Hello and hope youre well?
Sunday the 8th of December at 2.00pm (western European time) sees the Mighty Cannon wend and weave its way through the traffic of west London to set up positions against Fulham FC at Craven Cottage, down by the riverside.
The Guns have been given a 59.8% chance of winning the game, whilst the Cottagers have only 17.8.
What sort of relationship have you had with this side over the years? I have none at all, so really this feels a tough blog to write! I’ve never been to Craven Cottage nor watched Fulham at the Arsenal. Maybe you guys have and can share some memories, or experiences? My only link that I can recall is a guy in my class at school supported them the year they ‘missed out on promotion’ when Malcolm Macdonald was the manager, which is no link at all and not in the least bit interesting. After that he went off and followed Chelsea.
The Cottage seems to have had a fascinating history and I didn’t realise how long they’d been at that site (since 1896). Our old chum, architect Archibald Leitch makes another appearance again on a PA blog, as the man who rebuilt Craven Cottage back in 1905 and he was responsible for the ‘Cottage Pavilion’, surely one of footballs great oddities? Fulham were the third club to go professional after the Arsenal and Millwall, and played in red and white until 1903 when they went black and white, which is how television was when Tottenham last won the league.
Furthering the Arsenal link, Henry Norris ‘the man who made the Arsenal and irritated the Spuds’ etc was a director along with William Hall at Fulham and Arsenal and due to Woolwich Arsenal being close to liquidation decided to try and merge the clubs and make a ‘London superclub’ a sort of Crosby, Stills Nash and Young but with football boots. These plans fell through, and oddly enough Norris also indirectly helped create Chelsea, in that Guy Mears tried to lure him/Fulham over to the land that Stamford bridge now rests on and build a stadium there, when Norris rejected the offer Mears created his own side, Chelsea.
Later, in the 1930s a new Fulham stadium was planned which would have been a 80,000 seater, but the Great Depression saw that idea go down the toilet. Fulham claim to be the first side to sell the gourmet food known as hot dogs back in 1926, nice, I suppose if you like that kind of thing?
Although the ground has seen many changes and is one of the smallest (under 30,000) in the top flight, it seems remarkable that its still on the original site? The area itself has a pretty interesting history; owned by the 6th Baron of Craven (whose son Wes became a famous director of film) it was once part of Anne Boleyn’s hunting grounds.
The Cottage on that site was supposed to have had many visitors; Queen Victoria, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jeremy Bentham and Florence Nightingale. Perhaps that’s what lured the celebrity crowd to support Fulham?
Margot Robbie, Ray Brooks, Sharon Duce, Dominic Guard, Hugh Grant, Daniel Radcliffe, Keith Allen, Liz Fraser, Willie Rushton, Nigel Havers, good ol Sam Kydd, Tony Curtis, Ben Chaplain, Patrick Mower, Nakul Lax, Sméagol from Lord of the Rings, Honor Blackman, Denis Potter, Fulton Mackay, Johnny Speight, Diddy Hamilton, John Sullivan, Jimmy Hill,Tony Blair, Pope John Paul II (eh?), Max Clifford, Tony Booth, Tommy Trinder, Georgie Thompson, Lilly Allen, Keith Chegwin, Isobel Lang, Cathy Shipton, Jacko (only one game though), Michael Redfern, Iain Fletcher,Pierce Brosnan, Bella Emberg, John Woodvine, Richard Osman,Tim Ewart, Richard Parks Andy Kane, Kerok Malikyan and probably more I have missed, all gave up the chance to follow the Mighty Cannon and instead decided follow Fulham. Unlucky!
Keeping alive the Arsenal connection, Bernd, Emile, Alex will perhaps all have something to prove, and I wouldn’t blame them, Reiss wont be playing as hes a loanee, unless the rules have changed?
Marco Silva, their manager has a 44.52% win rate, and Fulham are currently in 10th place.
Fulham don’t have any major honours, runners up in the 1975 FAC final, and runners up in the 2009/10 UEFA cup final, which they lost to Atlético. I don’t expect us to lose this one but every games a potential banana skin in the PL. I’m hoping again for some nicey nice football, swift and intelligent and plenty of goals. COYG!
Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like going off and climb Mt. Everest instead of reading this.
Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses!
COYG and keep on keepin’ on!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
I’ve no idea why I enjoyed that blag as much as I did, but well done Mills, thanks.
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“a sort of Crosby, Stills Nash and Young but with football boots.”
Oh Mills, you are a delight to read on this windy morning. Thank you thank you thank you. This is a redefining of football blogging and I love it.
This fixture (and the return match of course) is the only Fulham game I want them to lose. They’ve taken the place of Bayer Leverkusen as my second team this season. Too much Arsenal for me not to wish them well, and Arsène’s Arsenal at that.
It’s a funny thing having a second team. I find it thoroughly refreshing. Kind of takes me back to when I started supporting. Disappointed if they lost, but not sick to my stomach, and soon back on my feet again. I can enjoy the games without that gut wrenching anxiety which accompanies an Arsenal match.
I love Alex and Emile in particular. In fact I wish they weren’t playing. A little niggle to keep them out would suit me perfectly. I just hate to see them lose.
However, lose they must, and fairly heavily at that. It’s the brutal reality underpinning the beautiful romance of the game.
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Great write up Mills.
I remember the team of 75, Moore, Best and Marsh a team riddled with talent but a bit on the old side to bring home the cup. Also the black and red striped kit was pretty snazzy as well.
I’ve been to the cottage several times and even done the boat trip once. It’s a great old fashion ground but very small.
ARSENAL old boys are another talented side and I really like their coach. I was hoping Eddie would end up there as well. With Alex, Reiss and Emile feeding him he would be scoring for fun.
I think we’ve been lucky Reiss is still on loan as he has been playing really well and with our injuries he would have caused us problems.
Although we struggled last season against the cottagers, historically we normally do well against them including Uni’s 5-1 (yes with Arsene’s team) win when the supporters were all singing “we’ve got our ARSENAL back” obviously changing their mind some time later and demanding Uni got the sack. That game also included the Bellerin, Ramsey, Giroud goal that was pure Arsene.
We seem to be creating ways to get wins at the moment and even though we still have injuries at the back, we seem to be tightening up defensively as well. We all know manure were poor going forward but the whole team must deserve credit for that as well.
Something similar to that 1-5 would be great but I think we will win but a lot tighter and yes the set piece goals are good but a few from open play would be even better COYG.
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Thanks lads.
I enjoyed what you’ve written about your experiences with Fulham. Really great.I love reading about peoples histories with Arsenal /supporting clubs and also having soft spots for other clubs/ ex players etc.
I remember seeing footage of Best and Marsh at Fulham, when Marsh tackles Best for a laugh. Didn’t one of them take their boot off and kick the ball too? Probably be and outcry now?
COYG!
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My first introduction to Fulham FC as something other than a passing interest who I’d see brief highlights of on the Big Match on a Sunday afternoon, with Bobby Moore, Rodney Marsh and the wonderful George Best in the mid 70’s, was when I moved into secondary school, and met a fellow first year who was mad about soccer, Willie Collins, a slight, blonde lad with a strong English accent, or should I say London accent, he and his family had only just moved to rural Leitrim in Ireland, as big a cultural shock as you could imagine. He was a Fulham fan, with a liking for Liverpool too, he eventually dropped Fulham for the Reds when LFC were dominating in the early 80’s. Willie despite his small stature was easily the best soccer player at the school, so much so that at the end of year annual pupils v teachers 5 a side game he was the only 1st year to make the team, and he bamboozled the teachers no end.
It was shortly after getting friendly with Willie that one of my hero’s at the time, Malcolm Supermac McDonald became Fulham manager and brought Fulham into the spotlight. Supermac came oh so close to getting Fulham back into the top flight. Never quite understood why he didn’t go on to have a much longer career as a manager, was there off the pitch issues.
