Craven Cottage, London—Arsenal once again had to rely upon a set-piece goal, earning a scratching 1–0 win away to Fulham on Saturday evening courtesy of Leandro Trossard and the proudly prominent Nicolas Jover.
“Focus on what we can control,” was Mikel Arteta’s message to his players as they set about defending their lead at the Premier League summit this weekend. As has become increasingly obvious, the title challengers cannot control competent opposition from open play. But when the game is broken down into discrete scenarios in either penalty box, the Gunners are unmatched.
Trossard’s second-half effort, instinctively cushioning the ball over the line with his thigh on a corner kick, was Arsenal’s eighth goal from a dead-ball situation in as many Premier League games. Has no one figured out that Gabriel is half-decent in the air? Evidently not.
Fulham were not short of threat themselves, but failed to penetrate an Arsenal rearguard which has conceded just three goals this season. That defensive resolve on top of a remarkable proficiency from corners, helped Arsenal open up a three-point gap above Manchester City in second, with Liverpool four points back before their visit from Manchester United on Sunday.
Arsenal Player Ratings vs. Fulham (4-2-3-1)
GK: David Raya—7.1: Not forced into a single save yet still managed to create a sense of uncertainty as he routinely strode out of his penalty area.
RB: Jurriën Timber—7.5: Always eager to punch the ball forward even if his accuracy was less consistent.
CB: William Saliba—7.4: Like a good set of parents in a crisis, when one of Arsenal’s centre back duo begins to wobble, the other assumes a state of serenity. Saliba was unflappable throughout.
CB: Gabriel—7.8: Uncharacteristically lax in possession and struggled to establish an sense of calm in his partnership with Calafiori, but did get the flick for Trossard’s goal.
LB: Riccardo Calafiori—7.2: The impeccably groomed agent of chaos allowed in Arteta’s system of unrelenting control, Calafiori wreaked havoc going forward but could have done with a little more composure at the other end.
CM: Martín Zubimendi—6.9: Shuffled the ball around midfield without much fuss.
CM: Declan Rice—7.4: Unusually let much of the contest pass him by.
AM: Eberechi Eze—6.9: Lumbered with the creative burden shed by an injured Martin Ødegaard, the summer recruit failed to fill his captain’s boots.
RW: Bukayo Saka—8.5: Wore Ryan Sessegnon like a scarf around his neck, so tight was the man-marking brief from Fulham’s fullback. Yet Saka remained undeterred, grew into the game and typically offered Arsenal their greatest threat.
ST: Viktor Gyökeres—7.1: More reliable at finding a scrap than a shot at goal.
LW: Leandro Trossard—7.6: A microcosm of Arsenal’s performance: underwhelming in open play but effective from a dead ball.
Subs not used: Kepa Arrizabalaga (GK), Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Max Dowman, Ethan Nwaneri.
Fulham (4-2-3-1)
Starting XI: Bernd Leno (GK); Timothy Castagne, Joachim Andersen, Jorge Cuenca, Ryan Sessegnon; Sander Berge, Tom Cairney; Harry Wilson, Josh King, Alex Iwobi; Raúl Jiménez.
Subs used: Issa Diop, Kevin, Emile Smith Rowe, Calvin Bassey, Adama Traoré.
Player of the Match: Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
Fulham 0–1 Arsenal—How It Unfolded at Craven Cottage
The travelling Arsenal faithful were in fine spirits at kickoff, taunting the former Tottenham Hotspur manager, who had just become the former Nottingham Forest boss, Ange Postecoglou.
The enthusiasm of that schadenfreude soon faded. Fulham, as ever, were emboldened by a marquee fixture under the Saturday night lights. Enthusiastically scuttling from side-to-side in a compact block of all-white fabric, the hosts dutifully frustrated their visitors, waiting to pick off any pass with a whisper of uncertainty about it and spring forward in transition.
Fulham found plenty of joy down their right flank, the prodigious Josh King dovetailing with Harry Wilson to form a waspish partnership. The Cottagers racked up more shots in the first 26 minutes than Arsenal had faced across the entirety of their last Premier League outing.
Despite their lofty league position, the Gunners have struggled to create chances from open play this season. That stodgy timidity was evident again as large swathes of the game slipped away while William Saliba calmly stroked a sideways pass to Martín Zubimendi, who soon gave it back his French teammate.
On the rare occasions when there was a dynamic burst of movement, the stitching of Fulham’s rearguard began to stretch.
Riccardo Calafiori’s centre-forward-esque dart into the box from left back was marginally mistimed but led to his wonderfully taken offside goal. Bukayo Saka managed to free himself from Ryan Sessegnon’s clutches when he ventured off his familiar perch on the touchline. Arsenal’s skipper for the evening pirouetted away from the former Spurs defender at the start of the second half to force the ball beyond Bernd Leno before Timothy Castagne hurried it off the goal line.
Trossard was scarcely a yard from the line when he kneed Arsenal into a 58th-minute lead from that most familiar of sources: a corner kick. Gabriel raced to the front of the queue in the penalty box, glancing a header toward the back post which the Belgian bundled over the line.
Saka threatened to take the game away from Fulham when he tumbled to the turf less than 10 minutes later. Substitute Kevin had been lured into a risky lunge right on the corner of his own penalty area a matter of seconds after his introduction. Referee Anthony Taylor promptly pointed to the spot but it took an interminable VAR delay to decipher that Kevin’s first touch of the match had been on the ball, rather than Saka’s thigh.
As Fulham pushed for an equaliser which their performance arguably deserved, forcing a flurry of skittish clearances during nine competitive minutes of stoppage time, space opened up that even Arsenal’s inherent caution was able to exploit. Viktor Gyökeres reliably fluffed his lines, but the Gunners still came away with three more points.
Fulham vs. Arsenal Half-Time Stats
Fulham vs. Arsenal Full Time Stats
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arsenal Player Ratings vs. Fulham: Super Strength Bails Out Table-Toppers.