Match report – Participant rankings – Arteta response – Video
Arsenal moved again to the highest of the Premier League after a scrappy 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage yesterday. It was removed from a basic, however incomes three factors at a floor the place we’ve taken only one within the earlier two visits is an enormous constructive.
The beginning XI held few surprises. Eberechi Eze was chosen within the Martin Odegaard function, and the toss up on the left noticed Leandro Trossard get the nod forward of Gabriel Martinelli. Early on, I assumed we struggled a bit. Some uncharacteristic sloppiness in possession offered Fulham with some momentum, they usually had a few half-chances within the opening quarter-hour or so.
Within the opening 20 minutes they’d 4 makes an attempt on purpose to our none, and whereas none got here notably near a purpose, we had to enhance. Which, I believe we did. By the break we’d had eight photographs, a purpose disallowed for offside, and proper earlier than half-time there was an opportunity for Declan Rice which he curled not far extensive from the sting of the field. It wasn’t sensible, however it was higher.
The second half started with extra of the identical by way of Arsenal’s territorial dominance, however it felt fairly just like final season’s encounter at Craven Cottage. Whether or not it was their plan or not, Fulham sat with 11 males behind the ball, and that’s at all times troublesome to interrupt down. I might have appreciated a bit extra craft from Eze at instances, and whereas Viktor Gyokeres had a few respectable makes an attempt on purpose that Bernd Leno was equal too, he nonetheless feels a bit on the margins.
The workrate is unquestionable, he supplies actual bodily presence, however at instances he simply appears to be like a bit industrial. In a staff the place silky first touches are the rule, he’s an exception to that. In a centre-forward I simply marvel if it’s only a query of time for him and people round him to mesh correctly, or one thing now we have to study to reside with to an extent. That mentioned, when Eze performed a sensible go in the direction of him within the field, that physicality as he challenged for the ball led to the Fulham participant poking the ball out for the nook from which we scored, so credit score the place it’s due.
After taking some ‘garbage corners’ (by his personal admission), Bukayo Saka’s supply was good this time, Gabriel flicked it on, and there to get the ball over the road along with his knee was Trossard. I do know I’m repeating myself right here, however yesterday is precisely why the Belgian was stored round. A good recreation requires gamers who can rating clutch targets, and this was undoubtedly one among them. He’s way more helpful to us this season than any cash within the financial institution, and a winner at Craven Cottage is all of the proof you want for that.
He’s our joint high scorer this season, tied with Gyokeres, Saka and Gabriel Martinelli with three in all competitions. Not stellar numbers, however we’re spreading the targets round, and for me that’s at all times a constructive. Then got here the penalty incident, when Saka was challenged by Kevin simply contained in the Fulham field.
At first, making use of my rule of how I’d really feel it was given in opposition to us, I felt it wasn’t a penalty as a result of the Fulham participant acquired one thing on the ball. Afterwards although, with the good thing about extra post-game replays, it appears clear there was contact on Saka earlier than he acquired the ball, so it’s a kind of the place I believe when VAR checked out it, they may simply have mentioned ‘Sure, some contact on the ball, however it got here after contact on the participant so the ref’s determination stands’
Nevertheless, I don’t know if Anthony Taylor acquired to see that individual replay, and if he did it wasn’t offered to him in slow-motion HD like we acquired on TV afterwards (when will we genuinely have a critical dialog concerning the high quality of the VAR footage?). The display by the aspect of the pitch wasn’t working at first, he needed to cope with an annoying little child gurning at him as they tried to get it to work, and my guess is that they solely took into consideration the contact on the ball. No penalty, a lot to Saka’s disappointment who mentioned afterwards:
“In fact, I perceive he touched the ball, however I felt a superb contact to my proper knee, you already know, earlier than he touched the ball, and for me, any contact within the field like that could be a penalty. I don’t need to dwell on it. Let’s simply transfer ahead. We’ve acquired the three factors.”
It meant the ultimate stage of the sport was performed on that 1-0 knife-edge the place something can occur. We did have some possibilities, the aforementioned Gyokeres shot which drew a superb save from Leno after which Martinelli on the rebound, and regardless of a couple of moments in our closing third, Fulham by no means actually appeared like scoring. It’s a testomony to our defensive solidity that that is the second consecutive recreation the opposition have did not have a shot on course, and there are at all times going to be video games you must grind out the three factors and Arsenal did that efficiently yesterday. We drew there final season and misplaced the season earlier than, so there was one thing to place proper, and we did precisely that.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta mentioned:
The current historical past wasn’t in our favour and we wished to alter that like we did in opposition to Newcastle and West Ham at house and that’s one other step, having that mindset and that skill to win these sorts of matches in opposition to a very good opposition, a very troublesome place to come back.
And on one other purpose from a set-piece:
Towards these low blocks once they don’t actually need to drop and commit that many gamers there, now we have one other alternative to place the gamers that we wish within the place that we wish with the function that we wish, and we have to exploit that.
I do discover among the dialogue round our set-piece prowess a bit odd, as if it’s one thing we should always nearly apologise for. They’re as a lot a part of the sport as anything, and whereas I’d love us to be extra free-flowing and rating extra open play targets, I’m not going to argue with the truth that being actually, actually good at corners is such a weapon for us. It’s price remembering what Arteta mentioned final yr about how he needs his staff to be the perfect at every little thing, and whereas there’s at all times room for enchancment in different areas, there’s no query we’re the perfect at this and that’s what helped us to a few factors yesterday. If different individuals need to be snobby about that, wonderful, however it’s simply counter-intuitive to me that being sensible at one side of the sport is one thing to be vital of.
Not least when a win away from house places us again on high of the desk, and means we’ll keep there for an additional week no matter what occurs in immediately’s video games. All in all, a very good win and one other recreation which – in comparison with final season – has added factors to our tally primarily based on these fixtures.
Proper, I’ll go away it there for now. Get pleasure from your Sunday, again with extra on the weblog tomorrow and an Arsecast Additional. Till then.