The current Fulham team has real Arsenal link to it, Leno in goal, Nelson on loan, but can’t play against us, seen something about him having done his hamstring midweek too, then there is two shinning lights of this Fulham team Smith-Rowe and the man who for me has been their main man, Iwobi, someone who I think would do a brilliant job for Arsenal in that left 8 role, but alas that is just a pipe dream.
In recent years Arsenal have found Fulham a difficult opponent, especially at Craven Cottage, we need to be at our best tomorrow to get the win we so badly need to help put some pressure on Liverpool, and take advantage of another slip up by Man City today.
So despite my friendship of old with a Fulham boy who then supported liverpool, an Arsenal win is the only result I want tomorrow, I think Willie wherever he may be these days would completely understand.
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Nice post Ed!
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Thanks Mills – you’re the best, and can I add to that by saying how much your excellent intros have added to my enjoyment of the season.
My early childhood was in Hammersmith, but my main memories of Craven Cottage is from the Boat Race commentary and its mention https://theoutdoorguide.co.uk/tog-community-blog/exploring-the-route-of-the-boat-race/
just before the Harrods Depository, no doubt a prophetic foreshadowing of al Fayed’s disgraceful abuse of power.
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or even ‘are from’, he hurriedly corrects.
On a theme of depositories and suppositories I’ve been worried by the wind for the last few days: not I hasten to add on my account, but more from the storm that has ravaged (think that’s what storms do) the UK this weekend. While many’s first port of pre-match call is to check the refs and VAR merchants I always turn to the forecast, being convinced that often the biggest threat to the football that Arsenal try to play is the weather. It seems to be calming down a bit, and I hope the rain will keep the pitch slick and we’ll see some zippy first time passes from our boys.
I’ve been amused by the chat about tactical corners recently, but something not often mentioned is the accuracy of delivery. I wonder how much time Rice and Saka are spending practising their kicking. Quite a lot I suspect, just like the Superbowl placekickers or Rugby convertors do,
Well, enough of this witter: just normal nerves (abnormal really given that its meant to be a fun business) which seem to get worse with age, or is that just increased knowledge of everything that can go wrong? The turn of phrase (delivered with resignation by the gnarly old senior pros) that has stuck with me from my playing days is simply ‘It’s got all the makings’. Let’s hope that’s not the case today, but I fear it probably will be.
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Thanks Heady, adding to peoples enjoyment is all I can ever ask for.
To me, everyone’s posts concerning their thoughts and emotions on the game, histories past, annoyances and preferences present, predictions and fears make the blog. Without everyone else, I’m just Mills and Moon in the wilderness.
I realised the other day I’m probably the youngest here ( baby driver) which means everyone else has a massive store of memories with Arsenal and all the other clubs we play against, and the cities and town we play in. To me those experiences shared make Arsenal as much as any thoughts I might have. Tbh I find my self often really lacking.
I suppose (for good or bad) I’m interested in questions like “what does supporting Arsenal mean/ entail etc”. Observing, but also recollection of games and epochs past, grappling with them.
Yesterday when Notre Dame re-opened my mind zipped back to April 15th 2019, when we struggled to beat the Orns 0-1. Ian writing about Unai made me recall that time and go off down the rabbit hole of times gone by and recalling being on PA that night, and how frustrated we were with Unai’s Arsenal. Its always interesting to see how Arsenal weaves its way into your life.
It was good to have a spin through the site you put up, I sank a few beers in the Old Ship a few times many, many moons ago. London certainly has a rich history. I used to look at a website called ‘derelict London’, which was pretty fascinating if that your cuppa.
COYG!
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making hard work of this fulham game, went behind early on, Saliba leveled at a corner, partey missed a sitter. about 20 minutes left
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Sakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2-1 to the Arsenal, an 88th minute header from Saka puts AFC in the lead
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looks like he is offside, var checking
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fuck fuck fuck, its offside, still 1-1
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running out of time here
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FT: Fulham 1-1 Arsenal
not good enough
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Not enough to get us over the line. Pretty frustrating, thought we had it at the end.
