Arsenal have clinched a 3-0 win in the London derby clash with Fulham this afternoon, with us wasting no time in making our advantage pay.
The Gunners pretty much wrapped up the three points in the opening half, with Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard putting us 3-0 ahead before the interval.
We initially took the lead when Martinelli broke down the left before sprinting with the ball into the box, with his cross being drilled off the defender and into the net, only for him to have been spotted as narrowly offside by VAR before picking up the ball.
We didn’t have to wait long before we had the lead we deserved however, when Leandro Trossard’s lofted cross into the heart of the box was directed home by the defender. His international teammate continued to be a nuisance for Fulham by popping up in the box to head into the open goal when the ball was cleverly knocked into his path by our January signing Trossard, who made it a hat-trick of assists when finding Martin Odegaard just before the whistle for the break.
The Norwegian picked up the ball inside the box, managed to take it down before moving across the box to find space to pick his spot, calmly slotting it away for our third.
We had hoped that our side would continue and pile on the goals after the break, but we weren’t able to enjoy as much freedom in the final third as we did in the initial 45 minutes. Our opponents were more organised and we struggled to penetrate. The biggest cheer of the new half was when Gabriel Jesus made his long-awaited return to action after his devastating injury, coming on for a short 15 minute cameo. He nearly made it the ideal return when Fabio Vieira laid it into his path in the box, but the goalkeeper managed to keep his outstretched leg out to block his placed effort.
Every three points is massively important at this stage in the season, and it was probably a well managed performance from our side given the fact that we had just played out a tough encounter with Sporting on Thursday evening, and taking our foot off the pedal a little in the second-half could help us ride out the next few weeks.
Patrick