FULHAM 0-3 ARSENAL: BY THE VISUALS
FULHAM 0-3 ARSENAL: BY THE NUMBERS
In their previous nine Premier League meetings, Arsenal had recorded seven wins against Fulham and suffered no losses.
A fantastic first-half performance saw the league leaders produce another victory as they blew Fulham away at Craven Cottage to restore their five-point advantage.
3 – All three goals were assisted by Leandro Trossard, with Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard the beneficiaries. The last Arsenal player to record a hat-trick of assists in the Premier League was Henrikh Mkhitaryan against Everton in 2018.
The hosts improved during the second half, hitting the crossbar while Aaron Ramsdale was forced to make a couple of saves, but Mikel Arteta’s side left with all three points and a much needed clean sheet.
9 – Before yesterday’s fixture, Arsenal had only managed two clean sheets in ten previous matches across all competitions. However, by shutting Fulham out, they’ve now recorded a third in their last four Premier League games and a ninth on the road, which is their joint-highest in any single campaign since 1993/94.
15 – Arsenal’s fifteen attempts yesterday were half the amount recorded against Bournemouth a week ago but of better quality (xG per shot of 0.15 vs 0.08) that saw 73% come from inside the opposition box.
3 – Arsenal scored three goals, making it the 13th game this season in which they’ve recorded three or more in a single match.
3 – Mikel Arteta now has three players in double figures for Premier League goals this season, which is one more than his team had last season.
12 – Gabriel Martinelli leads the way with twelve league goals so far – with five coming in his last five league appearances, while Bukayo Saka and Odegaard both have ten to their name.
3 – Gabriel Magalhaes, who made his debut at Craven Cottage back in 2020 has scored three (including Sunday’s opener) goals against Fulham in just four appearances.
3 – Arsenal conceded just three shots from set pieces with a combined xG of 0.17. An improvement on recent performances and hopefully a sign of things to come. 26% of Fulham’s goals had come from corners, which is the highest percentage of any team in the top flight.
64 – Accurate passes for William Saliba (90%) ranked second for the match. The young defender was at his imperious best. No one won more tackles (3) or made more clearances (6) in an Arsenal shirt.
4 – No-one completed more dribbles (4) than Thomas Partey. The Ghanian completed 95% of 57 pass attempts and made 11 recoveries.
LEANDRO TROSSARD’S GAME BY NUMBERS
4 – Progressive Passes, 1 pass into the final third, 4 passes into the penalty area, 4 key passes and 3 progressive passes received
2 – Shots and 1 shot on target (50%)
50 – Touches and 1 successful dribble
0.49 – Expected assists, 0.22 expected goals and 0.24 expected goals on target
The front three of Martinelli, Jesus, and Saka were virtually unstoppable before the World Cup, but Trossard has been outstanding ever since his arrival. If all four remain healthy for the run-in, Arteta will be presented with a selection dilemma. Saka and Jesus are among the first names on the team sheet, but Trossard and Martinelli are both in sensational form. It’s an unlikely but welcome situation to find ourselves in after coping for such a long time without our star striker.
What looked like a tricky game to negotiate ended up being a cakewalk. The odd defensive blip remained evident, and more goals should have been scored, but in the end it was little more than a heavy training session. With a much needed clean sheet after some recent defensive lapses, and most notably a return to first team action for Jesus, it would be harsh to complain about any aspect of a job well done. Eleven games to go.
Follow me on Twitter @jonollington
Sources: Opta, fbref, @Orbinho twitter feed
Very impressive so far this season, and with Trossard, TP and Jesus back that helps a lot. and hopefully City have some fixture congestion.
We lost against five of our remaining opponents last season in the equivalent fixtures, so I’m only getting excited when we are mathematically certain to win (fingers crossed).
Crazy the number of clean sheets (9) we’ve had playing away too, far better than at home.
Here’s hoping we can keep it going!!!
Was great looking at our bench too, so much talent to come on if needed. Tomi, Tierney, Holding, Jorginho, Vieira etc, all experienced and quality.
Things looking so much better than for many years.
Massive difference right now is that we have a bench and options to turn a game (or comfortably rest starters when we’re dominating like yesterday).
Jesus will have to do alot to replace trossard with the way he’s playing. What a lovely situation to be in. Said it before but how do you get a player of his standard for 20 odd mil in a january transfer.
I want to see both on the pitch at the same time. I’m betting not many teams can live with that 🙂
That would be at the expense of one of Martinelli and Saka. It’s a good headache for Arteta to have.
I expect Trossard would work in the two 10 positions as well.
Saka needs a breather anyway. Martinelli left, Jesus central and Trossard roaming around from the right sounds fun.
Maybe against teams that park the with 14 players we can have the front 4 of Jesus, Martinelli, Saka, and Trossard. Then have Odegard play a slightly deeper role in the place of Xhaka, and have Partey sit in DMF. But against teams that want to play football we need Xhaka back and have to drop one of the front 4.
What defensive blips? I thought the the defence was as good as they’ve been in a long while
Gabriel missing that straight forward interception that led to a direct shot and strong Rammers save. Following corner Mitrovic headed into the bar. Other than that it was pretty routine.
Enjoying the mix of classic by the numbers with some new look charts!
Here’s hoping city go all the way in the champions league
Massive distraction for them
And lose the final of course…
Unless it’s against Chelsea.
But lose in heartbreaking fashion in the final.
And to a lesser extent the FA Cup too. Funny thing to be wanting them to win in the cups just for them to then be losing in the league
11 – The number of “Cup finals” Arteta and his “Defiant bunch” – according to Peter Drury – need to go through to get to the crown.
COYG!!!
Or we could just win the next 9 and it would be settled with 2 to go! COYG!
Surprised we ‘only’ had 55% possession. Felt like a lot more.
They passed it around for ages at times, usually losing it as soon as they tried to create a chance. Easy to fall asleep during those parts of the game!
Does John Ollignton live at the Tollington? 😁
Drinking Boddington.
I do honestly think that instead of worrying about the selection headache that having Jesus back gives us, we should focus on rotating effectively.
I think Trossard is versatile enough to cover for Saka down the right (or even Martinelli) giving our Starboy an occasional much needed rest.
Thomas Partey had a key contribution to Gabriel’s opening goal that I don’t see mentioned elsewhere. The Fulham defender,Tosin Adarabioyo was moving to the ball along with Gabriel. Just as the 6′ 4″ Tosin was about to jump, Thomas gave him a slight push, keeping Tosin cemented to the ground. This freed up Gabriel to make his excellent finish. It’s the little things, often unnoticed, that makes Thomas Partey so good.