With 4th place and a Champions League place already secured, made certain by Bolton and Everton dropping points yesterday (but pretty certain even since last weekend), this was real end of the season, nothing really to play for territory. The end of the season is always nice as the sun comes out, and outside drinking is possible. Of course, it is always better if you have a cup final to look forward to, or a trophy to polish, but it is still a nice part of the year.
The end of the season does also have a habit of producing some rather dull games, mainly because some teams have nothing much to play for. This was definitely one of those games that can be filed in the "uneventful" category, certainly for the first half. Baptista scored inside the first 10 minutes or so with a good header, then, er, nothing much happened for the rest of the half. Arsenal passed the ball around a bit, but didn't really create very much; and Fulham showed why they might still go down this season, they were too crap to do anything much at all really.
The second half (actually, just the second half of the second half) livened up a bit more as Fulham had the cheek to equalise! Or rather, Jens Lehmann (who looks flappier by the day it seems) rushed out of his goal, missed the ball, and gifted Simon Davies a fairly easy chance. Lehmann is definitely one of those players that needs a kick up the arse this summer, although Hleb of course deserves one somewhat more.
So, having been coasting to a 1-0 win, Arsenal found themselves needing to step up a gear again. Luckily, they did so immediately, and within five minutes or so, a through ball cut through the Fulham defence to leave Adebayor one on one with the keeper. A great finish, and it was 2-1. Given that both times the game was level, Arsenal managed to score within five or ten minutes, you got the impression that they weren't really trying too hard, and that Fulham were such inept opposition, they could have scored any time they wanted to. 2-1 became 3-1 a few minutes later, as Hleb found himself in the box, and a Fulham player tackled him clumsily. Given that he would probably only have lost the ball anyway, falling over for a deserved penalty was probably the best thing he could have done. Gilberto tucked the penalty away for his 10th goal of the season, and the victory was wrapped up.
This was really just something of an end of season kickabout for Arsenal it seemed - nothing too eventful happened, and Arsenal barely looked like they could be arsed to do much. But, to be fair, they probably didn't need to do much, because Fulham looked like one of the more useless teams that have played at Emirates this season. I can't see them getting another point this season, and it may only be the fact that there are a couple of even worse teams than them, that will save them in the Premiership. One thing is for sure, the game against Chelsea next week will be a little more intense, especially if Mr Cole has the balls to make an appearance.
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