Premier League Match Preview and Prediction: Arsenal vs. Fulham
On Saturday, Arsenal will host Fulham at Emirates Stadium. One team is level on points with Chelsea and only 3 points behind league leaders Manchester United, while the other is just above relegation zone, in 4th place
from rock-bottom club West Ham United.
Arsenal’s home form has been poor this season; they have played 7 games at Emirates out of which managed to win only 4 and lost 3. However, Fulham’s away record is even worse: in 7 games played away from home they have yet to win
a game. They lost 2 and drew the other 5.
Arsene Wenger’s team is coming into this game with back-to-back wins against Aston Villa 4-2 (away) in the Premier League and a 2-0 Carling Cup quarterfinal win against Wigan Athletic at home. On the other hand, Mark Hughes’ side
is struggling for a win, drew 1-1 in their last home game against Birmingham City and were hammered by his former club Manchester City 4-1 at home.
History of this tie from last season is also not in favour of the Cottagers; they got hammered 4-0 in the penultimate game of the season. But in that game, the Lilywhites rested a lot of their key players for the Europa League
final clash with Atletico Madrid.
However, this time Arsenal is in the same position as they have a key Champions League match against Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday. Failure to win it will be a massive blow for the Gunners as they won’t qualify for the knockout
stage of the competition.
As Belgrade’s form has been terrible (they lost all their 5 games in Champions League), Arsenal could not have hoped for a better opponent in this must-win tie. However, they still cannot afford to take this game lightly.
Wenger also has an opportunity to get Arsenal on top of the League table if luck favours them. Manchester United plays away at Stoke City while Chelsea have a tough game against Everton at Stamford Bridge. If both lose, Arsenal
can go atop the table level on points with United. Therefore, Wenger will look to win big by scoring a lot of goals.
There is some good news for Arsenal on the injury front. Their in-form French midfielder Samir Nasri is expected to have recovered from the knee injury he sustained in the 2nd half of the Carling Cup win over Wigan in
time for the match.
Wenger said, “Nasri has got a knock from Tuesday night. It is a knee problem but he should be all right. Apart from that, we do not have any fresh players injured."
However, striker Robin van Persie is still in doubt with an ankle injury and his manager believes he will have to be very careful with his Dutch striker.
“I will see how Robin recovers [before deciding whether to start him]," Wenger said. "I rotate a bit from game to game at the moment, so I will see - but we have quite a strong squad available."
Wenger believes the team he will pick against Fulham would be similar to that of the Aston Villa game.
For Hughes, there is positive news as well: goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer has decided to stay with the club.
Match Prediction: Arsenal 4 – Fulham 1
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