Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney, Elneny, Xhaka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Jesus
Subs: Turner, Cedric, Tomiyasu, Holding, Sambi, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Marquinhos, Nketiah
—
Arsenal came from behind to take all three points with a 2-1 win over Fulham at the Emirates this afternoon.
Mikel Arteta made two changes to the side that beat Bournemouth, with Kieran Tierney and Mohamed Elneny replacing Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Partey who suffered knee and thigh injuries respectively in Friday’s training session.
The game began in cagey fashion, with both sides sounding each other out in possession, but a couple of mistakes at the back from Fulham handed us some momentum, without a clear cut chance.
Jesus provided a chance for Xhaka which the midfielder put over, Martinelli saw an effort deflected wide as the Gunners put on some pressure. Saka and Odegaard combined on the edge of the box, but a Fulham foot snuffed out a shooting chance.
Arsenal’s best chance came in the 33rd minute, when Saka found himself in the box after the ball broke kindly for him. He cut inside the defender, but former teammate Bernd Leno came out to make a good save.
Ben White picked up a 36th minute yellow card for a foul on some bloke, Jesus was booked just before the break for a dust-up with Pahlinha, and the teams went in level at the break.
There was no changes from either manager for the second 45, and the pattern of the game remained much the same in the early stages – lots of Arsenal possession but no clear chances.
Then things started to ramp up. Leno was forced into a diving stop from an Odegaard shot, and Xhaka set up Jesus for a chance which tested the former Arsenal keeper but was probably more tame than the Brazilian would have liked.
However, it was the visitors who went ahead moments later after a huge mistake from Gabriel who got caught on the ball on the edge of his own area. Mitrovic turned him and slotted the ball beyond Ramsdale. 0-1.
Mikel Arteta responded with a substitution, sending on Eddie Nketiah for Kieran Tierney, and in the 64th minute Arsenal found an equaliser. Saka brought the ball forward, played it to Odegaard whose shot took a deflection, wrong-footing Leno in the process to make it 1-1.
Fulham almost went ahead again from a corner they shouldn’t have had, Ramsdale saving brilliantly from a Mitrovic header before great defending from White prevented another effort from the rebound.
Martinelli fired a left footed shot which Leno was equal to, as tempers began to fray a little between the players. Reid picked up a yellow, before Nketiah fashioned a good shooting opportunity but curled a left-footed effort wide. Saka had a shot blocked, Odegaard almost found space to crack one, and great work from Gabriel and Martinelli provided a chance for Nketiah whose shot went straight at Leno.
Martinelli had a pop which deflected out for a corner, he then took another shot when he shiould have played it back into the box but that too went out for a corner. And from there, Arsenal scored again. The ball came in, it dropped down, and the Brazilian put it into the net. 2-1.
Arteta brought on Tomiyasu for Jesus, but Ramsdale was forced into action again from a free kick curled into the box, making a solid stop as Fulham looked to bounce back. Rob Holding replaced Odegaard as we went into 5 minutes of added time, which was made longer by a stoppage for a clash of heads.
In the end though, Arsenal did enough to take three points and continue the 100% start to the season.
At the final whistle, the DJ played Tequila, and everyone sang.
These are the kind of points that make a difference in a season. Brilliant
Saliba’s reaction after the goal. Pure joy ! He definitely is gonna stay!
thought the same thing
Desperately need more depth in midfield.
We should go out and buy Tielemans as Liverpool could also move for him. I’d be happy if we signed Tielemans and Pedro Neto. If Arteta, Edu and the Kroenkes truly believe that we have a chance to fight for the title then Kroenke should get Tieleman, Neto plus one surprise striker. Vardy is a goal machine and could add experience and depth to our squad and shouldn’t be very expensive. If I were the Arsenal owner I’d go all out to buy these three players who can help us win something THIS season.
Nah to Vardy. Also, keep your feet on the ground bro, this team ain’t challenging for the title this season. Don’t set yourself up for completely unnecessary heartbreak.
A team with our ambitions should be winning these games all the time.
Any win though, will be taken
F*ck right off with that mindset. Liverpool with the same ambitions lost to these lot. You talk like there’s some god given right to 3 points, entitlement at its worst right there.
Liverpool drew with them at Fulham.
