FULHAM v ARSENAL
PREMIER LEAGUE
Saturday, September 26th, 2009. 3pm Craven Cottage
Fulham’s league form has suffered at the expense of their forays in Europe. This will be their 12th competitive match of the season so far, only five of those have been in the Premier League. Of those five, just two league games have been played at home. They were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Chelsea and then turned over Everton 2-1. By the Fulham players own admissions, they are definitely distracted by their Europa Cup exploits and punters can expect that trend to continue against Arsenal, especially as the Cottagers will have one eye on their home tie against Basle on Thursday.
Arsenal also have the distraction of playing Champions League football, but despite their two losses in Manchester, Arsenal have been a pretty sound team this campaign. They’ve racked up seven wins in three competitions thus far, and with the news that Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin are both fit, one can understand why Fulham are available at as big as 13/2 to beat their London rivals.
Arsenal are priced around 4/7 to win this game, and while not ideal odds for a single bet, the Gunners are bankers for those doing accumulators.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Arsenal have won this fixture six times in the last eight meetings, scoring an impressive 16 goals to Fulham’s four. However, Fulham’s two victories against the Gunners have come in the previous three season suggesting that Fulham are a side improving year by year.
VERDICT
This year, the Europa League will prove to be Fulham’s downfall, and expect Arsenal to dominate this game. Arsenal have a tough game at home to Olympiakos on Tuesday but the strength-in-depth of Arsene Wenger’s squad means that he can still field a team quite capable of seeing of a plucky Fulham side.
RECOMMENDED
Half-time/full-time ARSENAL/ARSENAL 5/4 (bet365)
Arsenal to win 3-1 14.5 BETFAIR
***Please bet responsibly. Only bet with money that you can afford to lose — not your food kitty or rent/mortgage***
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