Team News: Arsenal vs Fulham

Another 2 goal lead given away. Just not good enough.

lets talk about SIXTH baby....lets talk about you and me....lets talk about all the good times that may be...lets talk abouuuuut...SIXTH

We've started doing that thing again... Where players run past the ball to get back into position instead of just going directly for the ball. At the beginning of the season it looked like we'd stopped doing that, and we were putting in the most tackles every match. Attacking-wise we looked a lot better than we have recently though.

When we were going directly for the ball we were winning a lot of tackles, and looked so defensively solid, but now players are running past it to get back into position again, teams can once again just walk it through. Except at the end, we were really winning every loose ball at the end, unlucky not to nick it.

its quite sad to see this demise, you just dont have that X-Factor anymore nor that fear-factor for opposing teams.... Fool'em were well comfy in controlling possession in the last 20mins which just should not happen against a top club at home pushing for a leading goal.... so little intensity to overwhelm an average side with no pace upfront, you shudda pushed right up to the halfway line knowing you can compress the game in thieir half safely with neither Berbatov nor Ruiz (both central) having the pace to counter well.... stale stale mindset again..

I don't see a massive problem. Giroud seems to have found his feet (though even when he wasn't scoring it always seemed like he would), we have players coming back, hopefully we sort Walcott's contract out, all we have to do is stop the tactic of running past the ball to get into position. If we just challenge for the ball when it's available instead of running past to get into position, we'll go back to what we were doing earlier in the season, put pressure on the other team and winning a lot of tackles.

boy do you miss your best player Diaby. not a shadow of the side that so impressed with him as the fulcrum.... so much for Cazorla being the messiah, he was the icing, the cake sadly will not return for the forseeable which is a shame.... most of the top sides play with 2 strikers albeit with 1 dropping off at times into the hole: RvP & Rooney, Tevez-Aguero, Adebayor/Dempsey-Defoe.... AW has become a dinosaur with his now dated narrow 4-3-3 (just 1 striker central when ball delivered to the box)

You've only played Man u and Chelsea - we've played Man U, City, Chelsea and Liverpool already. You've got worse goal difference, you've scored less goals, conceded more goals than us. Don't count your chickens before they've hatched young spud.

You mean like how you showed us how it was done at home against Wigan last week? Nicely done.

Year after year, these spuds come on here and gloat when nothing has even been achieved yet. Heck, even if we don't win another trophy for 20 years, laughing at the spuds' imminent misery makes being an Arsenal supporter worthwhile

so glad you have that to fall back on as I'd hate to see you miserable.... just reminisce about Spuds and you will be fine in your barren year or 2 ahead, it will numb the pain slightly of days like this... all good things do come to an end I guess, but you will be fine in a few years time with a new coach and FFP in play

man u came back from 2 goals down for 2-3. they are always capable of coming back whereas we are always culpable of throwing games away. 2-0 lead against schalke and 2-0 lead against fulham and we failed to win both. rvp just didnt need more reason to leave

I was at the game today and whilst you have to give Fulham credit - Ruiz and Berbatov are very good players - it's come to something when Fulham can come to our place, not be deterred or deflated by going two down, and generally play with a lot of confidence and no fear. God help us if we get through to the CL and face Barca or Real, that could be truly embarrassing. I just wonder how much more Wenger can take, he must be pulling his hair out and even he with his vast reserves of determination must be wilting. Something doesn't seem right about the balance of the side, certainly if we're going to play 433 then our wide players upfront need to be exceptional offensively and defensively.

The look on Wenger's face at the end, as he looked out at the rows and rows of empty seats said it all. Awesome moment for everyone at the lane, inspiration for tomorrow, up the Spurs!!!!!

Another poor performance by the Gunners Who is the captain of the Team /??? no leadership out there while United is grabbing 3 points every week we are just getting by not good enough !!!! NO I had enough ,is what should be said. iam going to have another lousy week.

I thought about the leadership issue, myself, when Theo Walcott has to be the one taking our free kicks (I don't mind much the corner kicks). It has to be agreed that our FKs will be taken by Cazorla or Arteta; the options for the kicks in front of the opponents' box can be spread wider, depending on how we want to play it. Nuff said.

I get it. Just like City pinned you to your halfway line and pounded your penalty box with high tempo attack to take you to the cleaners.

I thought Theo's set piece deliveries were good, better than Cazorla. Or maybe, the players attacking them had a better game. Couple of corners where the ball found an Arsenal player, which rarely happened in games earlier. One improvement - looks like the team is consciously put more crosses into the box for Giroud which worked well generally.

Not at all having that Arteta was selfish to take the penalty. He’s our designated penalty taker and has an excellent record from the spot for PSG, Rangers and Everton. The last thing he did in an Everton shirt was smash a 92nd minute penalty into the net at Ewood Park with the scores at 1-1. His record is very good and it’s right he took it. Giroud didn’t take it because he’s not a penalty taker and he missed his last one in any case. It would have been selfish for him to take it in pursuit of personal glory. If he’d have taken it and missed everybody would have been calling him selfish and asking why a proven penalty taker like Arteta didn’t step up! Sometimes, even the best penalty takers miss and there really is nothing more to it than that.

VR......I watched the game and I was waiting for the spuds to show us how it's done? Care to explain? (He says with an ear to ear smug grin). Me thinks you should worry about your own team and your clueless manager. Your like a playground bully who picks on the other kids to hide his own inadequacies. Week after week you and that other Munter HBB fall flat on your face. The funny thing is that spuds harp on about how you have overtaken us or the power has shifted. The fact of the matter is, yes there is not much difference between our teams at the moment. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with your rise to power, quite the opposite. It's more to do with us taking ten steps backwards, yet we still seem to put you back in your place come the end of the season. Until you finish above us, we are still the 3rd best team in the country just as city are still champions. I know it's a hard lump to swallow, but we know where all your piping up got you last season.....and the season before.....and the season before that......and the season before that.......and the season before that......I think you get the drift. If you manage to finish above us this season I will be the first to take my hat off to you.....until then show some respect to your superiors.

I got that wrong, having never seen Arteta take a pen for us (since RvP was designated last season). I didn't know it's been passed on to Arteta, so I stand corrected.