In the first round, and it was a 3-0 win away at Fenerbahce, Arsenal can be said to have stepped into the finals of the UEFA Champions League, so after returning to London, Wenger was excited to give the team a day off despite the second round of the league game to be played in two days. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

It wasn't until the next day that the team came together and developed a corresponding formation and tactics for their opponents in the second round, Fulham.

Because the game against Fulham was an away game and had a certain London derby flavor, Wenger was cautious to send a half-main and half-substitute line-up, although most of the main players had not yet recovered enough.

Zhang Xu, who has never had a physical crisis, was naturally unceremoniously sent to the starting lineup by Wenger. Wilshere, Koscielny and others were on the bench.

Fulham Football Club, founded in 1879, celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004.

In the 1960s, they played most of the time in the old First Division, but did not win any major championships. In 1975, they finally reached the FA Cup final, but it was their only time. The club finished runners-up in the Europa League in 2009-10.

However, in the mid-90s of the last century, the wealthy businessman Alfayyad took ownership of Frankham, and Frankham received his financial support, from the then third tier of League Two, it took three years to be promoted to the Premier League in 2001, and then there were many relegation crises, but they were able to successfully protect the Premier League and maintain their Premier League seats, and became a dark horse in the Premier League, and won the runner-up in the 2009–10 European Cup. In July 2013, Afayyad, who had been in charge of Ham for 16 years, sold his stake to Pakistani-American Shahid Khan, becoming the sixth American owner in the Premier League.

Fulham's current home stadium is Craven Farm, which sits on the banks of the River Thames and has a capacity of more than 25,000 people.

At 12:45 p.m. on 24 August 2013, the 2013/14 English Premier League Season Round 2 was contested at Craven Cottage.

In the 53 all-time meetings between the two sides, Arsenal have the upper hand with 35 wins, 10 draws and 8 defeats, all of which have been on the road. The two sides have met 24 times in the Premier League, with Arsenal winning 16, drawing 5 and losing 3, including 8 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses away. Arsenal picked up 19 points from the London derby last season.

Because of Zhang Xu's wonderful performance in the last round, Zhang Xu was given special preferential treatment by Fulham in this game, and by Zhang Xu's side, almost every minute, there will be two or three Fulham players around him.

For this situation, Zhang Xu has long been mentally prepared, and has long had a way to get rid of this kind of key targeting.

So when the competition started, everyone saw a different kind of Chinese zhang!

Running, the speed is like a disemboweled cannonball, always maintaining a high speed, and from time to time there is a 100-meter sprint, no matter who it is, there is no way to be able to follow him all the time.

Defensively, his defense is still solid. With his fast running, he can directly expand his defensive position to the entire central midfield, and any Fulham player who enters his own half can feel the strong pressure brought to him by Zhang Xu.

Running, his running position is very erratic, one will be on the east side of the field, one will be on the west side of the field, one will be forward into the opponent's big penalty area, and one will retreat to his own gate, so that the opponent's players are simply unpredictable.

Passing and receiving the ball, he is very clean and clean, often with one kick. It seems to be a casual kick, but it is often very accurate and has the advantage of allowing the teammate who receives the ball to be very comfortable with the football. At the same time, his passing route is also very weird, especially in the front court, often a cold through pass, can directly tear apart the opponent's formation.

Shot, his long-range shot was still quite threatening. As long as he is given a chance to kick his feet outside the penalty area, he will never skimp on the opportunity to show off his long-range heavy artillery. And every time the heavy artillery will make the opposing goalkeeper tremble.

Such Zhang Xu completely interpreted the ability and level of an all-round midfielder's core, and directly shattered Fulham's idea of containing him, on the contrary, because he spent more energy to contain Zhang Xu, his formation was torn apart by Zhang Xudong!

In this case, Zhang Xu naturally would not let go of the rare opportunity, made full use of his strong midfield organization, and directly controlled the game gradually.

However, the game was held in heavy rain, which invisibly increased the difficulty of passing and receiving the ball, and there were often cases where players slipped or passed and received the ball in place, so it also brought a certain degree of difficulty to Zhang Xu to control the game.

Despite this, Zhang Xu still helped the team take the initiative in the game in a short period of time.

In the thirteenth minute of the game, after Ramsey received Zhang Xu's diagonal pass, he quickly stepped forward, and then passed directly over the top, Podolski received the ball in front of the penalty area, and he faced the flying football and shot directly!

As a result, the football was blocked by the opposing centre-back Aaron Hughes with his right leg.

Two minutes later, when Zhang Xu was in possession of the ball in front of the penalty area, he was pulled by the opponent's player and fouled, and got a rare opportunity for a direct free kick in front.

Because Wilshere didn't play, his teammates directly handed over the free throws to Zhang Xu! Zhang Xu had no choice but to treat this free throw as a long-range shot to try his luck.

Apparently, he was unlucky, and although the ball passed under the wall, the angle was still off, and the ball skimmed the outside of the post and flew off the line.

