Fulham 1-1 Arsenal: A Frustrating and Potentially Damaging Result

Fulham 1-1 Arsenal

A disappointing result today at Craven Cottage as Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw with a workmanlike Fulham side. In truth, the first half of the game felt a bit like last season when Arsenal fell to a damaging 2-1 defeat at The Cottage. That day, Arsenal took the lead early. Today, it was Fulham who grabbed an early goal as Raul Jimenez led a breakaway and scored with a fine finish. Whilst from Fulham’s point of view, it was a well worked goal, from our perspective it was very poor from Jakub Kiwior to allow Jiminez to run in behind. Kiwior had played very decently against Manchester United in the week but this error showed his shortcomings and proved what a big miss Gabriel is for us at the back. However, going 1-0 down was far from terminal and there was plenty of time for us to go on and grab a positive result.

In truth, the first half was disappointing as Arsenal failed to really get going. Bukayo Saka forced one decent save from Leno in the Fulham goal but very little else apart from decent possession.

We went in at half time 1-0 down. Into the second half and things improved markedly as Arsenal moved the ball quicker and with greater intent. The likes of Leo Trossard came into the game more after a poor first half individual performance. We were brought back level with William Saliba touching home a header across goal from Kai Havertz. There was a wait as VAR checked a tight offside against Havertz but the goal stood. 1-1. Around the hour mark, Mikel Arteta made a change as Trossard was hooked for Gabriel Martinelli. It was nothing if not a predictable change from Arteta although one I didn’t necessarily agree with. Trossard has a touch more finesse than Martinelli in the final third and was, as mentioned, beginning to come into the game.

Arsenal continued to make chances but the biggest one came for Thomas Partey who headed wide from a Declan Rice corner when he really should have scored. However, it looked like we wouldn’t regret that when we appeared to grab the winner in the 89th minute when Saka nodded home a Martinelli cross. The celebrations began but, once again, VAR had a look and ,this time, did not find in our favour. Martinelli had, needlessly, strayed offside in the build up to what otherwise would have been a very well worked goal. Paul Merson described Martinelli’s sloppiness as “criminal” and it’s hard to disagree. Arsenal tried to gather themselves after this bitter disappointment but failed to find a winner. The game fizzled out and finished 1-1.

The draw leaves us in third after Chelsea defeated Spurs 4-3 in a dramatic game. The general talk on social media has been of the result impacting Arsenal’s title chances. But, for the time being, I don’t think that can necessarily be our main concern. Today was an opportunity on two fronts. One, yes, to close the gap on Liverpool after their game was postponed yesterday. Secondly, to also create a buffer between ourselves and City behind us. The table from 5th downwards is becoming quite congested and, if we’re not careful, we could find ourselves getting sucked into that if we continued to drop needless points. Today was a big missed opportunity. Fulham only had one real attack of substance and they scored from it. Arsenal, once again, took too long to get going. If we showed the same urgency in the first half as we did the second then the result would have been different. As it is, the result feels like a defeat.

Arteta deserves some criticism for the outcome. My biggest gripe with him today was bringing on Gabriel Jesus who is offering absolutely nothing. He looks like a man who knows he hasn’t got long left at the football club. He had one moment today where he could have got on the end of a very clever pass from Declan Rice but pulled out as if fearful of getting a clattering from Leno. That about sums Jesus up at the moment. Can we win the league? Possibly but Arteta has to realise there are one or two players like Kiwior and Jesus who cannot be relied upon. If it means using younger players then so be it.