The Cottagers have been in a right mess this season. In recent weeks they have been hit for 4 by Liverpool, 4 from Everton and 6 against Hull City. Can we have one of those please? We haven’t won by a larger margin than 2 clear goals since November 30th when we beat Cardiff City 3-0. Even then you have to go back all the way to October 19th when we scored 4 against Norwich. While we have been dominant in many of our games we have rarely had the chance to put on our comfy slippers and slurp on some hot chocolate. Instead having to knock back Whiskey shots to control our nerves like during the final stages at Villa Park on Monday or recently at St James’ Park. If we start the game as we did in games like Tottenham in the FA cup then we should have a good chance to score early. Fulham have conceded the most goals this season with 46. That is 27 more than us in 21 games which is quite remarkable really.

I am grateful for Per Mertesacker, Koscielny, Szczesny and the rest of the gang this season. Defensively we have been superb and it is that reason for the most part as to why we are currently leading the league table in mid January.

It would be silly to take that for granted or dismiss our defensive performances as routine. Plus it would be churlish in the extreme to complain given that we are top of the league against teams that have far superior financial resources to us.

Complacency is another word that we are all trying to avoid, not to take fixtures for granted because we are in the most competitive league in Europe but for goodness sake, can we please score some goals and spank Fulham today?

The Cottagers have been in a right mess this season. In recent weeks they have been hit for 4 by Liverpool, 4 from Everton and 6 against Hull City. Can we have one of those please? We haven’t won by a larger margin than 2 clear goals since November 30th when we beat Cardiff City 3-0. Even then you have to go back all the way to October 19th when we scored 4 against Norwich.

While we have been dominant in many of our games we have rarely had the chance to put on our comfy slippers and slurp on some hot chocolate. Instead having to knock back Whiskey shots to control our nerves like during the final stages at Villa Park on Monday or recently at St James’ Park.

If we start the game as we did in games like Tottenham in the FA cup then we should have a good chance to score early. Fulham have conceded the most goals this season with 46. That is 27 more than us in 21 games which is quite remarkable really.

But with Arsenal these things are not always as simple as they should be. Don’t get me wrong, I fully expect Arsenal to take all three points today but even though we are the superior squad we have to click going forward. Thinking back to Bradford last season, we had pretty much all of the ball and were by far the better team as you would expect but when Wengerball is off then it means that we can be stopped by pretty much anyone. When Wengerball is off we don’t create chances and teams that flood the middle can stop us.

As I said above Fulham have the worst defensive record this season and they will more than likely try and park the bus today.

Luckily we are full of confidence and have lock pickers like Mesut Özil who can find the final ball. Hopefully we can find our way through early.

On the injury front we still have Ramsey, Arteta and Bendtner out of the squad. I don’t know if Yaya Sanogo is back in the squad yet. Probably not.

I wonder if Lukas Podolski will get his chance. I’m not sure he will. I wrote 3/4 of a piece about Podolski in which I have saved over by mistake. I might write it again after watching how much he features in the next few weeks.

Serge Gnabry should start on the right again and I’d love Arsene to tell him to release his attacking handbrake a little. I’d love to know how many take ons he has had this season on average compared to others in his position. I’d imagine it wouldn’t actually be that high even if he is very capable of it. Until now, Serge has usually taken the sensible option and has worked well for the team. It is a matter of time before his individual quality starts coming out. I’d be up for seeing some of that today.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up:

Due to injuries I’d imagine the team will be something similar to the above give or take one or perhaps two exceptions. We really should be winning this game and comfortably so expect 0-0 with ten minutes to go.

COYG.

PS – I am fully aware that this is the most complacent article of all time but that is how I feel today. Any Fulham fans reading that want to return and destroy me should we not win are welcome to. I would deserve it.

Extra Reading: Mixture of Youth and Experience – Jack Wilshere by JR