Fulham vs Arsenal 1-3

It was a busy week for Arsenal with a Champions League qualifier game in Istanbul and an early Saturday game away at Fulham. Thankfully it was a successful week for us! Very important convincing win in Istanbul and another solid performance against Fulham is making a lot of Arsenal fans breathe a sigh of relief. As a fan, i am very happy with both results. I think that it was very important for the team to bounce back. But i am also cautiously optimistic, because i still believe that our squad needs improvement in the next week or so left in the transfer market.

The win and especially the scoreline in Istanbul was a bit shocking, but to be honest, i thought Fenerbahche looked awful the whole game. They didn't impress with anything and the result was deserved. Ramsey was our most impressive player and is finally starting to look like the player he was before he had his leg broken. Our midfield also looked much better than against Villa. The only negative was the kick in the face that Koscielny took, but from what i hear he should be OK. I hope given the great result we got, Wenger will rotate some players for the second leg against Fenerbahche on Tuesday and we will have a few fresh legs for Sunday's game against the Spurs douche bags. 

Yesterday's game against Fulham was another good result for us. I really liked that Wenger made some changes (miracle!) and especially the fact that Podolski was playing on the left, which allowed Cazorla to move all over our midfield. I have been repeating this so many times at the end of last season: Cazorla should not be stuck on the left wing! He is way too good to be playing on the left wing. Meanwhile Podolski's left foot is perfect for that side. Even though sometimes he gets lost/isolated there, i think that's his best spot to suit the team needs. Podolski is a class player and it was good to see him start a game after two games sitting on the bench.

 The weather conditions were pretty tough, it was raining hard throughout the game and that made the pitch quite difficult to play on. Fulham started very compact at the back and were pressing us well. Eventually we started creating some chances and Giroud scored a great goal even though he was a bit lucky to get the ball into his feet. The rest of the 1st half we kept giving the ball away sloppily and there a few moments where our defense was getting opened up too easily. Luckily for us, in the 40th minute, we played a brilliant counter attack and after Theo's shot was blocked by Stockdale, Podolski put the ball in the back of the net with a great finish from a tricky position.

The second goal really settled us in and allowed us to have a lot of space to work with on our counter attacks. Fulham had a few more chances in the beginning of the second half, but another great counter in the 67th minute pretty much killed the game over, Podolski scoring his second goal of the game with a cool finish. Fulham did manage to score - Berbatov showed a piece of brilliant skill and Bent scored an easy tap in after Szczesny had blocked the Bulgarian's shot. The last 10 minutes Wallcott and Cazorla continued to threatened Fulham's goal but the score stayed 3-1.

Our defense was decent throughout the game. We were opened up quite a few times, but considering the tricky conditions we had an ok performance. Szczesny had a really good game for a first time in a while. He looked solid and made some teriffic saves on this wet surface after shots from Taarabt and Berbatov. Jenkinson was pretty good for the most part. Mertesacker and Sagna had some shaky moments but still put in a good performance. Gibbs was also solid on the left and i was glad to see him back healthy, we need all the bodies that we can get right now.

After the good performance in Istanbul, our midfield looked really good again! This time Cazorla was unstoppable the whole game, switching his position constantly all over our midfield. His link up play and passes were spot on. It was good to see him back to the level he normally performs at. After his awesome play against Fenerbahche, Ramsey had another good game. He did give away some balls cheaply, but he was active throughout the game and continued to threaten going forward. Rosicky wasn't as active as he normally is, but this was his 3rd game in the space of 8 days and he is not 20 years old anymore, so i am just glad he put a decent shift in and didn't get injured.

Our forwards were very impressive today too. Podolski scored two great goals and it was great to see him start a game. His left foot has always been impressive and he took full advantage of the chances he got. Theo had a very good game in Istanbul and today he was very active as well. When he has space to work with, we all know how dangerous he is. The other good thing that he did was mixing things up by cutting inside on a lot of his runs instead of just running down the wing. Giroud continued his great start to the season with another well taken goal and he had a solid game.

I liked that Wenger gave Monreal and Sanogo some game time, hopefully there will be more fresh faces like Frimpong and Zelalem against Fenerbahche. I know the tie is still not won and we have to be cautious. But one or two youngsters mixed with the regulars should not be a problem for us at home. So after this great week of results for us, the icing on the cake would be the news of us signing a quality defensive midfielder and another central defender. I feel those two are more important than another striker, especially if we can't get a real quality one. Let's hope this coming week will be another week with two wins in the bag and a big spanking of the shite Spurs at our house!!! C'mon You Gunners!