Jack and Loz Not At the Cottage- Blog 176

Date: 18th April 2021

Opposition: Arsenal

Score: 1-1

Fulham goal scorer: Josh Maja (pen)

MOTM: Alphonse Areola showed, as he so often does, what an outstanding goalkeeper he is, keeping Fulham in the game with great saves in both halves. His clean sheet wasn’t to be but, without him, we wouldn’t have come away with a point either. Shout out to Maja for the best Fulham penalty we’ve seen for a long time

Lunch: Jack - leek and potato soup; Loz - cheese and tomato muffins

At any other time, in any other circumstances we’d have been pleased with a draw away at the Emirates. When you’re staring relegation in the face and you conceded the equaliser in the 97th minute, however, its hard to feel anything except disappointment. In fact, it is hard to feel anything at all - this drawn out stumble into the abyss has left us numb.

As so often recently, Scott confused everyone with the starting line-up: a start for Maja, the return of Tosin, BDR back at RWB and no Harrison Reed or Mitro. Skulking on the bench was the dubious figure of RLC.

The first half was by no means a classic. Fulham did not look like a team fighting for survival. We sat back, invited pressure, dealt with it reasonably well but (deflected shot from Maja aside) never looked threatening. In the warm spring sunshine the match felt like a kick about in the park for much of the time, although Arsenal showed glimmers of a dangerous edge despite the Fulham defenders’ best attempts to hypnotise them as they passed the ball rhythmically back and forth, getting ever closer to their own goal.

For the third game in a row, the first half ended with VAR swooping to our rescue, cape swirling, parallel lines all over the place. This time, at least, we heeded the warning and began the second half with more intensity, if not more creativity.

We got lucky with the penalty but we won it because we managed to put together an effective attack. Maja had to wait about.....7 minutes was it?......to take it but when he was finally allowed to step up his shot was devastating - a combination power and placement into the roof of the net. Unstoppable.

And then it began: that very Fulhamish period of hanging on. And suddenly it was there - the urgency, the fight, the spirit, the zygote of a Great Escape. Harrison Reed, bursting onto the pitch replacing the tiring (and less than effective) Lookman, was the embodiment of the never say die spirit we needed. He hustled and bustled, intercepted and interrupted. His injury time block showed his guts as well as his quality. We defended corners, we foiled free kicks, we fought a rearguard action in the very mouth of the goal. It began to look possible, like the rollercoaster ride of the season wasn’t over, like if we believed hard enough we could somehow see it though....

But then it happened. Scott Parker made his second sub. And the Championship’s Trojan Horse trotted onto the stage.

This isn’t the time to dissect the season, and it’s fair to say that we won’t go down because we didn’t beat Arsenal, but we might well have beaten them if Ruben Loftus-Cheek had done the job required of him. While the defence fought with their backs to the wall, RLC was supposed to be the outlet. All he had to do was take the ball toward’s Arsenal’s goal and not lose it. He lost it twice, the second time with disastrous consequences.

Arsenal didn’t give up (a trait which will serve them well in the new European Super League no doubt) and a combination of the endless 7 minutes of extra time and RLC’s ineptitude meant the Gunners got their reward for their bombardment. Areola claimed, perhaps justifiably, that an offside player interfered with play but whilst we were rescued by VAR once, it was never going to happen twice.

We acknowledge it’s easy to blame RLC (doesn’t he care? Is he actually just a bit rubbish at football?) and whoever agreed the clause in the loan contract which dictates the minutes he has to play, but, once again, the reality is that we didn’t win the game because we couldn’t score more than one goal. Which makes it all the more baffling why we didn’t see Mitro. What does Serbia’s greatest ever goal scorer have to do to get a game?

It is a shame, because in this match we finally began to see the players fight for survival, but now the end is close and it is just a matter of time.

Random musings:-

- so that’s another London Derby we didn’t win

- we don’t want to detract from Areola’s excellent performance but what was all that business with the boot and the gloves? Time wasting always comes back to bite you - we’ve seen it time and time again

- it was good to see Tosin back. Even if his reinstatement was forced by Kongolo’s latest injury, Tosin looked calm and controlled and his first half block was a sight to behold

- we liked Scott’s classic Aran Cardigan but his smart standards seem to be slipping - will he be in a tracksuit by the end of the season?

- It was incongruous to see the 'Visit Rwanda' ads on Arsenal shirts and in stands. Most of us would be happy just to get to Southend for a change of scene.

- Gareth Southgate couldn't have been there to look at any of our players by any chance?

- we don’t think Fulham should join the European Super League. Sorry for any disappointment caused to the organisers.

That was Scott’s 100th game in charge and his wry smile at the end said it all. It feels like the post mortem of this season started several games ago, even before we were doomed. Recriminations grip social media and knee jerk reactions turn vicious after every match. Scott is always in the firing line - that’s the manager’s job after all - but he’s far from being the only one at fault.

After relegation will be the reckoning, and its hard to know which will be worse.