it's an important game even for Fulham maybe if they are in the prospects of European football it's an important game for them so ah you but you'd imagine they'd be bang up for an adrenaline would take over and hopefully there isn't that level of fatigue there despite them having the one day less to prepare for it than Arsenal.
00:08:16
Speaker
and we will come on to Arsenal in just a moment. But before we do that, let me talk to you about our sponsors. Here at the Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform. Zencaster came out the clear winner. With 4K video recording and AI editing that automatically removes all those ums and r's, it's super easy to start a podcast that sounds great and is delivered efficiently.
00:08:40
Speaker
If you're ready to tell your story check out the link in the show description to learn more about Zencaster. A arsenal starting to hit top gear again. As I touched on in the last two away games against sport and Lisbon and against West Ham they scored five in each game so is that a warning to Fulham? Is that an ominous sign and I think it's no coincidence that Martin Erdogan has come back into the team and he's probably taken a lot of pressure off these sort of other attacking players.
Arsenal's Attacking Dynamics
00:09:09
Speaker
He's that guy that can pull the strings. He can score, he can assist. He's got a great, great vision going forward. He picks out the right pass. He's one of those captains that leads by example on the pitch. He's not going to shout and scream at players, pull them to one side. He lets his football inability do the talking.
00:09:25
Speaker
And what I've been impressed with in in those performances is their ruthlessness. They want to score that third, that fourth, that fifth goal. When it's easy, maybe for teams going away from home, when you get the second goal, let's let's just let's just slow down the pace of the game here. Let's not be too frenetic. But watching them in in the first half against West Ham. When West Ham scored two goals against them, they they went again. They went against were decisive killer goals in those games and what they have had in those games, which I mentioned was important for Fulham in this particular game, they have had that clinical clean edge, which maybe even them, despite being at a higher placing in the league, they have lacked that clinical edge at times as well, which brings you on to the
00:10:08
Speaker
not Not much of a problem, but it's it's just one area where you feel, can they improve? Can they get better? And is that bringing in a centre forward? Who would that be? I'm not too sure. Obviously, we're less than a month away from the transfer window opening, so talk is going to hot up.
00:10:23
Speaker
there's been links with Victor Jocarège from Sporting Lisbon who's got a fantastic goal record since moving there and he's a player that would improve Arsenal. I mean you've got to commend Kai Havertz doing the job in that position. Gabriel Jay-Zou since he moved to Arsenal I think he's had injury problems as well. When he started his Arsenal career look he looked good, he looked like that guy that could potentially get 20 goals a season for them but never quite materialised. But what they do have in their favour Arsenal is they can score goals from different sources. They've had 12 goal scorers in the league this season which is more than any other side and six goals coming from defenders which is also more than any other side and Gabrielle's obviously being a major reason for that his fre his presence from corners and what I like from Arsenal at players when they go up for corners they go up not to add up extra body in the box they go up thinking I'm going to score here I got a real chance on goal here and even when Gabrielle was missing in midweek
00:11:21
Speaker
who steps up to score the goals, it's it's two defenders again, it's Timba and Saliba. And I don't know why it's met with derision and people mock it because scoring a goal from a corner, as I've mentioned before, it's just as important as scoring a wielding from 30 yards or build at play where you you pass a ball 30, 40 times, which leads leads to a goal.
00:11:48
Speaker
If you can take advantage of set pieces, then why would you not why would you not do that? And you've got to give credit to the delivery as well. It's something that they obviously practice. They've got that set piece coach there, but Saka and Bryce, those in swinging corners, they're on the money every time. and they've got the players that attack the ball. Yeah, that's that's something that full of them are definitely going to have to be wary of themselves on the weekend. It's not new now, is it? I mean, this has been going on since the start of last season, Arsenal's prowess from corners, but no one's quite seen to figure it out yet. so
00:12:21
Speaker
It's important, first of all, the best way to prevent is don't give away corners. But you know, when you're playing against the top quality Arsenal team with the attacking talent they have, that that's easier said than done. But yeah, just going back to the lack of a striker, they do make up for that because they have Bocciosac, they have the regard, they have trust or they have habits. But you just feel if they did have that 20 goal season strike, even Alexander Isaac, who I think I've mentioned a couple of months ago, who would be the perfect guy to fit into the Arsenal team, cannot just take them from title challenges to title winners because at the start of the season, I fancy them. They've been in the running, they've been in the mix for the last couple of seasons. Now, I think the first season, the wheels did fall off. I know Saliba got injured towards the end of that season and ah people like to use the but the word bottled it, don't they?
