Fulham 2 (Sidwell 26, Zamora 57) Arsenal 2 (Van Persie 29, Walcott 89)Attendance: 25,674
Last Premier League game of the season and one of the big guns or, more specifically, the Gunners visit Craven Cottage. Arsenal have had a disappointing season by their standards, and before kick off had slipped to fourth in the table, with the prospect of having to qualifying for the Champions’ League next season.
Fulham could be following Arsenal into Europe, as a result of their position in the Fair Play League. If they end up as the highest eligible club in the Fair Play League, they will join the qualifying rounds of the Europa League, which start on 30th June. Personally, I could do with a summer off, but, on the plus side, the opposition should be interesting.
After my temporary move to vomitories P5/P6 for the Liverpool game, I was back to my usual spot at vomitory P3/P4. I was expecting the Arsenal fans to be quite lively but, luckily, apart from one or two awkward characters they were fine.
As usual, there were a few overseas visitors, including a few Japanese fans. One young man was shocked when I overheard him use the phrase “maji de,” and replied “honto ni,” causing him to scream “Wow,” and shake ny hand. The other Japanese supporters were the Takizawa family (Mr and Mrs Takizawa and their two children). Well, assume his name was Takizawa as that was what was written on the back of his Arsenal shirt.
The game was not bad, though it had an “end-of-term” feel to it, in spite of Arsenal needing a win to stand any chance of finishing third in the Premier League, so 2-2 was probably a fair outcome. I had a good view of the game’s first goal, a thumping drive by Steve Sidwell from about 12 yards, though I was hoping that it had been Clint Dempsey’s boot on the end of the first goal, as I had earlier put a pound on him to open the scoring.
Three minutes later, I also saw Robin Van Persie equalise for the Gunners, which would prove to be the last Premier League goal I was going to see at Craven Cottage this season. In the second half, Zoltan Gera came on for Bobby Zamora and almost immediately got a red card for an ugly challenge on Thomas Vermaelen, fuelling speculation that Mark Hughes had asked his team to get tough in an attempt to avoid qualifying for the Europa League, though perhaps Gera had taken his advice a little too literally.
At the end, Fulham did a lap of appreciation, though I couldn’t see it as I was in my usual position at the corner of the Riverside and Putney stands, forming part of the cordon for funnelling away fans out of the ground.
Unfortunately, the season ended on a potentially sad note, as all stewards were called upon to search for a missing person, a 22-year-old six foot three Asian man, with special needs. Our group had to search the Riverside stand, where an end-of-season barbecue was under way, but we didn’t find anyone. Hopefully, it was a false alarm, but the looming presence of the River Thames in all its glory cast an ominous shadow over proceedings.
While we waited to be stood down, the chairman made his way way across the pitch towards the cottage and gave a perfunctory wave to another group of stewards.
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