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On the opening day of their return to the Premier League, Fulham have as tasty a fixture as they come. Arsenal FC from the other side of town, and arguably of the tracks, arrive in SW6 and both sides are salivating about continuing their form of last season, albeit that ‘last season’ was barely six weeks ago.
Both sides enter this game on the highest of highs after memorable Wembley triumphs. Fulham beat Brentford 2-1 in the Championship playoff decider three days after Arsenal had beaten Chelsea by the same score in the FA Cup final.
Both sides in addition lauded one man who scored both goals. Gunners skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored both Arsenal’s goals in the final just as he had in the semi-final. However, none of those four goals will live in the memory and perhaps even change football in the way Joe Bryan’s fist goal did.
Although the side’s left-back, he was Fulham’s two-goal hero at Wembley. The first was an audacious free-kick from nigh on 40 yards out that hung totally on Brentford keeper David Raya trying to steal a second at the far post where the melee of players was gathered.
He expected Bryan to swing the ball into that area, presumably looking for the heads of Aleksandr Mitrovic or Cyrus Christie. Instead, Bryan, without once taking his gaze off the pushing pack, steered the ball into the near post area of the goalmouth leaving Raya scrambling to cover the unguarded area.
Arsenal’s high will have continued with a penalty shoot-out win in the Community Shield over Liverpool again at Wembley. Aubameyang was the goal scorer once again. He has now scored Arsenal’s last five competitive goals. Incidentally, he also scored both Arsenal goal’s in a home 3-2 friendly loss to Aston Villa.
Mitrovic incidentally has not scored any of Fulham’s last nine competitive goals. Neeskens Kebano (4), Harrrison Reed, Bobby Cordova-Reid, Josh Onomah, and Bryan (2) sharing the last nine among themselves.
Team news
Even at this point, the transfer window is still open so it’s hard to assess any team news.
Arsenal’s long term injuries include Shkodran Mustafi, Pablo Mari Villar, David Marinho, Gabriel Martinelli and former Fulham loan defender Calum Chambers.
Two Brazilians, Willian and Gabriel have made Arsenal’s off season transfer headlines. Willian is a well known quality in the EPL after his years at Chelsea.
Gabriel arrives from Lille to play centre back. It could be that this signals another lease of life for David Luiz, his fellow countryman, or it could be that Mikael Arteta sees Lille as Luiz’s direct replacement. Although a Spaniard, the injured Mari has come from Flamenco in Brazil so presumably he can communicate in Portuguese as well.
Kenny Tete will wear the traditional right back’s number 2
Photo: Fulham FC
With Rob Holding, Sokratis, William Saliba, Chambers and Mustafi also able to play in the role, competition for places could be severe when all are fit.
Fulham have firmed up two of their loan stars from last season Anthony Knockaert and Reed from Brighton and Southampton respectively.
Gabonese defensive midfielder Mario Lemina becomes the new Southampton loanee and they have signed another goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola from PSG.
With Marcus Bettinelli, Marek Rodak and Fabricio Agosto Ramirez already on the books, this seemed a but like overkill. It gives cause to wonder if manager Scott Parker has full faith in Rodak, given the likely increase in his workload compared to last year.
At right-back, the club has just added Dutch international Kenny Tete from Lyon for an undisclosed fee on a four-year deal.
He has 13 caps for his country.
Traditionalists will be delighted that he will don the shirt number two, the once common number for right-backs.
The club is also in the hunt for Welsh international Ethan Ampadu with Sheffield United rumoured to be the other possible destination. Alfie Mawson and Steven Sessegnon are out on loan at Bristol City.
We’ll add to this as news comes through between now and kick-off.
Fulham manager Scott Parker
“The challenge now is that we’ve gone from being expected to win the majority of weeks and trying to get promoted, and we now go into a division where we understand it’s going to be a lot more difficult,” he said ahead of Saturday’s curtain raiser against Arsenal.
“It’s a challenge that we have to embrace and take on, and I feel we are in a good place to do that. Mentally we’re in a place where we all understand what we face, and we’re looking forward to that.
“We saw that last season with Sheffield United, and that’s no disrespect to them and Chris Wilder and the job they’ve done, because they’ve done absolutely fantastic, but that’s the sort of team we need to look at.
“They had a fantastic year last year and I think Chris would be the first to say that what he demands from his players to get the results is what I’m talking about.
“Other than tactics, which we obviously understand, there is a bigger dynamic which is a squad that is together, a squad that is united, a squad that is on one page, a squad that understands what this league is going to be and what we’re going to have to bring every single time.
“And with that, you’ve got a chance of being successful.”
Scott Parker on Arsenal:
Parker: Arsenal could be a big force this season
“I think they could be a big force this season. There’s no denying the quality Arsenal have, the players they have.
“Mikel’s done a fantastic job in a short space of time with his team, so I think this year’s a big year for Arsenal.
“The quality in their ranks is vast, and you’ve seen that in the last few months, and when they won the FA Cup as well.
“But like always, like we did last year and we will this year, we’ll prepare for this game to try and get a result. We’ll prepare for this game to try and hurt them where we feel we can punish them.
“It will be the same for them, we understand their threats and where they can hurt us, and we’ll try to counteract that and try and limit them.”
Arsenal Manager – Mikel Arteta
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta emphasised his club’s long term ambitions to return to the UEFA Champions League.
“We want to be back in the Champions League,” he said. “It is important economically, it is important for fans, it is important for players, staff and everybody.
“We need to re-establish ourselves there. Yes we talk about we have been in Europe for 25 years in a row and that is an achievement.
“But we want to get into the premier competition.”
History
Arsenal lead the historic series 39 wins to eight with ten draws. They have won on there last three visits to Craven Cottage, with scores of 5-1, 3-1 and 1-0.
Most worryingly for Fulham, Aubameyang scored twice on his last visit to Craven Cottage in that 5-1 win.
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