You can get your facts right, and do one you prick
time to find another blog site fella.
It was actually a draw, Fulham vs Liverpool. But generally, with our record after going behind last season, we would have certainly dropped points here.
There’ll be many more like this, this season. Man City have turned it twice already.
We have shown mettle tonight, and we have precedence to fall back on when it happens again.
Loving this Arsenal team right now, almost like watching your family grow!
And I do love a weekend when we play before the scum and can relax and (hopefully) watch them fuck it up!
Dude, it’s the premier league… fucking awesome result 😎
Faarkin’ hell
What a nasty cunt that Mitrovic is! ewwww!
Never noticed him until today. It’s good to have a ‘villain’ though. Loved that tackle right at the end where Gabriel went in on him
We’ll all love that nasty cunt when Fulham play sp*ds and our other rivals. He’s always taken points of Liverpool.
They came out to kick us today and the ref let them get away early on so they kept it up but great result for us.
Don’t know if others noticed it but Ramsdale literally kicked the kicked the ball into Mitrovic’s head in the first half. I didn’t think that was by accident at first glance. Don’t encourage it but because it was it was Mitrovic and knowing he was alright just found it a bit funny. Love the fact that we are also a bit more physical as a team these days. That is what I thought at least. Bodes well.
I don’t know if others noticed but there was an incident televised globally where our keeper kicked a football against the head of another footballer in a literal fashion. Chris Sutton levels of insight.
He is nasty but boy I wouldn’t mind him in our ranks. Doubtful he’d accept being backup to Jesus though.
Back up to Jesus and Nketia.
Nketia looked really strong when he came on today. I was kind of amazed at how well he held off the Fulham defenders. He’s not a big guy, but he played like one.
I mean he has that Arsenal swag and all that all of a sudden. I do understand he is a Hale End product but the progress has really been drastic.
Why is he a cunt for fighting for his team. Bet you would love him if he played for us.
I would. He’s very good.
He is a cunt because he is not ours
Impressed we recovered. Great team spirit!
Absolutely, we’re not losing or drawing these types of games any more.
So the next test was to come back from being behind. Consider it ticked. Top of the league.
100%
Spirit and personality of Champions.
A cracking game of football.
It was a great fightback, but “Champions”? Hmmm. I’d still look to either City or Liverpool to fit that description. We’ll get a much better idea when we’ve played a lot more games and have played some of the other big teams, including the two mentioned. They are (and remain) the benchmark in my opinion.
You misunderstood my point.
City and Liverpool for the most part consistently beat the teams they are supposed to beat.
Leicester City did it in 2015-2016 by only losing to The Arsenal and Liverpool.
Last season likely would have been a lot different with wins against Brentford in August, Brighton Hove Albion & Crystal Palace in October, Everton in December, Burnley in January, Southampton & Palace in April, and Newcastle in May.
Today The Gunners needed to win and did.
7 point deficit already too much for Liverpool to overcome. Looking at the fixture list between now and the end of the season I can see us dropping 2 – maybe 4 – points (City away, Liverpool away) but certainly not 7!
When was the last time we came from behind to win?
In Arsenal’s last 17 Premier League games, if they have scored in the first half they have won and if they failed to score before the break they have lost. Per Orbinho.
Think it was Wolves at home earlier in the year with that 85th minute equaliser and then a 95th minute winner.
Wolves at home last season. Pele equalized and Lacazette got the winner, albeit a deflection, at 88th minute
Pele is 82 years old so that would be a GREAT equalizer 🙂
Still younger than James Milner.
Who is still younger than Willian!
That’s what I was thinking. Last season we came from behind to beat Wolves and that was it. Every other time we never looked like we had the belief. But even if we hadn’t scored today, you could see the difference in mentality because the pressure was relentless. Yeah it was a shit goal but that’s the kind of shit goal you earn by knocking on the door, because there’s only so many places the ball can go before it ends up in the net. All I want is a team that wills the ball into the net – the… Read more »
What a game! Gabriel redemption! Well done guys.
Today was about Mentality, Resilience, Grit and Determination and the team showed that in spades. What a win!
Zinchenko showing up first on the scene to celebrate the winner was quality 😂
It’s called pashone.
