I am prepared to wager that the final whistle at the end of last season was both the best and worst of moments for Roy Hodgson. Fulham’s hugely-respected manager had just guided the famous old club to the highest league finish in its history – 7th in the Barclays Premier League was beyond even the wildest of expectations – but with it came a passport to Europe that he could be forgiven for cursing.

Now don’t get me wrong, the Europa League is a good place to be, but for a club such as Fulham, the Premier League comes first, second and last on any list of priorities.

Finishing as loftily as they did reflected positively on a small squad that was fully stretched dealing with 38 games. Hodgson’s men claimed some notable scalps along the way. Manchester United fell at the Cottage and so did this Saturday’s visitors for ESPN’s live game - Brede Hangeland’s goal was enough to see off Arsenal and give Fulham only their second win over the Gunners in 43 years.

But as the manager puts his charges through their paces at the Motspur Park training ground, the chances of a repeat victory are surely compromised by the amount of football they’ve already played.

With a squad no bigger than last season, Fulham have contested more games than any other Premier League team. The Arsenal match will be their twelfth, and five of those have been in the Europa League, starting against Vetra in Lithuania some two and a half weeks before the domestic campaign began.

Thank goodness, then, that Fulham have such a clever manager guiding them. I first came across Hodgson during his stint at Blackburn more than a decade ago, and subsequent encounters at major tournaments, where he dissects matches for UEFA’s Technical Committee, only confirmed the initial impression that here is a man apart. Someone with whom you can discuss any topic. He has a view on Freud as well as Ferguson and can appreciate the art of Matisse as easily as that of Murphy.

A grounded and rounded individual, for too long a stranger to English football, Hodgson is now showing the Premier League what it could have had years ago. Blackburn acted in haste when things went sour, other clubs dared not take what they regarded as a risk, but Fulham’s gamble, if it ever was, seems to be paying off handsomely.

His team selections – 9 changes for the visit to CSKA Sofia, 11 for the Carling Cup at Manchester City – are a tacit admission that the Premier League is the only competition that really counts for Fulham.

So when Fulham and Arsenal emerge from the unique passageway that masquerades as a players’ tunnel at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon, both sets of players should be fresh and ready to give their all. Of course, Arsenal have a Champions League game to consider only three days afterwards, so Arsene Wenger’s selection may be more complicated than Hodgson’s, but two of Europe’s most respected coaches will relish the challenge of outwitting one another, and hopefully those of us watching at the ground and via ESPN will be the main beneficiaries.