Match Preview: Arsenal v Fulham; Emery Needs to Follow His Original Blueprint

The festive period ends with Arsenal facing off against Fulham at home. The Gunners look to kick off the new year getting back to their winning ways, but can Unai Emery get back to what made him successful earlier in the season or will still get in his own way?

Problems still persist for Arsenal, especially due to the number of players missing due to injury or other unforeseen problems. These issues plus Emery’s desire to tactically tinker, have resulted in decreased output in attack. The chances are diminishing, and the results are more negative than positive.

Tomorrow’s opposition presents a possibility of good result but maybe not as easy as the last time out when Arsenal left Craven Cottage with a 1-5 win.

The festive period ends with Arsenal facing off against Fulham at home. The Gunners look to kick off the new year getting back to their winning ways, but can Unai Emery get back to what made him successful earlier in the season or will still get in his own way?

Problems persist for Arsenal, especially due to the number of players missing due to injury or other unforeseen problems. These issues plus Emery’s desire to tactically tinker, have resulted in decreased output in attack. The chances are diminishing, and the results are more negative than positive.

Tomorrow’s opposition presents a possibility of good result but maybe not as easy as the last time out when Arsenal left Craven Cottage with a 1-5 win.

The Last Time We Met

When last we met Fulham, we turned one of most fluid and creative performances of the season. Emery set his team up in a 4-4-2 box formation with Xhaka and Torreira at the base of midfield, Mkhitaryan and Iwobi in front of them and behind an attacking duo of Danny Welbeck and Alexandre Laczette.

Iwobi and Mkhitaryan provided support centrally to the front two by always looking to occupy the half spaces. Meanwhile as is typical to Emery’s style of play, the attacking width came from the fullbacks, Bellerin and Monreal.

The front four in attack where instrumental in making it difficult for Fulham’s defenders to cover and play against. To try and adjust to the Arsenal threats, Fulham went from a 3-4-3 to a 4-1-4-1/4-2-3-1 but it mattered little as it made Fulham even more susceptible to Arsenal’s counter attack.

An interesting point to note and something you see as a trend early in the season is Emery using different tactical set ups to try and create overloads or occupy opposition defenders with multiple attackers. Something I’ve noticed he’s gotten away from recently.

Defensively we set up as 4-4-2 and would switch between a high press and mid-block. The formation was flat. To negate Fulham’s primary threat, Mitrovic either Mustafi or Holding would press aggressively from behind while Torreira would screen the area in front of him to deny him service into his feet.

The match is perfect example of all the positives we saw in the impressive 22 game unbeaten run.

Fast Forward to Now

A lot of what happened to Arsenal recently can be looked from a few lenses. The first, the high amount of injuries especially to almost every starting defender we have. The second, is that we are still a team in transition and thirdly, Emery has lessons to learn.

In the thumping we took on Saturday, Emery started in a 3-4-3 but quickly found that this was a nightmare scenario and reverted to a 4-3-2-1. Unfortunately for him this move starved his primary scoring outlet, Aubameyang from the ball.

In the Liverpool match Aubameyang touched the ball all of 7 times, four from kick offs. The problems seem apparent enough with the midfield three sitting too deep and no rotation to try and get someone on the ball in order to get it to Aubameyang.

In our downturn of the season, we simply lack the creativity in attack to make the most of a player like Aubameyang’s ability. It’s not about Mesut Özil or not, but outside of him and to a lesser extent, Mkhitaryan, there isn’t anyone in the Arsenal squad who can find space to get the ball and then set attackers free.

We’re not doing that and if you look at the tactical analysis from the Liverpool match, you can see how that has killed us against a more lethal side. You’d expect that though. What’s more telling is it’s hurting against teams like Southampton and Brighton.

Emery needs to have a hard think about how he wants to set up for this match. Like the Liverpool match he had the blue print right in the first match. Of course, Fulham may present a different beast under the original tinkerman, Claudio Ranieri but they still have the same personnel and are still struggling to manage anything that looks like threatening football.

However, as you watch Emery these last few games, a man who deserved all the praised in our impressive run, you see a man who lately looks more consumed with shoring up the weaknesses in his own team rather than exploiting the weaknesses of the opponent.

One of the reasons Emery was brought in was to move Arsenal forward in how it prepared for the opposition and right now he doesn’t seem to be doing that. And again, there has to be some acceptance to the fact that it may be down to the injuries he’s having to manage right now.

Looking at the last few matches though, many are left wondering what is the game plan?

Conclusion

Emery needs time. We all know that, this first season is a freebie of sorts. However, he’s gone away from what made him successful here so far. Unfortunately for him he built up expectations and now he’s got to bare some of the criticism that comes with being in one of the most scrutinized positions in English football.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Arsenal: Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang. We’ve got to get him the ball with consistent levels. Simply put without him scoring we’re not as potent as we were.

Fulham: Alexsandar Mitrovic. He’s their biggest threat. Deny him service, youdeny Fulham the chance to score.

INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS

Arsenal: Mkhitaryan (foot), Monreal (thigh), Bellerin (calf), Kolasinac (thigh), Mustafi (hamstring) Holding (ACL), Welbeck (ankle), Mavropanos (groin)

Fulham: Mawson (knee), Anguissa (knock) Chambers (unavailable)

FORM (LAST 5)

Arsenal: WLWDL

Fulham: LLDDW

GOALS SCORED (AVERAGE PER GAME)

Arsenal: 2.00 (home)

Fulham: 0.60 (away)

GOALS CONCEDED (AVERAGE PER GAME)

Arsenal: 0.90 (home)

Fulham: 2.40 (away)

WHAT THE COACH SAYS (COURTESYARSENAL.COM)

We have to work. We’ve been doing well until now. We just need to keep working, looking forward at every game and try not to have more injuries, because it’s been a bad moment for us with injuries. It’s a challenge and one we need to accept.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Graham Scott (6M 13Y 1R)
Assistants: Richard West, Neil Davies
Fourth official: Roger East

BROADCAST INFORMATION

UK: Audio Available on Arsenal.com /Highlights MOTD

US: NBC Sports Network 10.00 AM EST

MATCH FACTS (COURTESY BBC.CO.UK)

• Arsenal have never lost at home to Fulham in any competition spanning 114 years (W23, D5).
• But Fulham did win 1-0 on the only previous occasion that the teams have met on New Year’s Day, in 1966 at Craven Cottage.
• The Gunners thrashed Fulham 5-1 when the sides met at Craven Cottage in October.
• Arsenal have won their last three home games in the Premier League.
• Their only home defeat in the 2018-19 Premier League campaign so far came on the opening day of the season, when they lost 2-0 to Manchester City.
• Arsenal have scored more than one goal in nine of their last 10 Premier League London derbies, but have failed to keep a clean sheet in all 10 of those matches.
• The Gunners have won their last 28 home league games against sides starting the day in the relegation zone, a run stretching back to October 2008.
• They conceded 14 league goals during December 2018 – their most in a calendar month since April 1979 when they conceded 15

YAMA PREDICTS

Arsenal 3 – 1 Fulham