And the stewardess thinking he was a fan lol
He is a fan, didn’t you see that photo of him as a kid wearing the shirt!
10/10 for the Tequila song at the end! Thos shows why Arsenal is more than just a commercially al club, we are a community!
This*
Big big points today, these are going to matter. After seeing Chelsea win with 10 men most of the match and City shrugging off a 2-0 deficit I thought we’d wasted an opportunity at one point.
Odegaard was immaculate.
Gabriel best and worst player on the pitch
it’s true he’s currently our least cold-headed defender, but also the one with the biggest heart possibly. great to have three good CBs at the club though – not sure who’s currently the second one (the first has to be Saliba based on ability and potential).
I think Gabriel missed zinchenko. He Was slow progressing the ball all day with that outlet. But I’m the end he redeemed himself. Mistakes will happen but he kept fighting.
I don’t know if you guys noticed, Gabriel is the center back playing the penetrative passes. If you watch closely Saliba doesn’t do the audacious, tight passes but Gabby does. So credit to him
Agree. His passes consistently split the midfield from deep. Beautiful!
Stuff of champions 💪🏾
A travesty of justice averted by the boys. Just wonderful.
I thought Partey had been relatively quiet / unspectacular in the last few games even though he played well, but you could see today how important he is to us. Elneny did fine but Partey is obviously just a different level
He doesn’t need to be spectacular..he just need to be the guy defenders can confidently pass to with the belief that it wont reach them back the next moment. The guy is an amazing footballer. I don’t think there is a better player who evades the press more elegantly than him. A swift turn and thats it..and he then starts the attack. There was this moment in Leicester game i guess. He was chasing the ball while running towards our goal, with opposition players close by. He wins it, comes out beating the press like in an instant. No showboating,… Read more »
You literally hit the nail on the head there, it’s why we paid the £50m for him and you can’t find these types of players out there with his skillset in combination to his physicality. Very very rare and I think Lokonga was brought in the be his understudy, but I felt he would be medium term as well as long-term. I felt Lokonga should have played yesterday not sure why the thought he wasn’t ready.
Partey is a massive irreplaceable cog in the machine. Sometimes he has games like that where he is quiet and unspectacular but even then he is still one of our most important players. As much as losing Tomi and Tierney at the end of last season didn’t help, it was the Partey loss that really killed us. Still think there is more to come from him and he/club has to get this recurring injury situation sorted. Even though we lost, his home performance against city was one of the best individual midfield performances by any player all last season.
Had exactly the same thought.
There’s steel in this team!
Granit, too.
Zinc, too.
That’s why the team looks so galvanized this season!
(Zinc is used to galvanize steel!)
Jesus, too.
Lead too (oh I fucked it)
A will-iron defender too
Goals were a bit scrappy but fully deserved. Odegaard was terrific. Happy that Gabriel could make amends. Some of our interplay was excellent but credit to Fulham, they defended well. Of course Leno had to play well against his old team. That said, Ramsdale made two great saves. We should beat Villa next. The perefct season continues!
Agreed I thought Fulham played quite well but we created so many chances we fully deserved that win.
Leno today and Emi Martinez on Wednesday.
Worth noting Villa play tomorrow so they have a day less recovery.
Odegaard’s goal a bit scrappy? I disagree with you.
Look at the foorwork. Pure classic goal.
Gabriel’s goal, yes. But a win is a win.
I will take scrappy goal for the win than a 2- or 3- point drop
Great win.
But I said Gabriel has got a bit of Mustafi in him. Time we went with White and Saliba at the centre bring Tomi in.
Saka needs competition for his place.
Saka needs a break
He did give the ball away several times today. Not sure you can put that down to fatigue though.
Maybe he just needs a goal to get going for the season.
Saka is becoming a bit predictable, but still so hard to stop him.
used to think that too, but this season he rotates positionally it seems, that’ll take care of him being predictable.
he is due a rest, tho. been ever since the final part of the last season.
To be fair, he’s had two defenders on him each match. That opens up space elsewhere. No issue with that.
Most of the season teams are putting two on Saka. But only as he approaches the penalty area. Slows him and cuts his passing lanes.
We are four games in and I can’t handle this already….
Just 34 more wins and I reckon we’ll win the league.
mathmatically we only need 33 more!
