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Sunday, January 20, 2008

EPL : Fulham 0-3 Arsenal

There's nothing like a 3-0 Arsenal win to make a Gooner feel better about life.

I particularly like the wins where we've effectively wrapped it up by halftime and even the opposing manager and fans have good things to say about the Arsenal performance.

And so it was at Craven Cottage yesterday when Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice before halftime for a comfortable lead and Tomas Rosicky sealed the win in the second half.

The Guardian even called Arsenal "elegant" while a Fulham fans admits Arsenal "were brilliant" - whach are both things we probably already thought but it's nice to hear other people saying this sort of stuff too.

(it's all a far cry from the Don Howe / George graham days eh?)

Over at the BEEB Sports section the reporting is far more functional but it's worth playing the video interview with Fulham manager Roy Hodgson who talks about Arsenal's skill on the ball and admits it was a comfortable win.

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Nothing much changed in the league standings with ManYoo and Chelsea both scoring away wins (albeit both of them a little less comfortable than expected) while Liverpool and Man City play on Sunday.

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King Kev's debut at St James's Park was a damp squib, a 0-0 draw against a very defensive Bolton in a horrible game - but the Geordie fans recognise that it's gonig to take time and were not booing at the final whistle.

I expect to see more improvement in Newcastle in future months - but as we play them soon in both the FA Cup and the Premier League I'm hoping that it imght take Mr Keegan a wee while to restructure his side.

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Juande Ramos fielded a weakened Spurs side for their game against Sunderland, but still won 2-0 although it was a game that was surprising for the Sunderland effort in the second half.

I read a comment (somewhere) from a Sunderland fan saying that his side had mastered the art of snatching a defeat from a good performance - which I thought was a clever piece of gallows humour.

Spurs now host Arsenal kids in the Carling Cup semi-final second leg - and should rightly consider themselves favourites to progress - as I think that they've got the measure of the young Gooner side.

But still - that favourtism tag can hang heavy around teams - and stranger upsets have happened - so there is plenty to play for on Tuesday night.

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OK let's see what Sunday brings - I'm surprised to see such big prices for both Aston Villa (6.25) and West Ham (4.00) to win on the road - and I reckon that we might see a surprise in either (or both) of these games.