The Gunners picked up an important draw against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. With the Emirates awaiting, Mikel Arteta’s men are looking to finish the job with home advantage. However, the Premier League is on the agenda for the upcoming weekend as there’s still a title to try and win. After returning to winning ways against Newcastle last weekend, Arsenal will be looking to keep the momentum going and open up a six point gap on City before they play. Let’s see what problems Fulham could cause.

Form

Fulham are 10th right now. They’ve won 14 games, drawn six and lost 14. The kind of form that is just average, hence 10th. They’ve scored 44 goals and conceded 46 which is also pretty middle ground. In their last five fixtures they’ve won two, drawn twice and lost just once. Their last result was a 1-0 win over Villa. Prior to that they drew 0-0 away to Brentford and lost to Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield. In their last five games, they’ve scored four and conceded just three. So while the attack isn’t exactly thriving, the defence is working cohesively to drag them towards some respectable results. Despite some decent form this season, outside of Craven Cottage is a struggle for them. They have the fourth worst record in that metric. They’ve lost nine times, drawn four and won four. They’ve only scored 16, which is the third lowest in the table. They’ve conceded 27 which is pretty high, but nowhere near the worst. The last away game they won was in February, a 3-1 win over Sunderland.

In terms of xG, they created 43.3. Eight teams have created less than that. Going the other way they’ve conceded 47.6 xGA. They’re in the top 10 for that statistic. If we combine those two numbers together then Fulham should be sitting on 43 points which is five worse off than they currently are. The Cottagers should be sitting in 13th, so they’re actually over-performing.

Absences

Fulham have a few injury setbacks with Alex Iwobi, Ryan Sessegnon and Kevin all set to miss this fixture. Kenny Tete was a doubt, but it looks like he’ll make it.

Player to Watch: Joachim Andersen

Whenever this guy plays against us, he always looks elite. The thing that I notice the most about him is his range of passing. When he was at Crystal Palace, a few seasons ago, we beat them 2-0 at Selhurst Park, but he made that game so difficult for us. His passing was pinpoint and our defence could barely deal with it. Ever since then, he’s generally always played up a level when he faces us. He’s started every single Premier League fixture this season, but did have to come off when we beat them 1-0 at Craven Cottage. He has an average match rating of 7, which is actually very good. It places him as one of the highest in the squad. As I touched upon earlier, his passing is elite and we’re going to have to watch out for it tomorrow. He averages over 60 accurate passes a game, which is the second best in the side. He also averages 5.3 accurate long balls per 90, which is 2.3 higher than the next. He is the second highest for defensive contributions per 90, with 10.4. In addition to this, he averages 7.3 clearances per 90 which is the best in the squad by some distance, Calvin Bassey is on 3.8 for context. While I normally select a forward or midfielder for someone to watch, I do feel like we’ll see Andersen give us a frustrating evening.

Fulham Predicted Lineup

I’m not 100% sure what Fulham will go with, but I think this is as close as it’ll get. The defence looks pretty set as they only rotate a couple of their personnel. The central midfield pairing looks nailed on as both Lukic and Berge will give them the most stability. Harry Wilson will almost definitely start as well as Raul Jimenez. The two I’m not certain on is Emile Smith-Rowe and Samuel Chukwueze. They have Oscar Bobb, Joshua King and Tom Cairney to choose from as well. What we know about Fulham is that they’re compact. They’ll be extremely tough to break down, but they do play good football. They’ll quite happily knock it around, Marco Silva actually prefers that. They haven’t beaten Arsenal at our ground ever, however, they have picked up some draws recently. The Gunners can’t afford to drop points, so they’ll have to watch out for that.

Arsenal Predicted Lineup

We’ll be without Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber, so this is what we could do for a lineup. Martin Zubimendi will probably start, but one of him or Declan Rice needs to rest ahead of Atletico. This is the kind of game where we should start Christian Norgaard. However, we all know that won’t happen. Outside of that, it’ll be a slog of a game, but I’m hoping the fresh legs of Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard will edge this tie. We still have Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Max Dowman in reserve.

Predicted Result: Arsenal 1-0 Fulham

We haven’t scored more than one goal in a game for over a month. I’m not convinced this will be the game that we’ll score more than just a single goal. However, we could potentially just take our chances and win by some margin. This is the kind of game where we’ll need to dig deep and just force a result. I think defensively we’ll be fine, I’m just concerned the fatigue will affect the midfield battle. Fulham are good in midfield and that’s where I can see some issues arising. I actually think Norgaard would work in this one, due to his fresh legs and experience. Get this win under our belt and set a six point gap before City play, we can’t afford to put the title back in their hands. Let’s get it!