Gooner Daily

Following Arsenal’s narrow win over Crystal Palace on Monday, the Gunners host Fulham and will be hoping to maintain their 100 percent record in the Premier League. Head coach, Mikel Arteta, took some questions in his pre-Fulham press conference and they hovered around the selection of Gabriel, fluidity and officials apologizing. For an important player that featured in the last 73 Premier League encounters only to be benched in back-to-back games, some concerns will be raised, but Arteta was adamant that Gabriel will ‘play a lot of games’. 

More importantly, he was asked about him sacrificing the fluidity of the team to try new ideas,

“No, I want maximum fluidity with the team. The thing is that there are teams that want to allow you to have more fluidity in certain moments or areas, and results are very driving into that. And others that they’re going to allow you less. We played two, three very different games obviously, because the Manchester City game [in the Community Shield] was very different in terms of fluidity and then we had moments in games against Forest and Palace where we had a lot of moments and others that were very difficult when you’re attacking 10 men in those spaces. So fluidity is not probably the word that is going to come out like the best.”

Unless you’re living under a rock with no access to Cable TV, internet and social media, you can tell from the first two Premier League games that Arsenal’s performances have been very disjointed, despite the Gunners getting maximum points from both games. A new formation has taken center stage and with new personnel to boot. The expectation is that it might take some time to bed in, but I wonder why we didn’t utilize it effectively during preseason. Well, we are getting the results we want, so I guess we can sweep it under the carpet for now.

Fulham can consider themselves lucky to win their opening match of the season after conceding such a high xG to Everton, with ex-Gunner, Bernd Leno, taking center stage, being the club’s hero on the day, but last week, Fulham were thrashed resoundingly by a rampant Brentford side in front of their own fans. Their cause will not be helped with that their apex predator in attack, Aleksandr Mitrovic, has left for the oil-rich greens of Saudi Arabia after scoring 111 goals in 206 games for them. They signed Raul Jimenez from Wolves, so the onus will be on the Mexican to come up with the goods, but Jimenez is no longer the player he used to be after his skull was fractured by David Luiz.

Fulham will have it all to do, as their record in the home ground of Arsenal is very shambolic, with Arsenal winning 25 of the last 26 matches. Fulham are winless in their last 10 matches against Arsenal in the Premier League and have conceded at least one goal in each of their last 16 such games in the competition. The last time both teams met, Leandro Trossard stole the show with a hat-trick of assists at Craven Cottage.

To team news, Gabriel Jesus miraculously returned to training, to the delight of everyone associated. We love Eddie Nketiah for always putting an amazing shift anytime he’s summoned to do the business, but Jesus adds a very different dimension to our attack, and most importantly, brings everyone else into the game. For some strange reason, Gabriel Martinelli is always isolated when Nketiah leads the line. With Manchester United in the horizon, I suspect Jesus will get some minutes off Nketiah today to bring himself to speed before Arsenal take on the Red Devils. 

Takehiro Tomiyasu remains suspended for his laughable sending off against Crystal Palace, while Mohamed Elneny and Jurrien Timber are the long term absentees. Fulham has a relatively clean bill of health to contend with, with ex-Gunner, Willian, the only player that could be potentially out for selection with a knock. Joao Palhinha has also recovered from his shoulder injury suffered in preseason but Tim Ream will also be unavailable for selection for the red card he received when Brentford visited Craven Cottage last week.

Arsenal and Fulham Predicted Lineups

Arsenal: Ramsdale; Partey, Saliba, White, Zinchenko; Rice, Havertz, Odegaard; Martinelli, Nketiah, Saka.

Crystal Palace: Leno; Robinson, Bassey, Diop, Tete; Joao Palhinha, Reed, Pereira; Willian, De Cordova-Reid, Jimenez

Injury / Suspension Updates

Arsenal: Mo Elneny, Jurrien Timber (knee), Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus (lack of match fitness), Takehiro Tomiyasu (suspension)

Fulham: Willian (knock), Tim Ream (suspension)

Form Guide

Arsenal Form

• Last Five Games: W D D W W
• Last Result: Crystal Palace 0-1 Arsenal (Odegaard 53′)
• Leading Goalscorer: Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard (1)

Fulham

• Last Five Games:  L L W W L
• Last Result: Fulham 0-3 Brentford (Wissa 44′, Mbeumo 66′, 92′)
• Leading Goalscorer: Bobby Reid (1)

Gooner Daily predicts a 3 – 0 win.

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