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draws are killing us, 5 draws in our 15 EPL games so far, never has there been a team more reliant on going ahead in games than this Arsenal team, they just don’t do comeback wins. When behind there is no charge of the light brigade to try and salvage it, the system is king, and better to drop a few extra points than to risk letting in a few in a defeat. For me its worth risking defeat to try and get a win, go all out for the win and if we turned two of those draws into wins but lost the other 3 we’d still be a point better off. Arteta is risk averse, he’ll take the 5 draws over 2 wins and 3 defeats. I think he seen the way the crowd turned on Wenger after defeats, he won’t risk that.
The mistake in our squad building is costing us dear this season, far too many injury prone defenders, Tomiyasu(how they hell did we give him a contract extension), Zinchenko, Tierney, Calafiori, all injury prone and all fullbacks, means playing guys out of position was always likely, and how have we not bought some quality forwards, Jesus wouldn’t score in a brothel, Martinelli has not become what we all thought he would, we have no lethal finisher, not even close.
Today with liverpool not playing this weekend, and man city having dropped points yesterday we had the chance to get a statement win, but my God that first half was oh so flat, the second half not much better, yes we had a couple of great chances, the Partey one in particular, but we really did not have Fulham on the ropes at any time in the game, they were comfortable, it wasn’t like Leno put in a man of the match performance to keep us out.
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FT: Spurs 3-4 Chelsea
spurs were 2-0 up, cfc then went 4-2 up before a late spurs goal. A comeback win for CFC that puts them 4pts behind Liverpool and 2pts ahead of Arsenal.
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I knew we were not playing great this season but even this stat surprised me a little
Arsenal are 13th in expected open play goal chances this season, with only 3 created, and only 1 in the last 8 games.
its all well and good that we are causing so many problems for teams from corners, but that should be a bonus, not the main scoring creation method.
But once again according to Arteta we should have won today cos we had two good chances, he has trotted out that line after all 7 EPL games we have failed to win this season. I assume the two chances he talked about where both from corners cos I can’t remember us creating a single good chance from open play, but I may have nodded off during the game, either that or the play had numbed me.
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I know we weren’t good enough and its as simple as that and I know its bloody irritating that we didn’t win, but you think the VAR line on Martinelli didn’t look right?
Maybe it was and in any case it doesn’t matter as the result stands and we are already on the road to the Monaco Grand Prix, but something seemed a bit odd in it?
COYG!
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Since Mikel’s opening period in charge we have always said he was over cautious and would make substitutions to late.
Obviously early on we thought he would learn and he would improve. Unfortunately after five years and lots of improvements in other areas the basic flaws are still there.
The changes still come to late and more often than not they are one for one, hardly something for the other side to get flummoxed by
It would be nice for us to drop to a back three or speedy full backs overlapping our wingers. Nwaneri comes on for Odegaard instead of Nwaneri playing on the edge of the box and Odegaard dictating play from deeper.
Partey will never make a full back and even when he is in midfield he slows the game down with his backwards passing. Fulham were that comfortable after an hour they took ESR off and sat deeper and deeper.
When we have our first eleven in we have played some fantastic football but with just two players out and against an organised side that is good on the break we look very stale.
Again this was another game where the players who haved left in recent seasons were better than some of those both on the pitch and being brought on.
After all this time I think these traits will never change in our manager and although at times we will be brilliant, we will never be consistent enough to win the league whoever is having a bad season.
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I was surprised by the open play stat. The other stat which explains our lack of variety in attack was the one showing Partey and Timber only overlapped their wingers once each.
Did the breakaway Fulham goal scare us that much we weren’t prepared to commit either of our full backs further forward.
I’ve seen a lot of people blame Kiwior for the goal, but as Arsene used to say “most goals come from a combination of mistakes” and this was no different. Timber was out of position (he should be inverted when we have the ball) Kiwior had not backed off enough and was done for pace, Saliba had no one to cover in the centre and was late coming across and Raya should not get beaten from a shot from the edge of the area going across his body.
These things tend to happen when things are not going well for you but the reaction never really seems to come at the moment. I’m sure things within the team will change but not sure on a greater scale.
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I can’t click like, but top analytics and insight Ian and Ed. COYG!
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New post is up.
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