00:13:08
Speaker
It's a bit harsh at times, but there were a few games in there when they were in good positions and weren't able to see see them out. And the sign of a sign of a title winning team is they're able to grind out the wins when you're not performing at your best, when you're not playing that scintillating brand of football because you're not going to be scoring four or five goals away from home every single time.
00:13:25
Speaker
So could that propel them to win the title? I mean, people will come back and say, oh, look at Liverpool, Liverpool are top of the league and they don't have that, that centre forward. We know with Darwin Unas, he goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, but he's not that clinical goals for it, but they have Mo Salah. You know, Mo Salah makes up for the for the goals that any number nine would, be because he's guaranteed to get you at least 20 goals in the Premier League, probably in excess of 25 this season. He's on such a hot street. um So from Liverpool, I wouldn't worry about it so much. bakay sak ah Fantastic player. He's one of my favorite players in in the Premier League and he's going to be a massive danger for Fulham whilst, you know, he does have that output in in goals and assists. He's not getting you 25 Premier League goals. So I just think whether it's in January, whether it's in the summer, that's probably an area that Arsenal are going to have to look to address in order to take them from second third ultimately to winning their first title in the in quite some time.
00:14:20
Speaker
Before I come on to the fixture itself, look at some team use. Look at some key battles. I just want to draw your attention to GSPN.
Sponsorships and Promotions
00:14:30
Speaker
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00:14:50
Speaker
Some team news for Fulham. So Sassa Lukic, after being suspended for the game in midweek, he will be back. And you would imagine he would slot back in, as we've seen Silvers like to do in the games away at the Etihad and away at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He's utilised Berger and Lukic, so I think we'll see that again.
00:15:09
Speaker
which means it will we will go over to the left and then the question mark is who plays on the right because let's not forget Reece Nelson is missing this game he was missing this game anyway because he's on loan but he's he's going to be missing a few games I think now although it's not quite been confirmed what the extent of that injury but I think it's looking likely that it is a hamstring so he puts into doubt his availability you would say for the games coming up over Christmas and New Year hopefully it's nothing too serious and he can add another option for Fulham, but so they do have ah other options. We've seen players come off the bench and they're ready to start now. We saw Harry Wilson get that start in midweek and he's one of the players that could potentially play in that right wing, keep him in the team for a second consecutive start. Or you do have that wild card, that absolute bulldozer in a downward triore, which could be a another option. Someone who I felt in the Spurs game probably
00:16:01
Speaker
could have started or if not started, probably should have got more minutes. ah He didn't actually take any part in that game at all. So I think against these sort of thesea teams, whether they're going to Fulham to win the game, I think my try already is always a good option to have.
00:16:16
Speaker
But whichever way you go, whether it's Wilson or Adamo Troyore, I don't think it weakens the team. whichever Whichever guy you decide to put in, I think it's one of those when you see the team use break an hour and 15 minutes before kickoff, you're like, okay, you went with him. You're not you're not fussing. You're not, oh, God, I really wish you went with this guy. And I guess the same applies to the center forward position as well. We saw Rodrigo Muniz, who I've mentioned, Marco Silva, wanted to single out for praise. He put in a quietly impressive display, ultimately not getting the goal, had a couple of chances, headers that went wide, but his strength and his hole at play and just making the nuisance, being in tussles with defenders, he looked good from that from that respect. So does he start again? I don't think so. I think he will go back to Raoul him and as Raoul him and as he'll have good memories after scoring the equalising goal in this fixture
Fulham's Strategies and Arsenal's Challenges
00:17:04
Speaker
last season. So it was probably
00:17:07
Speaker
case of rotation, which is not something that Marco Silva is a great believer in. But with this week having three games and three high intensity games against teams, all in the higher reaches of the league, or certainly Spurs were for the defeat against Bournemouth. That's why he felt the need probably to take Raoul Jimenez out of the game against Brighton. And I think he will come in. And then the obvious other change would be Kenny Tettie, King Kenny, who's been super consistent this season. and You'll see him come in for Timothy Kostanya.
