In the first round, and he won Fenerbahce by 3-0 away, Arsenal can be said to have already entered the finals of the UEFA Champions League, so after the team returned to London, although there was a second round of the league to play two days later, Wenger was still excited to give the team a day off.

It was not until the next day that the team gathered together and formulated corresponding formations and tactics for the second round opponent Fulham.

Because the game against Fulham is a away game and has a certain London derby flavor, although most of the main players have not yet recovered enough, Wenger is cautiously dispatching half of the main players and half of the substitutes.

Zhang Xu, who had never had a physical crisis, was naturally sent to the starting lineup by Wenger without any hesitation. Willsheer, Koscheerny and others were all sitting on the bench.

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

In the 1960s, they spent most of their time in the Old Group One League, but did not win any major championships. In 1975, they finally reached the FA Cup final, but this was their only time. The club won the second place in the 2009-10 season.

However, in the mid-1990s, wealthy businessman Afayez took over Fuxian, and Fuxian received his financial support. It took three years from the third-level English League Two at the time to be promoted to the Premier League in 2001. After that, he had many relegation crises, but he successfully maintained his Premier League seat. He became a dark horse in the Premier League and won the runner-up in the 2009-10 European Cup. In July 2013, Alfayez, who had been in Fuxian for 16 years, sold his shares to Shahidkhan, an American-American-American-American-American-born master.

Fulham's current home stadium is Craven Farm Stadium, located on the banks of the Thames River and can accommodate more than 25,000 people.

At 12:45 on August 24, 2013, the focus game of the 2013/14 English Premier League round 2 was held at the Craven Farm Stadium.

There are 53 historical clashes between the two sides, with Arsenal having the upper hand in 35 wins, 10 draws and 8 losses, and all of them are away. The two sides have 24 consecutive Premier League clashes, with Arsenal having 16 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses, of which 8 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses away. Arsenal scored 19 points in the London derby last season.

Because of Zhang Xu's wonderful performance in the last round, Zhang Xu was given special treatment from Fulham in this game. Almost every minute, two or three Fulham players would surround him.

Zhang Xu had long been prepared for this situation and had already had a way to get rid of this key focus.

So when the competition started, everyone saw a unique Chinese zhang!

Running, the speed is like a cannonball, always maintaining a higher speed, and sprinting for a hundred meters from time to time. No matter who it is, there is no way to follow him all the time.

Defensively, his defense is still steady. With his rapid running, he can directly expand his defense position to the entire midfield and backcourt. Any Fulham player who enters his half can personally feel the strong pressure brought to him by Zhang Xu.

When running, his running position is very erratic. He is on the east side of the stadium, on the west side of the stadium, on the other side of the stadium, and then into the opponent's penalty area, and then retreating to his own gate, making the opponent's players irrespectable.

Passing and receiving the ball, his passing and receiving is very neat, and often one kick is used. One shot seems casual, but it is often very accurate and has the advantage that allows the teammates who are receiving the ball to get the football very comfortably. At the same time, his passing route is also very strange, especially when passing in the frontcourt, and a sudden pass can be used to tear the opponent's formation directly.

His long shot is still quite threatening. As long as he is given the opportunity to kick off outside the penalty area, he will never be stingy with the opportunity to show off his long-range heavy artillery. Every heavy artillery will make the opponent's goalkeeper frightened.

Zhang Xu like this completely interprets the ability and level of an all-round midfielder core, and directly shatters Fulham's idea of ​​curbing him. On the contrary, because he spends more energy to curb Zhang Xu, his formation was messed up by Zhang Xudong!

In this case, Zhang Xu naturally would not miss the rare opportunity and make full use of his strong midfield organization to gradually control the game.

However, this game was held in heavy rain, which invisibly increased the difficulty of passing and receiving. There are often cases where players slide or pass and receiving inadequately, which also brought certain difficulties to Zhang Xu in controlling the game.

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

In the thirteenth minute of the game, Ramsey received Zhang Xu's oblique pass and quickly stepped forward, then directly passed the ball with one kick. Podolski received the ball in front of the penalty area. He shot directly with a strong shot in the flying football!

As a result, the football was blocked by the opponent's central defender Aaron Hughes with his right leg.

Two minutes later, when Zhang Xu was taking the ball in front of the penalty area, he was pulled by the opponent's player and made a foul, and he got a rare opportunity to have a direct free kick in the frontcourt.

Because Will Sher did not play, his teammates directly handed over the free throw to Zhang Xu! Zhang Xu had no choice but to use this free throw as a long shot to see how lucky he was.

