Arsenal secured a 2-1 victory against Fulham this evening after Bukayo Saka marked his return with a goal.
When chasing a team like Liverpool, breaking patterns is essential, and that is precisely what Arsenal achieved against Fulham.
Having failed to win any of their previous three encounters with the Cottagers, Arsenal faced a confident Fulham side.
With Saka starting on the bench, Arsenal initially appeared less formidable, but his replacement played a crucial role in the opening goal.
Ethan Nwaneri provided the assist for Mikel Merino to score the first goal of the match.
Arsenal began strongly, determined to ensure this would not follow the usual script. However, Fulham demonstrated resilience, proving difficult to break down at various stages before and after the goal.
Despite Arsenal’s dominance, Martin Odegaard squandered a clear opportunity before half-time.
At 1-0, Arsenal could not afford complacency, as Fulham remained a threat. They nearly equalised after the break, but David Raya produced a fine save to deny Raúl Jiménez.
Arsenal continued to create chances to secure the win but struggled to convert them despite their dominant display.
If Liverpool players had been watching in hope of a Fulham equaliser, they would have been disappointed when Saka doubled Arsenal’s lead shortly after coming on.
Fulham continued to push forward, and in added time, their persistence was rewarded when Rodrigo Muniz pulled a goal back. However, it proved too little, too late.
Merino, Martinelli, Rice, Partey, Lewis-Skelly and Timber stood out in the game. Nwaneri played decently and produced an assist, but Odegaard should improve his performance
I agree, he just hasn’t been on much and it has been a long time…
and yes not to be too negative – good win. We are getting pretty close to securing top four!
I’m afraid Real Madrid will capitalize on Odegaard’s loose balls, since they have world class dribblers and finishers
Odegaard should minimize his misplaced passes and ground duel losses
@Gai, I am worried for our defence than other part of play. Gabriel and Timber if not fit would be a big loss. Kiwior has errors in him, MLS inexperience will show. He left too many space at the back against Fulham and their only goal started from Arsenal left full back..
Good 3 poonts today. Hope we correct our mistakes today before Everton match.
Yes, Real Madrid would likely exploit Lewis-Skelly’s lack of experience/ risky decisions and Kiwior’s errors
Everton will be a good warm-up match before they face the UCL legend
Good win. Golden boy Saka back with a winning goal.
Sad part is Gabriel’s injury. A huge miss for the match against Madrid.
Three points in the bag! Moving on to the next at Goodison lark on Saturday. COYG!
*park.
A good 3 points. A good job Fulham were weakened because they were a threat when they brought their first choices on. Big plus Martinelli and Saka. A big big minus, HOW BAD IS KIWIOR? Still not sure this type of football is taking us anywhere but apart from the CL, this season is just playing out.
Fulham looked fresher at the start which considering their match at the weekend surprised me a little. It took a while for the match to get going and Fulham occasionally looked dangerous and defended well, leaving us to pass it sideways an awful lot. Nwaneri’s effort perked up the crowd but there was less space on the right and Martinelli had the better opportunities and looked much better.
The goal helped what was a very tense atmosphere in the first half with the Fulham corner far more vocal
The appearance of Saka – warming up – brought cheers and when he finally replaced Nwaneri the place erupted.
The second half was much better all round and Saka’s goal crowned it.
Most of their players from the weekend started on the bench.
Talking last 2-3 years straight, including Timber who is still recovering from an ACL surgery, as it takes 2 full years for maximum recovery per top surgeons.
Could have played Kiwior from the get go, and gave White some minutes, and anyone else from the academy who can play right back.
The only way AFC would even be in against madrid is if we had our back 4 four fully fit and rested, and now that is blown to smithereens.
It is all too predictable.
Well, two more go pop right before our biggest game of the season, put all the blame on Arteta and international futbol as they have played these guys into the ground.
We will get smoked by madrid now, book it!
I do not even know why I bother anymore as we need all our top players to even get close to competing for major trophies, but we have not been in a position to do it because of injuries from overplaying our key players.
Aaron
There are rules surrounding the make up of each EPL squad that is registered each season and it’s not totally straightforward to implement. Arsenal are as unlikely as the majority, if not all of the clubs in having a surfeit of foreign players and far fewer U21s who are good enough to complement the remaining home grown players in making up a squad.
Any successful team will have the majority of their players on international duty and the best players will always play the most games, therefore, leaving themselves exposed to injuries. This season has been excessive. Liverpool haven’t been as badly hit and City have, and they have both played lots of matches. It’s the luck of the draw
Definitely mixed emotions here as unable to watch remainder of EPL season. Satisfied with three points but injuries put a damper on things. Hope White and Califiori return so as to at least plug the hole left by Gabriel. Our defence was going to be our strong point going into Madrid game but with Kiwior at centre back, it doesn’t look good.
I would rather White at R.b then Saliba and Timber at C.b for the Madrid game.