00:17:35
Speaker
And then coming on to the visitors, Arsenal, Gabriel, they didn't seem to miss him in midweek against Manchester United. We know the partnership between him and Saliba is probably the best in league, has been the best in the league for the last two or three seasons. So from a full-on perspective,
00:17:55
Speaker
You're hoping and he's not available to play, or they may be thinking, oh we'll we'll leave him on the bench for this game and then we'll just start him in the next game. Not take ah not take any risks because of the performance of Kivior in midweek. I think if you you're a Fulham fan, you'd be delighted if Kivior was playing in in central defence and Gabriel was not playing. and I think there are opportunities to exploit the Arsenal defence. We know the makeup of the Arsenal defence when everyone's fit, when everyone's available. It is probably the best defence in the league. But there are some some bits of that jigsaw missing at the minute. And there are, you know, if you're an Arsenal fan going into that game, you're not quite sure how it's going to look. You know Saliba is going to play obviously, but does he play Thomas Partey at Breitbart or timber? Timber could play left back. You've got Zinchenko.
00:18:43
Speaker
Kiviore could play left back if Gabrielle's in the team, Calafiori. So there are options there. it's not It's not completely settled and I feel that for them, if they can get the ball in forward positions in wide areas, then they can look to exploit that. Certainly on that level left side, if it isn't if Gabrielle is not playing. So they've got Kiviore and the left back, whoever that might be. I think that might be an area for Fulham to exploit. The other battle that's going to be one to keep an eye on it is Bukayo Saka against Anthony Robinson.
Key Match-Ups and Predictions
00:19:10
Speaker
Bukayo Saka in recent times has really failed to have a game where he hasn't had ah an attacking output whether that's a goal or an assist. Yeah he's he's a delight to watch hopefully for Fulham fans he's not a delight to watch on this particular occasion and him against Anthony Robinson is really one to to capture the eye. Anthony Robinson just been made Fulham captain deservedly so his game's come on even
00:19:34
Speaker
from where it was last season and the season before. I think he was prone to the odd lapse in concentration and he did have the odd shock. i think there was a really bad game he had in this fixture a couple of seasons ago where we're full and lost 3-0, but he seems to have really cut that out of his game. Maybe wasn't that his dynamic best going forward against Brighton in midweek, but you've got to give Brighton credit for that, the way they set up playing the three at the back. And Michael Silver said it was hard, hard to know when to press their wide players and they limited Anthony Robinson being able to get forward, particularly in that first half. But he's certainly' such an asset bombing up and down that left side. And yeah, that's when you're really looking forward to.
00:20:14
Speaker
Score prediction. yeah So many of the neutrals, many of the Arsenal fans would go into this game fully expecting them to come away with another three points. Making men's for last season, ah the result that had a big impact on them not going on to win the league.
00:20:31
Speaker
I think there's goals in this game. Fulham score in every game. There is going to come a point where where they don't score. But I'm backing them to score again at home here. I'm going for 2-2. I'm going for 2-2. Realistically, it's going to be tough to stop Arsenal the way they're playing at the minute. What we've seen of them in recent games, they seem like they've got their mojo back. And what they need to do now is to take advantage of Liverpool not playing. So they can gain ah a three points on them this weekend. And that'll be a great week for them when they're going away to West Ham winning.
Arsenal's Title Race Ambitions
00:21:00
Speaker
home to Manchester United winning and then capping it off with a victory against Fulham so they need to go on that sort of run which we see Manchester City go on from January towards the back end of the season and where they go 10-11 wins just string them all back to back because Liverpool have set such a ferocious pace beyond even any Ardent Liverpool fans expectation a lot of them would have gone into the season not knowing what what was going to happen with with Arna Slott taking over so Liverpool the are the ones out in front, they are the ones to catch in the moment. Massive game for Arsenal in order for them to get back into the tyre race because they've set back here another last year and it's it's one step forward, two steps back. But it happens in the Premier League, it happens. I mean, any time one of these top teams lose it seems to be a crisis, there seems to be a meltdown when Arsenal lose in the way at Bournemouth or lose in the wet Newcastle. News flash, teams lose games. You can lose games in the Premier League, it happens.
00:21:52
Speaker
Other sides are decent as well. They don't get the focus. They don't get the attention of these other teams that skylight to highlight and have them on every game and wax lyrical about them all or just focus so much on them. And they'll be the narrative again. If Fulham's doing Arsenal over here, it won't be, oh, well done, Fulham. What a good side. In the top six for a reason, it'll be Arsenal, they don't look the same, missing this player today, you know? Thinking, here we go again after a couple of good performances, couple of good results, and then you're back to your old frailties again, losing to Fulham.
Episode Wrap-Up
00:22:22
Speaker
But an another London Derby, film them go into it with confidence, Arsenal go into it with confidence. Hopefully that can result in a good game. Hopefully that that can result in goals. That'll do it for today's preview episode. Catch me again on the review episode where I you recap all the key events from the afternoon at Craven Cottage. We'll see you all then. Every club. Every day. The Global Sports Podcast Network.