Barclays Premier League: Fulham 0-1 Arsenal – Gunners record scrappy win

Arsenal climbed to third in the Premier League table with a 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage yesterday. The Gunners made hard work of it though, much harder than it should have been.

Arsenal started the game brightly and had the ball in the back of the net very early, only for it to be called back for offside against Theo Walcott. Arsenal were dominant in the early stages, having pretty well nearly all the possession.

Fulham hadn’t started well and they made things worse for themselves with former Arsenal player Steve Sidwell was sent off for a foul on Mikel Arteta. Sidwell could have no complaints. With Arsenal having started well with it at 11 vs 11, many expected the Gunners to cruise to victory following Sidwell’s dismissal.

Instead, Fulham got better. They were a threat on the break with the pace of Alexander Kacaniklic and Dimitar Berbatov was still a threat as expected. Berbatov forced a fine save from Wojciech Szczesny after a great bit of play by Bryan Ruiz to set him up. Kacanikic made a couple of very good runs always looked a threat as Fulham tried to catch Arsenal on the break.

Arsenal were struggling to create chances, despite having most of the ball. It was frustrating as we got into so many great positions but it was pass after pass after pass with nobody willing to have a shot.

The visitors came close to breaking the deadlock when Olivier Giroud hit the post, the Frenchman very unlucky not to find the back of the net.

Fulham had defended very well throughout the first half. Whatever Arsenal threw at them was dealt with fairly comfortably. All that hard work was undone just before half time when a Walcott free-kick was headed across goal by Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker headed in from close range. The big German couldn’t miss. It’s certainly not going to win goal of the season, but in a few weeks time when the season ends, it could make all the difference between being a Champions League side next year or a Europa League one.

Per Mertesacker scores what turned out to be the winning goal.

You would have thought that a goal would be the platform for a comfortable Arsenal win. At half time you knew that another goal was needed to feel somewhat safe. The more and more it would go on at 1-0, the less and less comfortable you would feel.

One of the most entertaining things to happen in the game was when Arsene Wenger had to run from the tunnel at Craven Cottage to the dugout. It’s a long walk at Craven Cottage, as Arsene found out. The two teams were set to kick off and with Wenger seemingly in no hurry, he began to run across the pitch as the referee told him to hurry up. He managed to run past the most pleasant part of the ground though, where the away fans were sitting.

Not much happened in the second half to be truthful. Stanislav Manolev had a cross that nearly went in as Szczesny had to tip it over to be sure.

With just under 15 minutes left, the Bulgarian came close to levelling the scores once again. Kieran Richardson’s free-kick was too much for Szczesny to handle and Manolev put the ball in the back of the net on the rebound, but the flag was up for offside.

The final 10 minutes or so were nervy for Arsenal with hoofing the ball clear being the only thing the Arsenal defence could do at times.

Olivier Giroud saw red for a similar incident to the one Sidwell was sent off for. I don’t think it was as bad as Sidwell’s but I can see why the ref gave a red. If you give a red for one, you’ve got to do it for the other.

That made the last few minutes of stoppage time potentially even more nervy for the Gunners. But it was Arsenal who came closest to scoring as Aaron Ramsey was sent clear in the last minute of stoppage time. The Welshman dragged his shot wide, but it was enough to kill off the clock and secure a vital 3 points for Arsenal.

It really wasn’t a good performance from Arsenal. As well as this, they had a man advantage for the majority of the game and you wouldn’t have guessed it if you were watching it unaware of Sidwell’s red. They were dominant in possession, but not in chances created.

Per Mertesacker doesn’t get many, but this goal was huge. This game may not be remembered 10 years down the line, it wasn’t a classic by any means. But it could be a huge result in the race for Champions League qualification.

Arsenal have played two more games than both Chelsea and Tottenham. Chelsea have 61 points (two less than Arsenal) so the Blues could well catch Arsenal. Tottenham are 5 points behind, so winning their two games in hand would see them climb above Arsenal. The only thing is that Tottenham have Man City and Chelsea as their games in hand. Someone is going to drop points in that Chelsea – Spurs game, so Arsenal will benefit from that.

Chelsea’s remaining fixtures aren’t easy at all. Liverpool (a), Swansea (h), Man United (a), Tottenham (h), Aston Villa (a) and Everton (h). Add to this that they have the Europa League semi-finals and possible Final to come and they have a difficult end to the season.

Everton’s slim hopes of a Champions League finish are probably up now as they lost 1-0 away to Sunderland yesterday.

Arsenal’s toughest remaining fixture is next Sunday – Manchester United at home. United could clinch the title at the Emirates, they could have it already sewn up before their visit. It just depends on the results. No doubt that a certain Robin Van Persie would love to clinch the title at the Emirates. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen. A win in that game would be absolutely massive towards qualifying for the Champions League, but it is unlikely with their title still not secure.

Stranger things have happened though and we can all hope. All that matters is the three points this weekend. The luxury of being able to sit and watch our rivals battling for points whilst we have the points on the board already. You always prefer the points on the board. It has put heaps of pressure on Chelsea and Tottenham.