Just Arsenal News

There have been hundreds of Arsenal transfer rumours linking the Gunners with every available keeper in Europe ever since Arsene Wenger first dropped Wojciech Szczesny for the Champions League game in Munich, with most Arsenal fans expecting Wenger to bring in an older more experienced keeper to keep the Pole on his toes.

Despite all these rumours, no-one has mentioned the Australian Mark Schwarzer, who was famously the centre of a tug of war between Arsenal and Fulham back when Mark Hughes was their manager. Wenger is obviously an admirer of the 40 year-old and would surely consider bringing him in, especially if Lukasz Fabianski doesn’t sign a new contract this summer. .......Read the full article here

Surprise, surprise, the FA have rejected Arsenal’s appeal about the red card and three match ban dished out to Olivier Giroud against Fulham on Saturday. Although replays showed that the Frenchman slipped while going for the ball, we will now have to face Manchester United, QPR and Wigan Athletic without him.

I don’t know why I’m surprised, but had hoped that recent cases like the one for the Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany showed that the FA were starting to admit that referees did make mistakes. However, the only thing consistent about football’s governing body is their inconsistency. .......Read the full article here

Any Gooner who watched Arsenal struggle against 10 man Fulham at Craven Cottage may be surprised at the staistics, especially the one that shows that the Gunners registered an astonishing 90 percent pass success rate, with 84 percent of their final third passes finding the target as well. Arsenal also made nearly three times as many passes as Fulham in the game.

Normally when you see statistics like that, it means one team has completely dominated the other and the scoreline normally tells the same story, but that was not the case on Saturday. It was Fulham who looked more likely to score in the second half, even getting the ball in the net after Szczesny could only parry a Richardson free kick to Manolev. The offside decision was correct though. .......Read the full article here

About the only good thing that can be said about Arsenal after the game against Fulham, apart from the three points, was that we defended well again and showed once again that this Gunners side has much more resilience than previous incarnations. Both Arsene Wenger and Aaron Ramsey have praised this fighting quality, but will it be enough to see us over the line and into next season’s Champions League.

Only Manchester City have conceded less goals than Arsenal in the Premier League this season, with an average of just less than one a game. That has been even better recently, with just six goals against us in the last 10 games. Ramsey believes that the whole team can take credit for this, not just the back four. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger has spoken about Jack Wilshere and the ankle problems facing the young Arsenal star. The manager gave him a rest on Saturday against Fulham, bringing him on for the last 20 minutes as the Gunners held on for a vital win. Wenger admits to having to be cautious with his midfield star, but expects him to be able to feature against Manchester United on Sunday, a game that we need to get something out of as the battle for Europe heats up.

Wenger surprised people by starting Jack against Everton, a very physical game just a few days after the Norwich match. Wilshere suffered a reaction to that, so Wenger felt he should not start against Fulham. His manager also believes that Jack’s style of football leaves him more susceptible to injury. .......Read the full article here

Judging by lots of previous comments, there are a lot of Arsenal fans who will be glad that Olivier Giroud was sent off for a lunging tackle against Manolev of Fulham. If Arsenal do not appeal the decision, or lose an appeal, then the big Frenchman will miss the next three games at a vitally important time. These games could decide whether the Gunners are playing in the Champions League or the Europa League next season, so just how much will he be missed? .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger has brought a new meaning to the old song “Boring, Boring, Arsenal” as we had to sit and watch 11 Gunners passing the ball from one end of the pitch to the other and then back again over and over and over! Wenger thinks that it was a mental problem. He said: “I put it down to psychological reasons and to the fact that we didn’t want to be stupid.

“You are a bit under pressure when you play 11 against 10 because you think that with every foul you risk a second yellow card so they do not go in the challenges. The crowd is behind their team. it becomes a different problem. In the end, we have a fantastic spirit and that got us through.” .......Read the full article here

Fulham 0 – 1 Arsenal, a terrible performance but a win will do by KJ

An early red card for Fulham would’ve given off the illusion that this would be a formality for the Arsenal but we always do it the hard way and were lucky not to lose points.

We started the game pretty decently and had the lion’s share of possession. Steve Sidwell made an extremely rash tackle on Arteta that left the referee with no choice and he was forced into sending off the Fulham midfielder. .......Read the full article here

Fulham v Arsenal ratings by NS

These are just my opinions. If you don’t like them…then get your own article accepted lol!

Szczesny: 7: Did fairly well with what he had to deal with.

Sagna: 6: A mixed game. Dreadful crossing again, but good positional play defensively.

Mertesacker: 7: Scored. Did quite well overall.

Koscielny: 7 : Solid as usual and helped with the goal.

Monreal: 6: Solid. Didn’t offer much going forward.

Arteta: 5 : Pretty fiesty. Didn’t use the ball as well as usual. Poor.

Ramsey: 5 : Before you lot start, I’ve given him man of the match twice recently. He was poor today. If you can’t see that then I give up: .......Read the full article here

There was a lot of concern and speculation earlier this season about Theo Walcott and his future at Arsenal. The club and player finally agreed terms and put pen to paper on a new contract in January, and the 23-year old insists that one of the reasons he wanted to stay at the club was because he sees a bright future here.

Incredibly, the pacy forward has now played over 250 times for the Gunners. He has improved massively in that time and has enjoyed his most productive season ever, both in terms of goals scored and assists provided, despite being troubled with numerous injury problems. He is also working harder in his all-round game and contributing more to the general effort. .......Read the full article here

The last time that Arsenal played Fulham, back in November at the Emirates, the Gunners threw away victory and were punished by their Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov, who scored twice and set up another. The defending by Arsenal that day was awful and we have improved greatly since then, but must be very careful not to give the former spud any chance to repeat his heroics at Craven Cottage today.

Berbatov is Fulham’s top scorer by a country mile. His 13 Premier League goals is more than the next three of Fulham’s top scorers put together, so you would think that all Arsenal need to do is to stop him, but that is easier said than done, as Laurent Koscielny is well aware. .......Read the full article here

The Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has come in for a pile of criticism, despite scoring 16 goals already this season, and he is becoming better known for the goals he misses rather than the ones that end up in the back of the net!

He especially came in for a lot of stick after Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Everton, when he had at least a couple of good chances to get us all three points, and many Arsenal fans have been calling for him to be dropped today in favour of Lukas Podolski. .......Read the full article here