Arsenal primed for four-star thrashing of struggling Fulham

Few football watchers will be expecting anything but an Arsenal win at home to Fulham, with the Gunners priced up as skinny 2/9 favourites.

The west Londoners have never won away to the Gunners and have lost all of their matches against the current Premier League top ten so far this season, which suggests this clash is the home banker of the weekend.

Arsene Wenger’s side made sure the bookies suffered a bloodied nose with their 2-1 win against Aston Villa, as they became the seventh top-seven side to win during gameweek 21, but that narrow scoreline masked Arsenal’s true dominance in the Midlands.

Wenger’s charges helped themselves to 64 per cent of possession against Paul Lambert’s Villans, who didn’t manage a shot on target until after the break, by which time they were two goals down to the cruising visitors.

Arsenal eased off in the second-half, with a pair of substitutions disrupting their flow before Christian Benteke’s 76th-minute consolation, but they’ll be focused to the final minute back in front of their own fans.

Fulham have conceded four or more goals in a match on six separate occasions since the end of October, with Arsenal’s top-four rivals Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City each putting exactly that amount past the Cottagers during the last two months of 2013.

Even relegation-threatened Sunderland – who travelled to Craven Cottage as the joint-lowest away scorers in the league – slammed four past Rene Meulensteen’s men last time out in the league and Arsenal are taken to go one better than in their 3-1 stroll in west London earlier this season by bagging four or more in this fixture at 11/5.

Olivier Giroud returned to action in rude health at Villa Park, having missed the Gunners’ previous pair of outings through illness, and struck his side’s second goal a minute after Jack Wilshere had slid in for the opener.

The French international looks a likely candidate at 5/2 to break the deadlock in a Premier League match for the sixth time this season, with fellow forwards Nicklas Bendtner and Yaya Sanogo still out injured.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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