Leaving the Emirates Stadium last night, I had a wry smile on my face.
I couldn`t help but think that, unlike us, many teams would arrive in N5, go 2-0 down, comeback to lead 3-2 and still take the game to Arsenal, before surviving a last kick-of-the-match penalty.
Also, when was the last time we engineered two 3-3 away draws on the bounce?
It really was a surreal day!
Martin Jol introduced Sidwell (an Arsenal old-boy), Richardson and Dejagah into his starting eleven but could only watch on as his charges went 2-0 down in the first twenty-three minutes.
Arsenal took the lead with only eight minutes on the clock when Giroud headed home a corner. The lead was doubled, whilst Fulham were down to 10-men courtesy of Richardson pulling a hamstring, when Podolksi stepped between Baird and Hughes to score and it looked as if it was going to be one of those days.
Little did we know then that one of those days was going to be a day when Fulham engineered a remarkable come-back. The arrears were reduced with twenty-nine minutes on the clock when Berbatov when a Ruiz corner evaded the Arsenal defence and the Bulgarian was on hand to nod home.
Matters got even better with forty minutes on the clock when we drew level through Kacaniklic, with the substitute (on for Richardson) nodding home a Berbatov cross to send the travelling support wild.
Half Time – Arsenal 2 Fulham 2
All square at the resumption, it soon became obvious that this game could go either way, but from being two goals down it was to be Fulham who went 3-2 ahead, with sixty-seven minutes gone, when Berbatov scored from the spot following a foul on Riise by Arteta, the Bulgarian showing supreme coolness to send the keeper one way before striking the ball.
Sadly Fulham were only ahead for two minutes with Giroud making it 3-3 when having seen his shot hit the post, he was on hand to steer home the rebound. The game continued to ebb and flow and both sides had half-chances too won before, in the final minute Phil Dowd decided that Riether had deliberately handled a cross from Arshavin.
The Emirates Stadium held its breath as Arteta strode up to take the spot-kick but Schwarzer ensured we took home that point we thoroughly deserved, with a fine save.
Quite simply – what a game!
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