No, mathematically we need 34.
Arsenal have yet to play Man City, Tottenham, or (does double take) Brighton and Hove. Beating one of them at least once causes them to drop 3 points, so they would be 5 points behind, which they could not make up by beating Arsenal and denying win 38.
No 33 because we would have beaten City at least once by then maling the points difference 5
Beldar is correct.
If we win 33 more games, then the teams within 2 points of us (Man City and Brighton and potentially sp*ds) can only win a maximum of 33 more games themselves, so cannot overtake us.
Moot point but fun to dream.
What do I know. I majored in psychology
What a performance by Leno. He was pumped up for us. But thank goodness we prevailed.
Odegaard, take a bow
4/4. I am in paradise now.
He was at fault for the second Arsenal goal
Guys, it was clear that we couldn’t buil quickly enough from the back from Elneny and Tierney. Tierney wasn’t at his best, but I saw Elneny hiding today. I know he’s technically limited so I don’t want to get on his case too much, but I hope they do something about this whether it’s tactical or in transfer market.
Could just be ring rust.
Our issue today was finishing our chances, nothing really to do with Elneny and Tierney.
I thought Elneny was good at the base and ball security was good. He doesn’t bring the occasional dribbling foray forward that TP does but IMO he was fine in the role today.
The bigger dropoff for me was Zinc to Tierney. That really changed the style of play and interchanges on the left and KT wasn’t quite as able to step into a inside left midfielder role with the same aplomb as Zinc. That hurt penetration and creativity. I worry that Tierney, as a traditional (albeit top quality) LB will be awkward in Mikel’s system.
I think its good to have both ways of playing.
Thought Elneny did his job really well. He’s not quite as dynamic as Partey, but makes far fewer mistakes.
We clearly missed the creativity of Zinchenko.
And i’m really afraid of a Jesus injury. Nketiah’s energy was great for us, but he’s far from a “starter” caliber player in a top4 team.
Huh.. I thought Eddie made a real difference when he come on.
I’m usually one to agree with you on Eddie, but not today?!! He played great when he came on!!
At a point it felt like a hung jury on Gabi’s goal. Phew!!! Thanks super secret agent Leno tho:)
Never in Doubt
Oh man how sweet is this win. Odegaard was great and really happy for Gabriel to score the winner.
grew up watching the sexy Arsenal, learnt from that to value style over results. this season i’m recapturing that feeling, and it’s absolutely fucking great.
also, the length this group has travelled psychologically is incredible. full kudos to Mikel and the staff.
fulham scored OG by not playing to mitrovic, the cunt, the whole first half. also, our second goal is exactly why we had to let Leno go. it’s also symbolic that mitrovic only targeted Gabriel and never William.
it’s been a trip this game, absolutely smashed. final note – our support has been fucking great again!
Ødegaard is money
Mayor McCheese
Wolves at home
I love this as a standalone comment, Steve.
Bloody hell! I aged about 20 years in that second half. Well done lads. Back up top. Bring on Villa.
Phew! For a good while there, I thought we were back to the kind of performance often seen in Wenger’s later years – plenty of possession, attractive football but very little to show for it. But no, our youngster team showed a bit more determination to grind out the win.
There will be tougher tests ahead – all the usual suspects won today, and let’s not talk about Liverpool, so it will be really interesting to see how we cope in the coming weeks. But for now, congratulations all round.
*young team
Arsenal ladies celebrating each goal with such joy!!!
Everybody in!!!
The absolute stress of it all! 🤣🤣
I watched the game on bein sports 1. Don’t know who the 2 fat pundits were, but they really annoyed me saying the way they celebrated the win is like they won the leage. It was only fullham.
F*cking c*nts.
Richard Keys and Andy Gray?
I don’t have BEIN sports but they sometimes interview Wenger on that channel.
Yes those two, especially that Richard Keys you could really see he was annoyed that Arsenal won.
Palace and now Fulham, not at our best but victory in both games. So encouraging.
Loving this CB pairing, they seem to love playing together!
Fuck Mitrovic
Gotta say…Nketiah is my MoM even though he was a sub. The entire feeling of the game changed when he came on, and we looked much more threatening after. So glad we extended him.
Thought he was very good. Offered something different to Jesus.
