Match Preview: Fulham v Arsenal (Premier League)
Arsenal play away to fellow Londoners Fulham in Saturday’s Premiership derby at the Craven Cottage
The Gunners managed to win on the opening weekend to newcomers West Brom, while the Cottagers had started their campaign with a loss against another newly-promoted side – Hull City.
The signing of MikaeL Silvestre has gone a long way to assuage fears about a lack of experience in within the squad, and the Frenchman could well shake off a muscular problem to make his debut following the most surprising of transfers from Manchester United.
Fulham Team News
Fulham memorably beat Arsenal at Craven Cottage in November 2006 but have failed to secure a single victory in their 14 London derbies since that game.
Roy Hodgson’s hopes of springing a shock have also been hit by the news that £10 million striker Andy Johnson is still expected to be sidelined for up to three weeks.
Ex-Reading star Seol Ki-Hyeon will continue his strike partnership alongside former Hammer Bobby Zamora.
Predicted Starting XI
Schwarzer
Pantsil – Hangeland – Hughes – Konchesky
Bullard – Murphy – Davies – Gera
Ki-Hyeon – Zamora
Arsenal Team News
Like we revealed to you on Monday, Arsene Wenger has encouraging news on Samir Nasri, who had pulled out of France’s midweek friendly due to an injury problem. The 21-year-old winger, who had scored the match-winner against the Baggies on his debut, has recovered from a thigh problem.
Alex Song is back from Olympics duty with Cameroon while Cesc Fabregas is several days away from full fitness.
Cesc Fabregas (hamstring), Abou Diaby (thigh), Philippe Senderos (hamstring), Amaury Bischoff (groin), Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) and striker Eduardo (leg) remain sidelined.
Predicted Starting XI
Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Toure – Clichy
Eboue – Denilson – Song – Nasri
Adebayor – van Persie
Match Prediction: Fulham 0-2 Arsenal
Leave your views and predictions of tomorrow’s game in the comments section below.
Goonerchris Any News On Barry, Inler, Alonso
I Think This Barry Situation Is A Smokescreen
Nice, I Wanna See Silvestre Play.
Steven The Gunner… Walcott is still 19 but he obviously has more talent than Eboué. Eboué is 24 if he wasn’t that strong and fast he wouldn’t have lasted. If you talk about poor decisions and poor reading, Eboué is the first one you should mention.
Walcott needs a long run in the starting line up to improve his decision making…
But Wenger will play Eboué tomorrow so no need to discuss this any more 😛
I'd be disappointed to see Johan Djourou dropped simply due to the return to fitness by Toure. However, I would be delighted to see Song given more opportunities in the central midfield role that he has reportedly impressed so much in for Cameroon.
Chris are you going to write up that article about inler.
Also i have heard everton have made a 7 million bid for him.
Not too sure at the moment, I'm in contact with a couple of people and will get back to you on it soon.
Where did you hear that?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/08/…
I know it's probably a rumour. To be honest i bet everton just copied us. Seeing as they are so desprete for a signing of some sort.
I can't see Inler going to Everton when he knows he's pretty much guarenteed first team football at a better European football playing club.
It's likely Eboué will start again because he's Wenger's favourite player 😛 But I still hope to see Walcott instead of Eboué on the right wing. My prediction is 0-4 Adebayor, van Persie (2) and Nasri taking care of the goals.
I could see that happening.. I don't think we'll concede against an up-front of Ki-Hyeon and Zamora!
Chris Any News On Inler
Mouhsin Sorry To Say Eboue WIll Always Be Infront Of Walcott If He Doesnt Step Up His Game
Walcott Game Reading Is Poor And Makes Bad Decisions
Walcott His Getting The Chances And Aint Taking Them Eboue ANd Rosicky Must Just Laughing
My score prediction is 3-0 and i agree with what someone else said in that Djourou should be allowed to carry on alongside Gallas as he played very well against WBA. Also toure may not be fully fit, apart frm that i agree with the team uve selected Chris.
2-0 sounds great! i dunno about song starting though when did he get back ?
COME ON ARSENAL!!!
Let the football talk.. Not to sure about the creativity comming from the 2 cmfs if thats the line up..
I expect a lot of goals! Our “poor” defence will show how good they really are… Nasri will be our creative force, Denilson will be controlling the midfield with Song doing the dirty work for him. Sagna will have one of his best games yet. van Persie will be wanting to show that he's a true Arsenal star after his good game with The Netherlands.
“Fulham memorably beat Arsenal at Craven Cottage in November 2006 but have failed to secure a single victory in their 14 London derbies since that game.”
I never knew we'd played Fulham 14 times in the last two seasons :P.
I think it's worth continuing Djourou at CB because he's played well. If he falls out of form, then I'd like to see Toure back, otherwise I hope Djourou starts. Then again I really wouldn't be surprised to see Toure start either.
I hope we start with the midfield you've shown, but I'd prefer if Theo was given the chance to impress instead of Eboue. If he doesn't impress against Fulham, then we really should be worried as we'd only have two good wingers in Nasri and Rosicky. Fulham aren't a great attacking team so Arsene can't use his usual excuse of “balance” for starting Eboue, especially if we play Song at CM.
I think Eboue will play and so will Djourou. Song is not fully ready yet for a start after just coming back. Sagna will be key with his crosses as will the heading of adebayor.
http://arsenalcolumn.wordpress.com/
I thik its either Inler or Alonso, have a feeling it might be Alonso. Wenger never played a lot of cash for just a defensive midfielder. So if he wants to sign someone in the centre for more than 10m he will want more than just a good engine. I think we will sign Alonso for around 15m and Pool will go and sign Barry with that money. I think Wenger is happy with Song, Diaby and Eboue as his defensive options in the centre. That leaves Fabregas, Denilson, Alonso as his creative options in the middle. He then has Ramsey and Conquelin for the domestic cup games
We would be taking a abit of a risk playing Song tomorrow. dont think theo should start too.
other than that should be a reasonably easy win for us.
i predict Van persie and eboue to score ;-)… Seriously
Also, without Fabregas, we lack real creativity from the centre and it would be big blow to lose Fabregas in big games through whatever reason an then rely on Denilson to create things. Also Alonso can play a bit more defensively if needed next to Fabregas, he has done it with Gerard
very close to the team in the prediction, however i have a feeling
he will stick with djouru and bendtner, with rvp on the bench the
ace in the pack
gooner chris when do you think we will sign inler??? can u tell us how do u know?
http://masalbugduv.blogspot.com/ whos this kid???????????????????
Shit prediction, Face it Arsenal are not as good as they used to be.