In the eighteenth minute of the game, after Rosicky and Zhang Xu played a one-two, a delicate through pass passed the football to Walcott's feet, and as a result, Walcott's shot was saved by Stockdale. Olivier Giroud's header was then blocked in a scuffle and Ramsey's shot was blocked by Aaron Hughes.

In the twenty-third minute of the game, Arsenal got a chance to take a corner kick, Walcoat took a corner kick, Zhang Xu grabbed the first point in the penalty area, but he did not hit the goal with a header, because the opponent's goalkeeper had blocked the angle of his shot, so he gave the football to Sagna on the other side, but unfortunately, Sania's close-range shot was missed, and the football flew out of the bottom line.

With the 33rd minute played, Arsenal finally took the lead.

Zhang Xu made a diagonal pass from outside the penalty area, and the football passed through two Fulham defenders to the feet of Ramsey, who fired hard from 25 yards on the right!

As a result, it was almost a miraculous hit on Giroud's leg, and the Frenchman Giroud hurried after the bouncing ball and stabbed the first goal from the edge of the six-yard box!

The ball is in, 1:0!

It was Giroud's second Premier League goal in 18 away appearances, with all 13 of his goals coming in London. In his previous nine league games, Arsenal won six, drew two and lost only one.

After taking a one-goal lead, Fulham was unwilling to lose at home, so he frequently launched attacks and rushed towards the Arsenal backline with Zhang Xu as the core.

In the 37th minute of the game, former Liverpool fullback Reeser passed the ball, and the powerful shot in the Tarabut penalty area was directly destroyed by Zhang Xu, and the football flew to the right side of the penalty area.

Under Zhang Xu's organization, Fulham's counterattack was quickly suppressed by Zhang Xu, and then Arsenal's offensive became fierce again.

In the 41st minute, after Giroud received a pass from Rosicky, he chose to pass back in the face of the opponent's two defenders, and Zhang Xu shot a long shot from outside the penalty area and hit the crossbar directly!

The first half of the game was over quickly, and the second half changed sides again.

Once again, Fulham went on the offensive to get back on the scoresheet.

Zhang Xu felt that blindly attacking was not good, and he just pulled the other party out, so that there would be more opportunities.

So, he deliberately led the team to retreat the overall formation a little.

Suddenly, the players of Fulham felt that the opportunity had come, and they were excited, almost pouring out of the nest, and all the players pressed up.

In the fifty-second minute of the game, after Zhang Xu cut off the opponent's pass in the backfield, he suddenly made a long pass, which was directly passed to Walcott, who had been wandering in front, and after Walcott got the football, he immediately stepped forward and formed a single chance, but when he faced the opponent's goalkeeper, he shot low and was stopped by the opponent. In the 57th minute of the game, Cazorla passed the ball, and Walcott's shot from the right side of the box was blocked by Reese.

In the 59th minute, Ramsey fouled on the edge of his own box and Kasami's free-kick from 20 yards deflected off Ramsey and Szczesny confiscated it. Fulham continued to press from the periphery, and in the 29th minute, Kasami passed the ball and Tarabut fired wide from the left. In the 30th minute, Berbatov returned the pass, and Parker fired high. In the 63rd minute, Reese passed the ball, and Tarabut's shot in front of the penalty area was still calmly confiscated by Szczesny.

Fulham's attack looked like it was going to be wave after wave, but in reality, the effect was not very significant, and the threat to Arsenal's goal was not very great.

On the contrary, Arsenal's counter-attacks gradually became sharper.

In the 66th minute, Theo Walcoat crossed the ball on the counter-attack and Giroud fired a powerful shot wide of the far corner from 15 yards on the left side of the box.

In the 69th minute of the game, Cazorla, who replaced Ramsey, passed the ball, and Walcott's powerful shot from 10 yards on the right side of the box was saved by Stockdale, and Podolski scored with a powerful shot from the edge of the box.

The ball is in, 2:0!

Fulham have not come back from behind for nearly 19 months, having come from a one-goal win over Newcastle 5-2 last time. Arsenal have led by two goals at half-time in their last 52 away games, winning 47 and drawing four in 51 games, with their only defeat coming against Villa in 1998.

And now that the score is 2-0, Fulham's morale has taken a serious hit, and in this case, the game is gradually losing its suspense.

In the 73rd minute of the game, Fulham made two substitutions in a row to strengthen the attack, and Darren Bent came on as a substitute. In the 66th minute, Ritter passed the ball and Kasami fired a low shot from the edge of the box.

Seeing that the victory was basically sealed, Wenger also began to make frequent substitutions.

In the 77th minute, Wilshere replaced Rosicky for his 100th appearance for Arsenal. Olivier Giroud was then replaced by Monreal.

In the end, Arsenal won 2:0 away at Fulham in the same city! They have won two in a row and six away games in the league and become the first team to reach 100 London derby wins, which is also Arsenal's 300th league win in London City. (To be continued.) )