Arsenal: It's Too Soon To Make Predictions

The summer can be a bit too long for some football fans. Their expectations seem to build over the off season and somehow, they expect their team to come out all guns blazing. When that doesn't happen, somehow, conclusions are made rather hastily.

That's exactly what seems to be happening with Arsenal's fans after yesterday's shock defeat at Fulham.

Yes, it was an abysmal performance. Denilson played very poorly and Emmanuel Eboue shouldn't have even started. Samir Nasri looked a completely different player from the one we saw last weekend and William Gallas committed a schoolboy error on the corner. Up front, Robin van Persie was profligate and wasted four free-kicks.

But people seem to overlook the fact that this was just the second game of the season. Fans seem to forget that there was no Cesc Fabregas in midfield. Last season, Fabregas missed a game at Middlesbrough, when we lost 2-1 at the Riverside. He was sorely missed yesterday as well because Arsenal seemed to give the ball away far too cheaply in the middle of the park.

To suggest that Alex Hleb and Mathieu Flamini's departures were the reasons for the defeat yesterday are simply daft. That is what a six year old, with little reasoning ability, would say.

The real problem with yesterday's performance was that Arsenal underestimated Fulham from the first minute. The players seemed to be playing within themselves throughout the game. This was a very poor Arsenal, compared to a superb Fulham, on the day.

Fulham identified Arsenal's strength. They prevented Denilson, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna from getting forward. By pegging Arsenal back so far, there was no midfield to support the forwards and the ball was lumped up from the back to Emmanuel Adebayor and van Persie.

Sagna got forward on a few occasions, but there was never anyone there to meet his crosses. There was far too much panic after Arsenal conceded the goal and after that, it was a very flat performance.

I don't think that many of us would have seen Arsenal play so badly for a considerable amount of time. There was no cohesion, and a complete lack of conviction in the game.

William Gallas was at fault for the goal, as he backed out of the challenge against Brede Hangeland, who went on to poke the ball into the net. It was a very costly mistake and I hope that Arsene Wenger gave him an earful about it at the end of the game. It certainly wasn't something that the club's captain should have been doing.

But, let's put things in perspective. The season has just started. I've seen in an article here and a few on the Internet about how Arsenal's title challenge may have already faded. Such delusional opinions should be ignored.

The season is just two games old. There are 36 more to go. With so much football left to be played, how on Earth can anyone count Arsenal out? Granted, it was an important three points dropped—but Manchester United lost to Manchester City in their second game of last season and went on to win the league.

I think that like Arsenal yesterday, many fans are panicking. There absolutely no need to do so. We've only lost one game and have the whole season ahead of us. Let's not write our team off so soon.

There will be a midfielder signing before the end of the transfer window. Even though Wenger seems to try and deflect attention off the topic, I'm sure he recognizes that Cesc Fabregas needs support in the middle of the park.

Let's show some faith in our team. That's the least that we, as fans can do.