"Too many marginal moments are going against us" | On the Whistle: Fulham 1-1 Arsenal

Hello guys, I am sat in my father-in-law's gym a few hours after Fulham v Arsenal finished 1-0. And it's a good weekend for Liverpool, isn't it? Drop points by Manchester City yesterday, drop points today by Arsenal. It's a good weekend for Chelsea as well, who move into second with that win over Spurs, who just went full Spurs and you never go full Spurs. I feel like Big Ang has got a big problem there right now. But let's concentrate on ourselves. Two drop points today in slightly cruel circumstances. You know, the sacker seemed like he'd scored a late winner and then VAR. Give us with one hand, allowing Saliba's goal and then take the way with the other, disallowing that one. And I think we would have deserved the win. I've got to be honest, when you look at the balance of play, the territory, the chances created in the game, I think Fulham only had two shots in the full 90 minutes. We did enough to win. And I think because we dropped points, there's going to be this tendency to kind of really dig into that performance and try to find loads of problems with it. I'm not sure there were a ton. Could we have created more from open play? Yeah. Yeah. But I still think 80% of the time, what we did today is enough to win you that match. I think the problem we've got is that given some of the other results in the league this year, we've got ourselves into a position where there's almost no margin for error. I think that's the biggest issue. Like I say, 80% of the time, I would expect us to win this match. If you don't, it's a draw. You take the point. You live with it. The problem is our previous results have left us in a position where it feels like we need three points almost every single week, particularly at the moment. I think this was a chance to go, I think, for four points with Liverpool, albeit with them having a game in hand. Obviously, their match was called off at Goodison Park this weekend. They'll be delighted about that right now, because they've had a weekend's rest and the teams around them, or certainly two of the teams around them, have dropped points. This was a chance for us to put some pressure on, to close the gap mathematically, but also psychologically, to test Liverpool, to see how they cope when the gap is that bit smaller. We weren't able to take it. I think there are issues in the performance, but as I say, most of the time, it would be good enough to beat Fulham. I think we were just quite unlucky. We're unlucky that Manelli's a yard offside. We're unlucky that more of those dangerous set-piece situations didn't turn to goals. We're particularly unlucky that Fulham scored with their only chance of the game. I don't think the defending is great. I think he runs off the back of Kiviel much too easily. I wonder if Saliba could have committed more. I think he's worried about getting turned inside, as Paul Merson pointed out at half-time. But Jimenez finds the one part of the goal that he can. There's one shot he can pull off from that position, and he manages to do it. Fair play to him. We had plenty of time to rescue it, and we eventually got the goal through the set-piece. They're becoming little occasions of their own. It's interesting. You sense the Arsenal fans really excited for every corner we win. But every time they cleared one, conversely, it gave the Fulham fans a lift. So there's this odd dual effect where they'd get a corner against them, but then if they headed it clear, you'd think they'd scored, frankly, the way they were celebrating. I think it gave them little incremental lifts throughout the match. When Saka scored, I thought, here we go. When he put the ball in the back of the net, 90th minute, I was like, this is it. We're on the run now. We're on our way. And then VAR takes it away. He's offside. What can you say? But I have to be honest and say that not going our way has added to my gut feeling that I have expressed on here multiple times that it's just not our year. It still can be. It's still possible. Anything can happen. Football's a crazy game. But I just feel like too many coin toss moments. Is that a yellow card or is it a red card? Is that onside? Is it offside? Things that come down to really fine margins. We just seem to be the wrong side of the margins a little bit too often. I think we're affected by injuries today as well. I think having to put Timber at left back and party at right back affected our build-up. I think, as I say, Kivio maybe doesn't deal with the situation on the goal as well as Gabrielle would have done. So there's all sorts of things contributing again. Injuries, just another factor that makes you think maybe it's not our time. I'd love to be wrong. I would love to be wrong. It's not a bad result. Draw at Fulham. It's actually an improvement on what we did last year. It's the context, right? It's the context. We're kind of in a position where we need to be perfect. And what happened today was not perfect. I'll leave it there for now because a few hours have passed since the game, so you've probably all moved on with your lives. Who can blame you? But I'll get this up there and I'll speak to you all soon. Take care. Bye-bye.