Arsenal drop points at resilient and tenecious Fulham

Fulham (1) 1 v Arsenal (0) 1

Raúl Jiménez 11

Saliba 52

By Kaz Mochlinski at Craven Cottage

Premier League

Matchweek 15

Arsenal missed out on an opportunity to reduce Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League table as they could only come away from Craven Cottage with a 1-1 draw against Fulham.

Even to get one point in the Sunday lunchtime kick-off required recovering from trailing at half-time, but Arsenal managed to cancel out Fulham’s early first half goal with a similarly quick strike at the start of the second half.

The Gunners thought that they had completed the comeback with a winning goal in the 88th minute, headed in at the far post by Bukayo Saka from a Gabriel Martinelli left-wing cross, but the Brazilian was marginally offside in the build-up.

The Cottagers had gone ahead with their first attack of the game, as Kenny Tete’s perfect pass split the opposition defence for Raúl Jiménez to run through and surprise David Raya by getting his shot off unexpectedly quickly.

Almost inevitably, the Arsenal equaliser was scored from a corner. It was the 23rd such goal for the Gunners since the beginning of last season, a league-leading number and more than by any other club in Europe during that time.

Following on from both their goals in the 2-0 victory over Manchester United on Wednesday coming from corners, this was the third successive strike from that source - and also the third in a row scored by a defender.

It adds to the opening goal last weekend in the 2-5 triumph at West Ham United likewise being from a corner put away by a defender. In that match the scorer was Gabriel Magalhães. The latest two finishes have now both been by William Saliba.

Unlike against Manchester United four days earlier, Saliba on this occasion did not need his backside to divert the ball goalwards, but another first-time strike from close range once more had to survive a tight VAR check for offside.

“Set-piece again, olé, olé!” was the loudly sung celebration of the visiting supporters. The home fans responded with chants of “Fulham 1, Stoke City 1” after Dimitar Berbatov’s midweek comparison of Mikel Arteta’s men to Tony Pulis’s team.

It was the fourth game running in which Arsenal had converted a corner, and, undoubtedly, during the course of this season, their scoring threat from set plays has become magnified to the point where each Gunners’ corner is now a moment of great theatrical drama.

At Craven Cottage again most of the spectators in the stands were on the edge of their seats for every dead-ball situation, with the noise levels rising in anticipation of what Arsenal’s much-praised set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover, had planned.

Fulham will have been relieved to have only conceded four corners in the first half, and just two in the second half, with a solitary goal resulting from this fertile recent scoring source for the Gunners.

Conversely, Arsenal are suddenly struggling to create clear chances from open play, with barely two of their eight goals in three matches over the last nine days coming in this way, both at West Ham, where they also scored two penalties.

Against Fulham, it took until the 37th minute for the Gunners to have their first attempt on target, when Martin Ødegaard finally got Saka away down the right before a classic cut inside by the England winger for a left-foot shot that was comfortably stopped at the near post.

That was Arsenal’s single effort on goal in the opening period, and they registered just four in total over the 90 minutes, as the well-prepared Fulham side worked tenaciously to diligently close off the passing channels sought by Ødegaard.

The Norwegian was captaining his club for the 100th time, but it was the opposition skipper, Antonee Robinson, who excelled on this occasion in keeping Saka subdued for almost the entire contest.

Fulham’s efforts were all the more impressive in the absence of Joachim Andersen with a calf injury. On an afternoon of icy-cold wind and rain, this might have been a good day to be left on the sidelines.

Reiss Nelson was also unavailable for Fulham due to a hamstring injury, but he would have been ineligible to play anyway as he is on loan from Arsenal. The rest of the ex-Gunners at the Cottage - Bernd Leno, Emile Smith Rowe, and Alex Iwobi - gave the home team enough extra motivation.

Nevertheless, Arsenal will be disappointed not to have produced anything more in a game which they dominated territorially and in terms of possession, having 67% of the ball in comparison to the hosts’ meagre 33%.

There was some consolation for the Gunners in the performance of their makeshift defence of Thomas Partey, Saliba, Jakub Kiwior, and Jurrien Timber, who were playing together as a unit for the first time.

With Gabriel Magalhães, Ben White, Riccardo Calafiori, and Oleksandr Zinchenko all unavailable through injury, at Craven Cottage Arsenal’s ninth different defensive foursome in the Premier League this season had to adapt very rapidly to each other.

Caught out in the opening exchanges by Raúl Jiménez, at least they subsequently restricted Fulham to a total of solely two chances to score in the whole match, with the goal being the Cottagers’ single attempt on target in the first half.

Fulham’s only effort on goal in the second half came from substitute Andreas Pereira 20 minutes from full-time, when his break down the left led to a shot which was well dealt with by Raya. Thereafter, it was Arsenal who looked much more likely to get a winner.

The celebrations when Saka seemed to have scored right at the end were immense, with all the away side gathering in a huddle in the corner in front of their deliriously delighted supporters in what felt like a potentially crucial moment in the season.

However, having benefited from a very close VAR decision for Saliba’s goal, when he was kept onside by Robinson’s left leg, the second VAR review went against the Gunners, with Martinelli just offside from Timber’s pass.

The feeling of deflation among the visitors at the outcome was obviously substantial. Arteta must hope that it does not have too much of a psychological impact on his players in the foreseeable future.

Although their run of four consecutive victories has ended, Arsenal remain unbeaten in the six games since Ødegaard’s return from injury. And they are still third in the Premier League in spite of being downcast at dropping a couple of points.

Neither Arsenal nor Fulham have now lost any of their past nine London derby matches in league competition - in the Cottagers’ case their longest such sequence for over 23 years. And they got through a challenging week of fixtures undefeated in three Premier League games.

Fulham in fact have been beaten just once in their last seven league outings since the middle of October. But the tight state of the table means that in one weekend they have tumbled from sixth down to tenth place.

Their next assignment is at Anfield. Liverpool may be leading the race to be champions this season, but the Reds will not relish facing an opponent as well-organised and determined as Fulham right now.

Fulham: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Tete, Diop, Bassey, Robinson - Berge, Lukić (Cuenca 91) - Iwobi, Smith Rowe (Pereira 60), Traoré (Wilson 61) - Raúl Jiménez (Rodrigo Muniz 79)

Arsenal: (4-2-3-1) Raya - Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Timber - Jorginho (Merino 74), Rice - Saka, Ødegaard (Nwaneri 79), Trossard (Martinelli 60) - Havertz (Gabriel Jesus 73)

Attendance: 26,954