MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 2 – 1 Fulham

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Arsenal (0) 2 Fulham (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 27th August 2022. Kick-off time: 5.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhāes, Kieran Tierney; Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard (c), Gabriel Martinelli; Gabriel Jesus.

Substitutes: Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Matt Turner.

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (64 mins), Gabriel (86 mins)

Yellow Cards: Ben White, Gabriel Jesus

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 72%

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistant Referees: Simon Long, Richard West

Fourth Official: Thomas Bramall

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR: Michael Oliver; AVAR: Lee Betts

Attendance: 60,164

Early days, early dreams. As supporters, we are all a trifle heady at our team’s recent success, but we have to keep our feet firmly planted on terra firma, certainly at least for the time being. It is also good for us to be in the newspapers for the best reasons; we know that Mikel Arteta and the boys are doing the right thing, by the amount of quality players that Arsenal are linked with, all of which will be revealed (or not) very soon. Of the first four matches of this season (including Fulham this afternoon), two have been London derbies, along with the pressure that these games bring, all of which has not an easy passage for the boys by any stretch of the imagination. By the way, at half-time, our ladies team will embark on a lap of appreciation, led by Euro 2022 winners from England, namely Beth Mead, Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy, along with Copa America winner Rafaelle who hails from Brazil. Additonally, the squad will be special guests at the match here at the Emirates this afternoon.

After the minute’s respectful applause for our late groundsman Steve Braddock, who passed away recently, the visitors started the match here in the beautiful North London evening sunshine. As has been the style of the house for us this season, we got stuck into the match almost right away, suffocating the oxygen of Fulham’s midfielders by moving quickly into position in order to receive the ball from a colleague and advancing on goal in a determined manner. The visitors are looking rather jittery in the opening exchanges, which led to our front runners capitalising on their nervousness in order to test their goalkeeper. The welcome return of full-back Kieran Tierney has given us width and penetration, and his ability to get into wide positions in order to launch the ball into the middle for our strikers must surely bear fruit at some point in the match. We had a penalty appeal denied in the twelfth minute when Martin Ødegaard was brought down by Joao Palhinha, but that incident only served to determine our desire to score. A surefire opportunity to score was wasted when Bukayo Saka picked the ball up from deep and surged forward. He saw Gabriel Jesus in front of him and found him easily enough, as he nipped into the Fulham penalty area, waited for support as Bukayo Saka crossed it but it was cleared by the hapless Fulham defenders. Chances are coming thick and fast now, with Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka all getting narrowly close with their shooting, and it is truly amazing just how the visitors are holding the Arsenal forwards at bay. Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka are just about everywhere in the Fulham half, collecting and spraying balls at will, with Gabriel Jesus constantly knocking on the door. Gabriel Martinelli nearly scored a clever goal from a corner which bounced off the Fulham crossbar after twenty-six minutes, and a couple of minutes later, there was a rare goalscoring opportunity for the visitors as Neeskens Kebano ran down the left wing before whipping in a great ball in for Bobby Decordova-Reid, whose header flew wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s goal, thankfully. Our best effort of the match so far came on the half hour mark when Bukayo Saka peeled away from the visitor’s defence to run in on goal. Tosin Adarabioyo did extremely well to get back but Bukayo Saka turned the Fulham defender before his curled strike was pushed away by former Gunner goalie Bernd Leno. Unfortunately, Ben White collected the first yellow card of the match when he clattered into Antonee Robinson, which was a silly thing to do, really. However, just before the break, Gabriel Jesus received our second yellow card of the game after a frustrating altercation with Joao Palhinha, and despite Arsenal’s seventy-four percent first-half possession (and absolutely no shots on our goal from the visitors) we somehow went into the half-time break honours even at nil-nil. Unbelievable.

