ARSENAL may have risen to the top of English
football this morning, but Fulham, a cottage industry spending the millions
of Mohammed al-Fayed to try to turn themselves into supermarket status,
are nowhere near as far behind as this scoreline suggests.
They made Arsenal suffer for missed chances, they controlled and frightened
them for 20 minutes in the second half, and, when finally they succumbed,
it was to late goals from Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, the second
in minutes added on for Arsenal's time-wasting.
"We have played, I believe, a side that will finish in the top third
this season," observed Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. "I
believe we are showing more solid away form and we can stay at the top."
The best of France, the reigning world champions, have almost all come to
London. There were 11 players either on the pitch or the benches of Fulham
and Arsenal who all had come through the French school, where both team
managers,
Jean Tigana and Wenger, learned their trade. And what would be the outcome
of this French examination? Fulham are quite vivacious between the penalty
boxes. Their football is played rapido, always to the feet, and with such
pace in attack that three Arsenal players, Patrick Vieira, Martin Keown
and Bisan Lauren, were booked in the first half-hour for fouls that are
either systematic in the Arsenal soul, or, as Wenger would have it, emanate
from refereeing bias against the Gunners.
And yet it was nothing more then a misplaced header by Andy Melville that
gave Arsenal cause for anxiety in what was their paramount purpose - to
protect their goal at all costs.
By contrast, Arsenal, springing forward with extraordinary pace and co-ordination,
might have had seven goals instead of one at half-time. The one they scored
was a mess. Robert Pires took a free-kick, which rebounded back to him off
the head of Vieira, and he played it back into the centre for Thierry Henry
to attempt a shot which was blocked. The ball then bobbled and bounced until
it fell invitingly to Fredrik Ljungberg. And he couldn't miss, unmarked
as he was, eight yards from goal.
That was the 16th minute. How often it appears that teams defending against
Arsenal look for anyone other than the elusive Ljungberg, the pimpernel
who helps himself.
Now Arsenal, galvanised by the right- flank rushes of Lauren, began to carve
open the overawed and inexperienced Fulham defence. Henry might have scored
three times if his finishing had been a match for his approach play. Francis
Jeffers contrived to miss twice, once almost falling over the ball a matter
of feet from the line.
Arsenal were punished for their profligacy. Whatever Tigana lacks in the
English language, he is evidently persuasive in French. He directed Louis
Saha and Luis Boa Morte to spread out to the flanks and Steed Malbranque
to push through the centre. Within minutes of the interval it worked.
Boa Morte made mincemeat of Arsenal's and England's left flank defence.
Ashley Cole had wandered forward out of position, Sol Campbell was easily
taken out by a quick change of feet from Boa Morte, and with Keown drawn
towards the ball, Malbranque capitalised with a free and easy goal from
eight yards. Indeed, thanks to a delicious overhead pass from Collins, Boa
Morte almost repeated the incision until Cole this time denied him. However,
from the resulting corner, Legwinski rose above the Arsenal defence and
was mortified when his header was saved on the line, a fortuitous clearance
by the ankle of the seemingly bemused Seaman. "The turning point of
the game, perhaps," Wenger admitted.
Gradually, however, Arsenal reasserted their considerable authority. It
was Ljungberg who, with seven minutes left, was allowed to run at Fulham's
defence, and Henry, with his surest touch of the afternoon, atoned for earlier
misses by scoring with a low, hard finish. And in those five added minutes
Sylvan Wiltord danced down the left and pulled the ball back towards the
penalty spot where Bergkamp gave it an uncompromising thump with his right
foot. It finished 3-1, but much closer than that in competitive reality.
Fulham: Van der Sar, Brevett, Symons, Melville, Finnan, Collins,
Davis, Malbranque, Legwinski (Marlet 71min), Boa Morte (Hayles 87min), Saha
Arsenal: Seaman, Cole, Campbell, Keown, Lauren, Pires (Wiltord 80min),
Vieira, Parlour, Ljungberg, Henry (Grimandi 83min), Jeffers (Bergkamp 74min)
Booked: Vieira 7, Keown 17, Lauren 29, Parlour 58, Legwinski 61,
Boa Morte 80, Symons 89
Att: 20,805 Ref: A Wiley (Burntwood). |