Fulham 1-0 Arsenal

“I only mention it because sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a hero, ’cause, what’s a hero? Sometimes, there’s a man.”

This is John Paintsil’s world. The rest of us must just sit back, clap, admire and enjoy. Today John and his teammates beat Arsenal, and it was thrilling.

If the team had underwhelmed at Hull then today they showed evidence of having worked hard to put things right. The midfield – routinely derided during the week for lacking steel – battled and battled away, tapping ankles, sliding into tackles, and swarming around Arsenal’s technically gifted players all afternoon. It knocked the visitors out of their stride, and despite immense pressure late on, this Fulham team was not going to be broken.

We had an early, delicious lead. Bobby Zamora’s signing surprised a few people, but today his play was sensational. There was more than a little of McBride in the way he worked, always willing, technically sound, linking nicely. His clever spin won us an early corner; Bullard short, Murphy traps, Bullard fires, Hangeland scores! The big defender hinted at goals last season; today he crashed through the six yard box like an All-Black near the try line, burying his chance decisively. It was a deserved goal.

From there we gave as good as we got. Seol showed that Roy’s faith in him is not blind by foraging away as Zamora’s partner, and while they were not always dangerous their effort and approach were first class. Behind them Zoltan Gera, still finding his feet going forwards, put in a terrific stint defensively, and new boy Tony Kallio will have appreciated the help. Inside, Murphy crunched into tackles and passed intelligently, and we saw Jimmy Bullard’s best performance for some time, a heady mixture of chaotic charges and clever passing. Simon Davies did as Simon Davies does.

The defence was equally effective. While Kallio looked sound, Brede Hangeland was magnificent, and Aaron Hughes put in a quietly excellent performance. But it was John Paintsil who sticks in the mind. Again the Ghana defender got forward whenever he could, and used the ball well, but his defensive work is underestimated. He tackled, headed, and, impressively, ordered people around to ensure positional correctness. His exuberent display was a telling sequel to last week’s efforts, and he’s a huge fan favourite already.

Arsenal came at us – we knew they would – but the team held on. Robin van Persie had three or four free-kicks but wasted them all; Mark Schwarzer did everything he had to do, but in truth Arsenal were more bark than bite, and for that the Fulham defensive efforts must be applauded. We created less and less as the game wore on: Davies chipped wide after a nice build up, Dempsey misplayed a good counter opportunity, but the game is all about scoring more than your opponent, and this we did. Fantastic stuff.

John’s lap of honour

John waves to his subjects

John surges in the first half