Craven Cottage has traditionally been a successful hunting ground for Wenger’s Arsenal, but a Fulham side boasting several new signings looked to bounce back from their opening day defeat by Hull.

Arsenal on the other hand, looked to continue from where they left off against West Brom with another 3 points hopefully going their way.

Fulham Starting XI

Schwarzer
Paintsil – Hughes – Hangeland – Kallio
Bullard - Davies - Murphy – Gera
Zamora – Seol

Arsenal Starting XI

Almunia
Sagna – Toure - Gallas- Clichy
Walcott – Eboue – Denilson – Nasri
Adebayor – van Persie

First Half

A scrappy opening few minutes yielded little sight of goal for each side, with possession rarely retained by either team.  Walcott’s pace for Arsenal and Gera’s smart passing for Fulham helped create a few half-openings, but neither ‘keeper was troubled early on. The first decent chance came from good link-up play by the Gunners front two, van Persie feeding Adebayor who curled a shot past the far post.

Sagna produced a fine saving tackle to prevent Zamora going clean through, and minutes later tore down the right wing with Walcott. Theo’s cross met Nasri, who pulled the ball back only for van Persie to fire wide. This miss was to prove costly when a minute later Hangeland lost Gallas from the corner and lunged past the Arsenal captain to put Fulham one up.

Goal – Fulham 1-0: Hangeland (20)

Adebayor hung in the air to head a Sagna cross against the upright with Schwarzer beaten, but the momentary rally by Arsenal after the goal failed to sufficiently test the big Australian.

The first half held little in the way of excitement from an Arsenal point of view, with Murphy and Bullard  seemingly a step ahead of Denilson and Eboue in the middle of the park.  With Wenger’s side seemingly playing without their usual passing radar Arsenal went in trailing at half-time and in dire need of some inspiration.

Second Half

Arsenal started the second 45 in a marginally more positive fashion, Clichy and Nasri combined better than they had done in the first half to set up Adebayor, only for the Togo international’s shot to thunder into Hangeland.  The poor nature of possession soon returned, Denilson spurning a chance to set up a break by overhitting a pass under little pressure.

Fulham’s fluid midfield play continued to put the Gunners to shame, one symptomatic move creating a chance that Zamora thundered narrowly over.  Arsenal had still failed to test the Fulham ‘keeper by the time Zamora next had a hand in a chance for the home side, Davies smashing the ball high and wide from the new signing’s layoff.

After 66 minutes Wenger brought on Bendtner for Walcott with the Dane going up front, van Persie dropping to midfield and Eboue moving to the right wing.  This began paying dividends two minutes later when the Dutchman found space 20 yards out to drive at goal, but his powerful strike fizzed wide of the post.  Though promising, over 2/3 of the game had passed without a single Arsenal shot on target.

Song came on for toure on 77 minutes, but the Cameroon international slotted straight into the defence rather than in a more positive midfield role. It took almost another 10 minutes for a Schwarzer save, but Adebayor’s looping shot was a comfortable catch.

As 90 minutes approached the Gunners found no new invention, and at the final whistle had no more from the game than they deserved.  A truly disappointing performance where Arsenal were not fought out the game, they were outclassed in the disciplines they usually call their own – simple passing and running that Fulham displayed with more confidence and skill.

Player Ratings

Almunia – 5: Had almost nothing to do, could have done little for the Fulham goal, but had barely a save to make.

Sagna – 7: Confident in the tackle and moved quickly down the right, unfortunately had little to exchange with in central midfield when pushing forwards.

Toure – 6: Made one or two good tackles, still looked a degree short of full fitness.

Gallas – 5: Certainly at fault for the Fulham goal, should have attacked the corner but was left trailing.  Still not as dominant as he needs to be in defence.

Clichy – 6: Good in defence, but should have done better with several opportunities to cross.

Walcott – 5: Largely ineffectual, but more down to a lack of service than a lack of effort.

Eboue – 5: Raised his performance in the second half, but raised it to an insufficient level for an Arsenal first-team player. Slack in possession and still embarassing when going to ground under little pressure.

Denilson – 4: A dire performance by the Brazilian, shocking passing and made few challenges. He has shown some serious promise recently, but this goes as a reminder that he is far from the finished article.

Nasri – 5: Poor in the first half, decent in the second, he showed Wenger’s surprise over his rapid adjustment to English football to be justified.  Clearly has agility and skill in abundance, but will take some time to settle in.

Adebayor – 6: Had the best of the chances, but also some of the least possession.  Looked dejected late-on when enthusiasm would have been more useful, his header against the post was as close as Arsenal came.

van Persie – 6: Not a good game by his standards, but in fairness had some woeful service.

Substitutes:

Bendtner – 5: Added very little when he came on, was clearly hungry for the ball but miscontrolled it when it reached him

Song – 6: Was actually controlled at the back when Fulham looked to break after Arsenal pressure, saved a five-on-two situation well at the death.

Gooner Talk’s Man of the Match: Bacary Sagna: In what was a fairly miserable showing by Arsenal the French defender made a few crucial interceptions and probably passed better than alot of his teammates today.