Chris Coleman admitted that his Fulham side were no match for their opponents on Saturday.
The Fulham manager offered no excuses for his side’s 4-0 capitulation against a form Arsenal side that tore through Volz and Knight time and time again.
To be fair to Fulham, Thierry Henry – on his day – is one of the best players in the world and on Saturday he was simply unstoppable.
Coleman said of the French hitman: ‘Thierry Henry’s performance was one of the best individual performances I’ve seen. How do you answer that? He’s one of, if not, the best player in the world. If they keep that sort of form up, you’ve got to fancy them for the Champions League.’
Fulham were made to look decidely ordinary throughout the whole 90 minutes of the encounter at Craven Cottage, and that was down to them playing a team far above their standards who have under-performed – particularly away from home – for most of the season.
Coleman added: ‘They were fantastic from the first kick to the last. They were in a different league to us – that was our worst performance all season.
‘They were just hurting us all over the pitch to be honest. We worked to hard to get the ball back and when we did, we didn’t have enough energy or strength to keep it. We didn’t have the right tempo in our play.
The result was Fulham’s heaviest defeat of the season and leaves them hovering uneasily in 16th in the Premiership only six points clear of the relegation scrap.
It was made worse by the fact that Zat Knight and Moritz Volz got into a scuffle as they left the field at half-time.
Cookie wasn’t concerned though: ‘They were upset with each other, we were 2-0 down, and they were frustrated,’ he said. ‘To be fair, Thierry Henry’s jumped in and calmed them down. I could almost understand why they were upset.
‘If they’d have come off at half time with a smile on their faces, they would have had a bit of punishment from me. They were just showing a bit of passion, that’s all. It was a heated discussion, it didn’t spill over into the dressing room and they shook hands after the game.
‘Thankfully I haven’t got a petulant dressing room, and certainly not those two guys.’
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