Arsenal started the second half here at the Emirates with much expectation from the home crowd, and as such, the boys started the second period as the first half finished, with pressure on the Fulham goal. After some missed chances, most namely Martin Ødegaard’s long-range dipping shot which went straight at Bernd Leno and then a Gabriel Jesus weak effort that was also held comfortably by the Fulham goalkeeper. Just eleven minutes from the restart, saw a most calamitous incident, in which the visitors took the lead when Aleksandar Mitrović picked Gabriel’s pocket just outside the Arsenal penalty area, and the Fulham striker had the most easiest of chances to place the ball past Aaron Ramsdale to score the first goal of the match, which was totally against the run of play, it has to be said. In order to put yet more pressure on the Fulham goal, on the hour, Mikel Arteta substituted Eddie Nketiah for Kieran Tierney, and almost immediately there seemed to be a different feel to the game. To be fair, we responded quickly and immediately set about with the task in hand. The answer to our efforts came in the sixty-fourth minute, when Bukayo Saka turned and ran towards goal before passing square to captain Martin Ødegaard, whose exquisite stepover opened up some space but his shot took a wicked deflection to wrongfoot goalie Bernd Leno and landed in the back of the net for a well-earned equaliser. All to play for now! Aaron Ramsdale made an incredible save from a strong header courtesy of Aleksandar Mitrović, and at the other end, the combination of Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard came close to scoring, and as the match wore on, tired legs saw tough tackles from both sides. With nine minutes of the match remaining, Gabriel played a lovely ball through the defence to send Gabriel Martinelli away on the left side of the box, who cut it back for Eddie Nketiah but his snap shot went straight into the arms of Bernd Leno. A few minutes later, Gabriel, whose mistake led to Fulham’s opener, fired home from close range after Bernd Leno failed to claim a corner; however, there was a call for a foul, but after a VAR check, the goal stood, thankfully. Almost immediately, Takehiro Tomiyasu replaced Gabriel Jesus, and right on the end of ninety minutes, Fulham were denied an equaliser as Aaron Ramsdale made a brilliant save from Nathaniel Chalobah, much to the relief of all concerned. In the five minutes injury time, Rob Holding replaced Martin Ødegaard in order to shore up matters in the defence, and despite one or two difficult moments, we ran out winners by the odd goal in three.

Although there was one or two dodgy moments, we showed immense character to come back from a goal down to take all three points and maintain our one hundred percent record, twelve points from four matches. Also, according to the record books, Mikel Arteta has just overeseen his hundredth Premier League game in charge today, picking up one hundred points in his second fifty (W32 D4 L14) after accruing seventy-five in his first fifty (W21 D12 L17). How about that then! Every man played his part in this victory, every man showed their determination to win, and every man deserves the praise of the football press this weekend. Top of the league? You betcha.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Aston Villa at the Emirates on Wednesday, 31st August at 7.30pm. Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon

3 into 2 does go for Neto and Arsenal

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Mirroring the debate had at centre back, some people are questioning why we are targeting Pedro Neto when we “already have Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka”.

It sometimes feels at Arsenal, we are the only team that are not allowed to have squad depth.

With 50+ games to play this season, we need a deep squad to allow Mikel Arteta to rest and rotate without seeing a drop off in qua;lity.

Last season we had a starting XI that was a match for anyone. But we did not have the strength in depth.

This led Arteta to over playing the likes of Bukayo Saka, and we paid for it in the run in as players looked exhausted and lost form.

With Nicolas Pepe now gone, it leaves us with just Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe as wide options.

At this point some might say “and Gabriel Jesus” – but we need to remember he is our main striker. And with a high energy game, he will need to be rested and rotated for Eddie Nketiah.

We need to be in a position where Eddie can come in for Jesus to rest the Brazilian, not because he is required to fill in out wide.

Likewise, Fabio Vieira can play out wide. But he is also the cover and competition for Martin Odergaard and an option to replace Granit Xhaka if we want to go more attacking. He should only be an option on the wings in an emergancy.

And the chances of that emergancy will decrease if we sign one more winger: Pedro Neto (or another winger).

Neto ticks a lot of the boxes:

  • Premier League proven
  • 25 or under
  • High work rate
  • Can play on both wings

Whilst I would not pay £50million for him, if we do have that sort of funds available and it can get the deal done, we should consider it – especially when you compare to Morgan Gibbs-White going for £45million and Anthony Gordon being linked with a £60million+ move.

Neto is better than both of these.

If we signed Neto, our wide options would then be Saka, Martinelli, Neto and Smith Rowe.

And this is why the transfer fee would not bother me.

I would not look at it as “Neto for £50million” but more “Neto, Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe, Jesus and Nketiah for less than £100million”.

