Arsenal 2 Fulham 1: Song and dance act suits Arsene Wenger

ARSENAL 2 FULHAM 1

Arsenal ace Samir Nasri twice brilliantly danced his way around the Fulham defence Arsenal ace Samir Nasri twice brilliantly danced his way around the Fulham defence

ARSENE WENGER could do a passable Fred Astaire impersonation as he  delivers his Arsenal team talks this season.

He knows there may be trouble ahead when he sends the Gunners out to attack. But as Samir Nasri proved against Fulham, they have the ability to face the music and dance.

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Nasri twice brilliantly danced his way around the Fulham defence to send Arsenal to the top of the Premier League table. But Wenger’s men once again made life difficult for themselves.

Defenders Sebastien Squillaci and Laurent Koscielny collided to gift Diomansy Kamara a first-half equaliser and midfielder Alex Song’s licence to break forward left the Gunners vulnerable.

Arsenal 2 Fulham 1

Wenger knows his dancers can be caught out if they miss a step, as do opposition managers. But he is prepared to take risks and give Nasri and company the freedom to show their flair.

“Teams close us down because they know we play through the middle, so I push my midfielders up a bit at the start to give us more room,” said Wenger.

“Song is high up the pitch because we want him there.

“I am comfortable with that, even though it sometimes leaves us open in the middle of the park. If we lose the ball in the build-up, we are in trouble.

“But we want to play in the other half of the pitch and, therefore, we have to push our opponents back. My philosophy is not to be in trouble, but to fool the opponent into trouble.

“Sometimes it doesn’t do my heart-rate much good. But if you get the three points it’s OK.

“We had to gamble against Fulham. We finished with five strikers on the pitch to win the game because that was absolutely needed.”

Despite the fact Arsenal moved to the top of the table, Wenger said they are still not favourites to win the title.

But he joked that his players can draw inspiration from the controversial 2018 and 2022 World Cup venue decisions to upset the odds.

“It is always good psychologically to be top, but we are not the favourites – look at the odds,” said Wenger. “But you should have looked at the odds as well for the World Cup, so we can still have hope!”

Arsenal’s season could be defined this month, with games against fellow title challengers Manchester United and Chelsea.

And Fulham manager Mark Hughes, who played in attack for both United and Chelsea, believes the Gunners will quickstep themselves into problems.

Asked whether Arsenal looked like genuine title material, Hughes said: “No, not today. I think we’ve given a template for a team who have to play Arsenal.

“I’m certain United and Chelsea will look at how we approached the game and will take information from it and Arsenal will find it more difficult against them.

“The Arsenal centre-backs are possibly not as strong as they have been in recent years. At times you can expose them because they are an attacking team and always get their full-backs advanced, which means there are spaces to exploit.

“Centre-backs at the top teams sometimes get an easy day. Because there is so much quality ahead of them, they do not have questions asked of them. But if you put them under pressure, sometimes they are not used to it and they have to do things they haven’t done much work on.”

Arsenal’s inability to shut out their title rivals cost them dearly last season and right-back Bacary Sagna agrees this month is very much make or break for their title hopes.

“We have to do well against our big opponents,” said Sagna. “If we want to be successful, we want to be competitive, we have to win these big games.

“In our first one of the season against Chelsea, we dropped points. But we have dropped so many points at home we need to win these games now. At United, we want to play our game and win away.

“We do not want the season to be over at the end of December. We want to win these next matches and give even more power to the team.”

There really will be trouble ahead, however, if Arsenal do not curb their passion for dance routines.

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Fabianski 7; Sagna 6, Squillaci 5, Koscielny 4 (Djourou 33, 6), Clichy 6; Song 5, Wilshere 6 (Walcott 74, 6); Nasri 9, Rosicky 5 (Van Persie 63, 7), Arshavin 7; Chamakh 6. Goals: Nasri 14, 75.

FULHAM (4-4-1-1): Schwarzer 7; Pantsil 5, Hughes 5, Hangeland 6, Briggs 4 (Baird 28, 5); Davies 7, Murphy 6 (E Johnson 88), Etuhu 6, Dempsey 7; Gera 6; Kamara 7 (A Johnson 73, 6). Goal: Kamara 30.

Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).

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