Arsenal 2-0 Fulham

Arsenal 2-0 Fulham

Arsenal continued their charge for the title with a good win against Fulham. Two goals from Thierry Henry and Robert Píres in each half, with another clean sheet from Spaniard goalkeeper Manuel Almunia capped off a good performance.

Arsenal were given the best possible start when Thierry Henry equalled Ian Wright's tally of 128 league goals for the club. In just 12 minutes, Henry sprinted instantaneously on to Freddie Ljungberg's ball into the area and then lightly touched the brakes, leaving pursuer Pearce stranded while Henry turned and steadied himself before putting the ball past Edwin Van der Sar off the right post and into the goal.

That strike equalled Ian Wright's tally of 128 league goals for the club and Henry is just 14 behind Wright's all-time goalscoring record of 185 for the Gunners.

Arsenal finally increased their lead in the 71st minute when Píres finished off a vintage Gunners move. After a series of passes on the edge of the penalty area, Ljungberg's low cross was dummied by Dennis Bergkamp and found Píres on the edge of the six-yard box and he sidestepped a late challenge from Moritz Volz before driving the ball into the net beyond van der Sar.

Wenger felt uplifted from the performance: "Teams come here and just think they can play five in midfield and try to score from set-pieces but it doesn't look so easy for them any more," he said.

"We have got back to our consistency. We looked dispirited for a while but I think that now we have our concentration back."

Arsenal are still 5 points behind Chelsea who beat Aston Villa with a single goal from Damien Duff. However, Wenger said: "What is important for us is to focus on ourselves and our quality and we don't have to worry about anybody else. It is too far away from the end of the season to speculate on a slip by Chelsea.

"It's a long way to go. I didn't even ask about the Chelsea result when I came in at the end of the game. It is not important. I do not worry about the results of the other teams. We worry about the way we play."

Henry declared: "I was not aware I had gone level with Ian Wright. But whatever I do will not be enough for some people.

"I do not care about Chelsea or what they did. We only need to think about what we need to do and then we'll see. I didn't ask about their result after the game. We just concentrate on our job.

"If we didn't believe we could catch them, we might as well give up and go home. We have to believe we can do it."

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Written by Thanis Lim on Monday, December 27, 2004

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