We’ve all seen those clips from the Overlap doing the rounds over the last couple of days. Pundits Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright and Roy Keane discussing Fulham as if we’re a National League South side playing Manchester United this weekend. Neville saying we will really struggle this season. Boring, boring tables.
To Carragher’s credit, he points out that Fulham got a point at Anfield last week (anything to give Liverpool a mention) and beat West Ham in the Carabao Cup. That gives me reason to believe Fulham may be turning a corner, and after a struggling start, Alvaro Arbeloa may be starting to figure out the best way to utilise this Fulham side.
Neville may want to be careful with his words - and even he said “Watch this get clipped up on Sunday night”. Don’t worry Gary, it’s bookmarked. U
United have just the one league win so far, and some would argue, for the quality and players they have, their resources, the money they’ve spent - they’ve had a worse start to the season than Fulham.
Manchester United at home. The last win for Whites came in 2009. Since then, only a couple of draws, one being last season after Smith Rowe scored following United’s controversial opener.
I’ve watched more of Manchester United so far this season than Gary Neville has watched of Fulham. Their embarrassing 2-3 loss to Brighton from 2-0 up was a stark reminder of how vulnerable United still are. Albeit they made some changes, but in a desperate attempt to salvage the game, they threw on some of their big-hitters, who failed to make any impact.
Fulham are in better spirits. A goalless draw at Anfield which encouraged so many, followed up by a 2-3 win at the London Stadium to set up a Carabao Cup last 16 at home to ‘the pride of south London, the famous Palace boys.’
There are certainly huge, huge positives to take from the last seven days, and I’m confident to say that we won’t put on a second-half display like we did against Palace two weeks ago on Sunday.
Right, shall we get into the presser? Arbeloa spoke with the press this morning. Some bad news regarding Kenny Tete, who is concussed. Although, Ryan Sessegnon will be assessed after suffering a groin issue. TC is still out.
“Tom is still recovering. Tete won’t be available. We need to see if Sess is available for Sunday”, said Arbeloa.
“He will be training with us today and we will have to make a decision later.”
On Tete:
“Not available. It’s a concussion after the ball (hit him) in the Anfield game, so he’s still not available. I think he’ll be ready for an international break. Unfortunately, he’s not ready for a Sunday.”
Focussing on the game:
“After that victory against West Ham, I think it has been a good week for us and now we are preparing the game against Man United. We are still believing that we can beat them, if we play a very good match from the first minute. We know that we have to play at our best level, same level that we saw at Anfield and that’s our target.”
On the goals conceded against West Ham:
“We did really well against Liverpool. I think we defended well against West Ham, but when we scored, we conceded some easy goals for them, some easy situations.
“We cannot concede this goal, maybe we were relaxing a bit, I don’t know why. But we need to improve and we need to work in this type of situation because we were playing very well in the first half and we conceded two goals from nothing.”
On the fans:
“Our supporters are so important.We are really strong with them behind us. And yes, I think it’s an advantage for us. And we need to play a really high-intensity game.”
Josh King was on the verge of an England call-up according to Thomas Tuchel. It’s clear Arbeloa rates the 19 year old highly, and says he’s ready for a senior call up:
“I’m not the coach of the England national team, but I think Josh is ready, the way that he’s performing. I don’t see too many players like him in this league. He’s just 19 years old but the way that he’s playing with the talent that he has. He’s a really hard working player and maybe he’s playing like he’s 26 or 28 years old. I think he’s making difference and I think he has the level to be in the national squad.”
Michael Carrick is under pressure. It’s the biggest game of the weekend in the Premier League, in my opinion.
There are some more quotes to come from AA across the weekend. Those can be found on my Patreon and X pages.
Enjoy your weekend, see you at the Cottage - and COYW!
Baz: In my opinion High Noon for both Carrick and Arbeloa arrives at 4.30pm on Sunday. Big clubs like United seem to use losing to Fulham as a measure of the health of their teams. If United lose Carrick is out during the international break. A draw might save him but would it rescue Arbeloa?
Two points from a possible 15 for Fulham would be a pathetic return and leave no confidence in achieving a minimum of 7 from the following games against the promoted sides. Beating United would rightly earn Arbeloa the time to embed his ideas even if results remain mixed until January. If it’s ‘adios Alvaro’ we can take consolation from some nifty signings. Post AA our new boss is likely to be Thomas Frank (good) with our first choice, should United lose, Eddie Howe going to…Old Trafford.