Obviously, his luck was not very good. Although the football passed under the foot of the human wall, the angle was still deviated, and the football flew from the outside of the goal post and flew out of the bottom line.

In the 18th minute of the game, Rosici and Zhang Xu made a two-by-one cooperation, and a exquisite straight pass passed the ball to Walcott's feet. As a result, Walcott's shot was saved by Stockdell. Then Giroud's header was blocked in the melee, and Ramsey's shot was also blocked by Aaron Hughes.

In the 23rd minute of the game, Arsenal got a corner kick, Walcott took the corner kick, and Zhang Xu grabbed the first point in the penalty area, but he did not header because the opponent's goalkeeper had blocked the angle of his shooting, so he gave the football to Sarnia on the other side. Unfortunately, Sarnia's close-range shot missed and the football flew out of the baseline.

Arsenal finally took the lead when the game reached the 33rd minute.

Zhang Xu made a diagonal pass outside the penalty area. The football passed through two Fulham defenders and came to Ramsey's feet. Ramsey shot from 25 yards on the right!

As a result, he hit Giroud's leg by a silly man. The Frenchman Giroud quickly chased the ball and shot first on the edge of the small penalty area!

The ball went in, 1:0!

This is Giroud's second Premier League goal in 18 visits. His 13 Premier League goals were scored in London. In his previous 9 league games, Arsenal only lost 6 wins, 2 draws and only lost 1 game.

After leading with one goal, Fulham was unwilling to lose at home, so he frequently launched an offensive and rushed towards the Arsenal defense line with Zhang Xu as the core.

In the 37th minute of the game, former Liverpool full-back Liser passed the ball, and Tarabut's powerful shot in the penalty area was directly destroyed by Zhang Xu. The football flew to the right side of the penalty area, and Fulham's Duff shot again on the right side of the penalty area, but Szesney easily saved it.

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 receiving a pass from Rosici, Giroud chose to pass back against two opponents' defenders. Zhang Xu shot a long shot outside the penalty area and hit the crossbar directly!

The first half of the game ended soon, and the second half changed sides and then fought again.

Fulham launched a fierce offensive again, trying to win back the score.

Zhang Xu felt that the effect of blindly attacking was really bad, and he just pulled the opponent out, so he would have more opportunities.

So, he deliberately led the team to retreat slightly.

Suddenly, the Fulham players felt that the opportunity had come. They were all excited and almost all out, and all the members pressed forward.

In the 52nd minute of the game, Zhang Xu cut off the opponent's pass in the backcourt and suddenly passed it with a long pass directly to Walcott who had been wandering in front. After Walcott got the football, he immediately stepped forward, which formed a one-on-one opportunity. However, when he faced the opponent's goalkeeper, he shot low and was blocked by the opponent. In the 57th minute of the game, Cazorla passed the ball, and Walcott's shot from the right side of the penalty area was blocked by Lisser.

In the 59th minute, Ramsey made a foul outside the edge of his own penalty area. Kasami's free kick shot from 20 yards hit Ramsey and deflected. Szesni confiscated. Fulham continuously put pressure on the outside. In the 29th minute, Kasami passed the ball and Tarabut's long shot missed from the left. In the 30th minute, Berbatov passed back and Parker shot high. In the 63rd minute, Riser passed the ball, and Tarabut's shot in front of the penalty area was still confiscated by Szesni.

Fulham's offensive looks higher and higher, but in fact, the effect is not very significant and the threat to Arsenal's goal is not very big.

On the contrary, Arsenal's counterattack gradually became sharp.

In the 66th minute of the game, Walcott made a counterattack and Giroud shot from 15 yards on the left side of the penalty area and missed the far corner.

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

The ball went in, 2:0!

Fulham has not been able to reverse when the score is behind in the past 19 months. Last time, he fell behind by 1 goal and defeated Newcastle 5-2. Arsenal led 2 goals in the last 52 away games, 47 wins and 4 draws in 51 games. His only loss was against Villa in 1998.

Now that the score has become 2-0, Fulham's morale has been severely hit, and under this circumstance, the game gradually lost its suspense.

In the 73rd minute of the game, Fulham replaced two players in a row to strengthen the offensive, and Darren Bent came on as a substitute. In the 66th minute, Ritter passed the ball, and Casami missed the low shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Seeing that the victory had basically been locked in, Wenger also began to make frequent substitutions.

In the 77th minute of the game, Wilhel replaced Rosici, which was his 100th time for Arsenal. Giroud was then replaced by Monreal.
Chapter completed!