That would be a fantastic array of attacking hungry attacking talent.

Bar potentially having to recruit better cover for Jesus (if Nketiah doesn’t cut the mustard – although then Balogun might get the chance), we would not have to look at our attack line for 3 or 4 seasons at least.

We would have more than enough games to keep Neto, Saka and Martinelli happy. Whilst Smith Rowe will still see plenty of game time as he provides us with another option inside.

Neto also further strengthens the striking options. It would give us the alternative of playing Martinelli through the middle with Neto playing outwide.

Some might question Neto’s output – 9 Premier League goals in 76 games.

But we must remember these are statistics of a young player – Neto came to the Premier League as a 19-year-old, playing for an ultra defensive team and suffered a bad injury.

In his first two seasons with Wolves – prior to his injury – he had scored 3 and 5 goals. Cristiano Ronaldo in his first two seasons scored 3 and 4.

Now I am not saying he is as good as Ronaldo. But more than we should ignore a young players early statistics in a new league.

Ronaldo turned 22 and went from boy to man. Going from scoring 9 goals in his 3rd season to 17 in his 4th and 31 in his 5th.

We basically need to be scoring 90+ goals a season to compete for the title. The way I see the breakdown is:

Jesus: 20-25
Nketiah – 10
Saka – 10-15
Martinelli – 10-15
Neto – 8-10
Smith Rowe – 5-8
Odergaard – 5-8

That would give us between 68 and 91 goals (it will probably be somewhere in the middle as you would not expect every player to hit their “max” – and if they do we are champions).

The rest of the goals are then made up from your other players and own goals.

So we would not need Neto to come in and hit 10-15 goals from day one. Just 8-10.

And if he does hit 10-15 goals, it probably means he has forced his way into the team ahead of Martinelli or Saka and as a result their goals will drop (down to 8-10).

Now some will say we should go for Wilfried Zaha rather than Neto as a proven goal scorer from out wide. It is a new from me.

It would be crazy getting rid of Pepe and signing Zaha – who is basically a Pepe clone.

Zaha, like Pepe, relies on space in behind. His team playing counter-attacking football. We do not play that and usually come up against side that play a low block.

The same problems Pepe faced, Zaha will also have. And like Pepe, his passing is not good enough meaning he can not move the ball quickly and efficiently to create gaps in the opponents defence (Zaha usually averaged less than 80% pass completion whilst Neto is just shy of 90%).

Add in that Zaha turns 30 in November, it woukld be crazy to bring in an ageing, short term option on high money considering we have just spent 2 years getting rid of the sort of player.

When it comes to Neto, 3 into 2 does go.

(And if we can not get the Neto deal to work, we have alternative options in Mykhaylo Mudryk and Yerimi Pino).

Enjoy the game today. Lets make it 4 wins from 4.

Up the Arsenal.

Keenos

Edu set for busy week resolving 5 transfer deals

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As the Sky Sports News transfer window clock tickets below 7 days to go, Arsenal still have business to do.

The window “slams shut” at 11pm on 11pm BST on next Thursday. So what transfer saga’s will be resolved in the next 7 days?

Pedro Neto

The Wolves midfielder has been the big “new link” to Arsenal this week.

Over the course of the window, plenty of armchair scouts have said Neto is a player we should be targetting and this week David Ornstein dropped this:

Neto would be an interesting acquisition to the side.

His age, versatility, work rate and Premier League experience matches the profile of our recent transfer strategy.

The 22-year-old winger would provide cover and competition on both wings to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.

With us having 50+ games to play this season, he would enable us to rest and rotate those wide men.

Last season we ran Bukayo Saka into the ground and without adequete competition, the same will happen this season. Signing Neto would be a coup and it would give Mikel Arteta 3 fantastic wide options.

The big stumbling block would be Wolves do not really want – or need – to sell. And Arsenal do not really have the funds to make an offer that they just can not refuse.

When you consider Morgan Gibbs-White was recently sold by Wolves to Nottingham Forest for £45million and Chelsea are considering spending £60million on Anthony Gordon, you begin to realise just how much it might take to secure Neto’s services.

Jorge Mendes relationship with Wolves could be key.

