Corner kings Arsenal back at the summit after grinding Fulham down just enough
- By Yann Tear at Craven Cottage
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Premier League
Fulham (0) 0
Arsenal (0) 1 Trossard 58
Set piece again, ole, ole.
It was as unspectacular as it gets for Arsenal but they did just enough to claim the win that puts them on top of the Premier League table tonight.
Fulham have given them a few headaches in recent times, forcing a few draws, including last season at Craven Cottage, so Mikel Arteta will be relieved to have avoided the banana skin.
The Whites were excellent in the first half and the Gunners slow out of the blocks. But they did not cash in and paid the price as Arsenal applied a tourniquet to their ambitions - hogging the ball in the second half before finding the net from a corner. Where have we heard that one before?
But if clean sheets and dull 1-0 wins are the hallmark of champions, the signs must be good for the north Londoners. Fulham lost their unbeaten home record but showed energy and determination to ruffle feathers - and that ought to provide some measure of consolation for Whites boss Marco Silva.
Fulham set off at a cracking pace - determined to ask questions - and immediately found their intensity paying off in terms of chances..
Raul Jimenez had a shot deflected wide after Harry Wilson had seized on a looses pass from Gabriel. Tom Cairney blasted a volley goalwards, another shot from Wilson whistled just wide, and Declan Rice needed to get his head in the way of a Josh King strike.
There was a brief interlude, as Arsenal finally started to wrestle back some control, but Wilson again came close, drilling low past a post after being picked out on the edge of the area by ex-Gunner Alex Iwobi - then King got the better of Eberechi Eze before drifting a cross from the right that David Raya had no option but to help over the crossbar.
It took an age for the Gunners to threaten - albeit having had a Riccardo Calafiori 'goal' chalked off for an offside - but they almost stole in front when Bukayo Saka slipped a ball through for Victor Gyokeres to slam at goal from an angle. Bernd Leno was right behind it, though. A first-time effort from Rice swung well wide as the first half ended.
Arsenal knew they had to pick it up and were on the front foot after the break - though Fulham still had the better chance in that spell, with Wilson volleying Iwobi's cross just over the bar.
The breakthrough came, inevitably from a set piece, as Saka's corner was nodded on by Gabriel at the near post for Leandro Trossard to poke home from a yard and a half. And that was all it needed.
Saka almost doubled the lead after dribbling past two players and forcing Leno into a sharp low save and in the next attack, ref Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty for what looked like a foul by Kevin on Saka - the Brazilian having only just come off the bench.
However, VAR alerted Taylor to the fact Kevin got the faintest of touches on the ball before his lunge brought down the Arsenal winger on the edge of the box.
It didn't matter. The Gunners came close to a second during nine minutes of injury time, with Gyokerers and Gabi Martinelli forcing Leno into a double save, but this never looked like being anything more than a 1-0 game. As so often in the past, it'll do very nicely for the ruthless Gunners.
Whites: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Castagne, Andersen (Diop 42), Cuenca (Bassey 82), Sessegnon - Berge, Cairney (Smith Rowe 63) - Wilson (Traore 82), King (Kevin 63), Iwobi - Jimenez
Gunners: (4-3-3) Raya - Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori - Eze (Merino 62), Zubimendi, Rice - Saka, Gyokeres (Norgaard 96), Trossard (Martinelli 81)
Attendance: 27,736