We can rotate for the Everton game to manage our defenders fitness in readiness for Madrid.
Merino.
Martinelli. Odegaard. Saka.
Rice. Jorginho.
Skelly. Kiwior. Saliba. Partey.
Raya.
Gabriel, Timber, White and Calafiori out injured at the wrongest time when we are about to play Madrid.
Tierney at Left CB . Fast, good passer and reliable defender.
Is Ben white injured?
When I checked the line up yesterday and didn’t see him on the bench, what was given as the reason was “out due to personal reasons” so I’m guessing and hoping it’s not injury issue.
For all we know Gabriel’s injury might not be that serious and he could be back to face madrid even if it the second leg (fingers crossed). Hope Timber too is fine we will surely need him to play CB with Saliba against Real Madrid.
Hope to God we get no more injury issues, I believe we can get a result against real and i belive we can knock them out. They rested mbappe yesterday as with some players, they too have some injury concerns.
Glad to see saka back and I noticed Odegaard’s game slightly was raised when he came up.
Coyg.
EA, White picked up an injury in training.
Looking at last nights game and seeing Gabriel go down, you then see Rice waving his arms about for the ball to be kicked out. Then he receives the ball and crosses it instead of kicking it out himself. What’s that all about.
Now we come to Timber, the man goes down in the first half, but manages to see out the half. He then comes out for the second half, plays most of it, but then goes off injured. And when asked, Arteta said he’s got a knee injury.
Arteta then says that Gabriel and Timber always want to carry on playing, well that’s all well and good. But sometimes these players need protecting from themselves. With the injury situation being what it has been this season, it was a totally unwise decision to let Timber play for as long as he did.
And that’s not being wise after the event, he clearly had a problem from the first half, and the manager should have taken him off then, regardless of whether Timber wanted to stay on or not. Especially the Real Madrid game is around the corner.
It was going to be hard enough to compete with them with a fully fit squad, let alone a injury ravaged one.
And just a heads up on Kiwior, I fear for us if he plays in either tie against Real Madrid.
And the club captain needs to start putting in better performances, I keep hearing what a good player he is, well now would be a good time to prove it. Talk is cheap, its now time for him to walk the walk.
A very welcome 3 points and so pleasing to see a return to form for Martinelli and to witness yet another strong performance from TP .However the Fulham goal, showed up the weakness of MSL as a LB and I shudder to think what might happen against RM with him and the error prone Kwior in tandem.In the absence of Gabriel, my back four against the Spaniards would comprise White, Timber, Saliba and Tierney who is our best LB despite our Manager’s failure to recognise him as such.
You keep referring to Tierney as our best left back but what is the basis of that assertion? He is a pretty good but not great defender, his attacking game is fairly one dimensional and he can’t invert as well as the other LBs in the squad.
If he can’t fit into the manager’s system, it is difficult to see how a credible argument can be made that he’s the team’s best LB. Or is the manager supposed to change his system just so he can fit Tierney in it?
In my opinion, Tierney is easily our best available defensive LB; however, it is well known that he has limited offensive effectiveness in MA’s system. Regardless, I’m not sure he’s up to going 90 minutes against RM given his lack of significant use this season. Due to not fitting with MA’s plans even when fit and his injuries, he will be leaving the club in the summer. It simply is what it is, but I am thankful for his efforts and wish this fine professional gunner the best back at Celtic.
Beating Fulham after 3 winless encounters is fantastic. Still regret though the West ham loss. Get prepared now for Everton away which I am afraid Arsenal may field a weakened team prioritising the Madrid ucl game. Advantage Liverpool and the chasing pack led by Forest which have no Euro games to worry about. Saturday lunch time games always pose difficulty for Arsenal.
Will get anialated by Madrid gona be very embarrassing! If Arteta does not deliver next season after being backed to the hilt by owners then has to go last chance saloon!
Still got no idea why fans are so worried about Madrid. They are not at their best defensively and here we are seeing fans talk of being “annihilated” when in fact our defeats over the past two seasons never go beyond two goal margin.
Because they are better then us
Because a fan of a club 12 points off their own title race without a Prem in two decades just asked why are fans so worried about Real Madrid……the Champions of Europe!
That’s not being arrogant but possibly over optimistic about our chances. Vamos puts an optimistic spin in most of his comments but it doesn’t amount to arrogance which has a different meaning to me, anyway.
Your confidence is commendable Vamos.
While not dismissing our chances next week, I hope we have a at least a couple of fit and able defenders ourselves
It’s called arrogance
Our darling Arsenal will get ‘annihilated’ from a supposed fan is not arrogance enough for Dan, it’s the other way round, mostly been. Okay mr Dan, your darling Arsenal will get annihilated despite not going down more than a 2 goal score line in a while.
Thanks for your support.
It’s called support, ambition and belief.
You can support , have ambition and belief without being arrogant
Who was arrogant and why?