His agency (Gestifute) are in bed with the Midlands club who utilse the relationship to sign Portuguese players they have no right in signing.

Part of that agreement has to be that Mendes will push his clients towards Wolves, as long as Wolves sell on his clients when a “bigger” club comes in.

It is a “benefits all” agreement as Mendes gets talented young Portuguese players playing time in the Premier League, Wolves get players that are better than they’d naturally attract, and everyone makes a bit of money when they are sold on.

Wolves currently have 11 players that are signed with Gestifute. Can they afford to upset Mendes by refusing to sell one of his clients. It will be biting their nose of to spite their face.

Neto is a realistic target, but we would need Mendes to put the pressure on (and this will probably cost a few million in agents fees!)

Youri Tielemans

I still maintain we will not be in for Youri Tielemans.

I just can not see the deal happening when we have quite a few “number 8s” now in Martin Odergaard, Granit Xhaka, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Emile Smith Rowe.

Arsenal were in for him early in the summer, I think that is clear and obvious, but as it progressed we moved for someone else (Vieira) and decided to stick with a current player (Xhaka).

Now some might begin having the debate between Xhaka and Tielemans, but it is one that is not worthwhile waisting your breath on.

Tielemans only comes in if Xhaka is sold. And as anyone who has watched All or Nothing will know, Xhaka is the leader on and off the pitch. He might not wear the armband but he is the captain.

Add in the Zinchenko can play in midfield and we are overloaded in the centre of the park.

The only place in central midfield we need to strengthen is cover for Partey. but Tielemans is not that!

And I expect us to go big for a defensive midfielder next summer who can go on to be a long term replacement for PArtey rather than short term cover.

Tielemans will not happen (disclaimer: unless Leicester drop the price to something silly!)

Nicolas Pepe

Rumours emerged a couple of weeks ago that Nicolas Pepe might be off to Nice on loan.

The Ivorian winger is clearly not in Mikel Arteta’s plans and was left out of the squad for the Bournemouth game.

Whilst Nice seem to be in pole position to buy, Leicester City have quietly been linked with him.

Leicester City need to sell to buy, and the likes of Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans have been linked with moves away.

If they sell one of these for big money, they might end up doing a transfer deadline day Supermarket Sweep and overpay for anyone they can get their hands on.

Another interested suitor could help Arsenal in negotiations with Nice – potentially allowing us to insert (or increase) any obtions or obligations to buy.

I think he will end up being a Nice player (and it might happen before this blog has been published). But keep an eye on Leicester.

Note: he joined Nice late last night…

Ainsley Maitland-Niles

It is surprising that there has been next to zero transfer speculation surrounding the future of Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

In 2020 he was subject of a £15million bid from Wolves, and then in 2021 he was reportedly close to joining Leicester City.

On both occasions, he was denied his wish to leave and played very little in the first halves of the season. This resulted in loan deals (firstly to WBA, then to Roma).

His stock has certainlg dropped since 2020 – when he won 5 England caps and he turns 25 in a few days.

His career has stalled in the last 2 years – and Arsenal are to blame – and he now has just one year left on his contract.

The Ainsley Maitland-Niles saga has now been going on for 2-years and the lack of transfer speculation makes me think it will not be resolved this summer.

I just can not see where a bid will come from – unless a club that has started slowly becomes desperate and is happy splashing the cash.

More than likely is that this season will mirror the last 3 – he will remain at Arsenal doing very little before moving out on loan in January. He will then depart on a free next season.

Hector Bellerin

The fturue of Hector Bellerin is a strange one.

He seems to want to return to Real Betis, but they reportedly do not have the finances to make a deal happen.

Bellerin was rumoured to have offered Arsenal to cancel his contract to get the move to enable Betis to finance a free transfer, but this has not materilised.

In recent days Bellerin has been linked with Barcelona.

Arsenal are reportedly demanding just £5million for Bellerin, but like Betis, Barcelona are holding out for a free transfer.

I can see this one going down to the last day and it will be “who blinks first” between all parties involved.

Plenty still for Arsenal to work in over the next 7 days. And with 2 games during this team, you begin to see why no top club has any manager / head coach involved in transfer dealings anymore.

Edu is set for a busy week.

Keenos