I also thought he was sensational. Created almost more danger in 30 minutes than Gabriel Jesus the entire match. Deserves a start (just don’t know in whose place, maybe give Saka a rest?)
I have a feeling that he and Xhaka are going to score more goals than we expected
If we can stay unbeaten until October it will offset the points that will inevitably be dropped against the dippers and the oil men. 4 down 34 to go. 😬
Pinch me I must be dreaming. Whenever we went behind last year we sunk. This team seem to have a real fighting spirit.
Exactly. We’ve conceded three goals this season and have responded with goals of our own in 2, 2, and 6 minutes
I think we missed Zinchenko a lot, and Partey a bit as well. Odegaard was immense! Martinelli is trying to be our best attacker and our best defender and coming close on both ends. Glad to see Gabriel redeemed. I loved seeing Zin celebrating the goal. This is a tough league. So glad the boys are putting in the work required to have a chance at this result.
SHIT YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
#5 needs come cover, like fuck me
BUT YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Mik needs to bring on subs early! ESR and Viera are right there!
BBBUUUUTTTT WHOOO CAAAAREEEEE YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
After an hour, things were looking really grim. Behind in the score, Fulham defending really well, 2 starters out with injuries, all the main rivals who played had already won, and a former player coming up big against us. Grim. Like has been mentioned, it was deja vu of so many games from about 8 to 10 years ago where we would dominate possession the whole game but never score, then make one brutal mistake on defense and lose. This time was different though. Great spirit and determination, and the will to keep fighting to get the win, and now… Read more »
With the Mitrovic goal, Kane would have dived for the pelanty and red card.
Odi’s best game EVER! Outstanding.
Start Jesus AND Eddie next week. I liked how we went to another level with both on the field at the same time.
Great win today! Thought PV4 did us a favour but mancs came back, otherwise we’d be running away with the title 🙂
Absolutely rocking in there today. Don’t think anyone left until a good 10 mins after final whistle. I even got chatting to David Dein on the way out! Fantastic win.
That’s brilliant. Does he own a private box at the stadium or was he a guest of the club?
Great to hear that Mr Dein still attends.
I met him and his incredibly attractive American wife after our FA Cup Final Replay victory in 1993.
It was 11.00pm outside Wembley and the Gooners were still flooding the Wembley car park with the celebrations. As they walked to their car, the Deins were laughing at the Arsenal fans singing 🎵🎶”A spoonful of Sugar helps the Venables go down – in the most delightful way..!!”🎵🎶😂
Did we beat anyone from a losing position last season?
Wolves at home
Best win of the season for me. We played the first half like Wenger’s team from 2008-2012. Lots of beautiful plays, intricate dribbles and passes, but trying too much to walk the ball into goal. Cue missed chances, and a 2nd half defensive mistake to put us a goal down. Fulham, still unbeaten in the league before the game, became a more dangerous opposition from then. Credit to the team we kept playing well and took our chances with a hint of fortune. Perhaps Odegaard, our best player in the game no doubt, will learn a lot from today’s game.… Read more »
Well done boys, a hard fought win. Really pleased for Gabriel, his head didn’t go down after the Fulham goal and he deserved our winner. Kudos to the Emirates faithful, who were right back in Fulham’s faces after conceding. Another shit ref who didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but we dug in, Arteta rang the changes when they were needed and we got the points. Odegaard my MotM, hee can receive the ball from the back line, turn on a sixpence when surrounded by opposition players and create something all in the blink of an eye. Had… Read more »
Watching the first half was in a way boring. Arsenal was completely dominating but overlooked that the point is to score goals. Not just look beautiful.
as often happens complacency set in and the edge become arrogance. But after Fulham scored wow!😂😂played with a focus and a
edge and one felt it was a matter of time. Very enjoyable 2nd half.
Not pretty but winning soccer.
“Holding on” has a double meaning!
We do see that we’re thin om quality in central midfield in this game, but i believe there’s more to gain if our offensive players like Saka,Martinelli and Nketiah train more specific on their finishing skills in close situations. We see to often that their shots are placed low and close to keeper, Jesus is much better to chose his finishing technique according to his positioning. Very small details,but if we convert 5-10 chances into more goals that could easily be the difference between top 4 or not.