Fulham 0-1 Arsenal: Trossard/set-piece again, Olé Olé

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

Arsenal moved back to the top of the Premier League after a scrappy 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage yesterday. It was far from a classic, but earning three points at a ground where we’ve taken just one in the previous two visits is a big positive.

The starting XI held few surprises. Eberechi Eze was chosen in the Martin Odegaard role, and the toss up on the left saw Leandro Trossard get the nod ahead of Gabriel Martinelli. Early on, I thought we struggled a bit. Some uncharacteristic sloppiness in possession presented Fulham with some momentum, and they had a couple of half-chances in the opening 15 minutes or so.

In the opening 20 minutes they had four attempts on goal to our none, and while none came particularly close to a goal, we had to improve. Which, I think we did. By the break we’d had eight shots, a goal disallowed for offside, and right before half-time there was a chance for Declan Rice which he curled not far wide from the edge of the box. It wasn’t brilliant, but it was better.

The second half began with more of the same in terms of Arsenal’s territorial dominance, but it felt quite similar to last season’s encounter at Craven Cottage. Whether it was their plan or not, Fulham sat with 11 men behind the ball, and that’s always difficult to break down. I would have liked a bit more craft from Eze at times, and while Viktor Gyokeres had a couple of decent attempts on goal that Bernd Leno was equal too, he still feels a bit on the margins.

The workrate is unquestionable, he provides real physical presence, but at times he just looks a bit industrial. In a team where silky first touches are the rule, he’s an exception to that. In a centre-forward I just wonder if it’s just a question of time for him and those around him to mesh properly, or something we have to learn to live with to an extent. That said, when Eze played a smart pass towards him in the box, that physicality as he challenged for the ball led to the Fulham player poking the ball out for the corner from which we scored, so credit where it’s due.

After taking some ‘rubbish corners’ (by his own admission), Bukayo Saka’s delivery was good this time, Gabriel flicked it on, and there to get the ball over the line with his knee was Trossard. I know I’m repeating myself here, but yesterday is exactly why the Belgian was kept around. A tight game requires players who can score clutch goals, and this was definitely one of them. He is far more useful to us this season than any money in the bank, and a winner at Craven Cottage is all the evidence you need for that.

He’s our joint top scorer this season, tied with Gyokeres, Saka and Gabriel Martinelli with three in all competitions. Not stellar numbers, but we’re spreading the goals around, and for me that’s always a positive. Then came the penalty incident, when Saka was challenged by Kevin just inside the Fulham box.

At first, applying my rule of how I’d feel it was given against us, I felt it wasn’t a penalty because the Fulham player got something on the ball. Afterwards though, with the benefit of more post-game replays, it seems clear there was contact on Saka before he got the ball, so it’s one of those where I think when VAR looked at it, they could easily have said ‘Yes, some contact on the ball, but it came after contact on the player so the ref’s decision stands’

However, I don’t know if Anthony Taylor got to see that particular replay, and if he did it wasn’t presented to him in slow-motion HD like we got on TV afterwards (when do we genuinely have a serious conversation about the quality of the VAR footage?). The screen by the side of the pitch wasn’t working at first, he had to contend with an annoying little kid gurning at him as they tried to get it to work, and my guess is they only took into account the touch on the ball. No penalty, much to Saka’s disappointment who said afterwards:

“Of course, I understand he touched the ball, but I felt a good contact to my right knee, you know, before he touched the ball, and for me, any contact in the box like that is a penalty. I don’t want to dwell on it. Let’s just move forward. We’ve got the three points.”

It meant the final stage of the game was played on that 1-0 knife-edge where anything can happen. We did have some chances, the aforementioned Gyokeres shot which drew a good save from Leno and then Martinelli on the rebound, and despite a few moments in our final third, Fulham never really looked like scoring. It’s a testament to our defensive solidity that this is the second consecutive game the opposition have failed to have a shot on target, and there are always going to be games you have to grind out the three points and Arsenal did that successfully yesterday. We drew there last season and lost the season before, so there was something to put right, and we did exactly that.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

The recent history wasn’t in our favour and we wanted to change that like we did against Newcastle and West Ham at home and that’s another step, having that mindset and that ability to win these kinds of matches against a really good opposition, a really difficult place to come.

And on another goal from a set-piece:

Against these low blocks when they don’t really want to drop and commit that many players there, we have another opportunity to put the players that we want in the position that we want with the role that we want, and we need to exploit that.

I do find some of the discussion around our set-piece prowess a bit odd, as if it’s something we should almost apologise for. They are as much part of the game as anything else, and while I’d love us to be more free-flowing and score more open play goals, I’m not going to argue with the fact that being really, really good at corners is such a weapon for us. It’s worth remembering what Arteta said last year about how he wants his team to be the best at everything, and while there’s always room for improvement in other areas, there’s no question we’re the best at this and that’s what helped us to three points yesterday. If other people want to be snobby about that, fine, but it’s just counter-intuitive to me that being brilliant at one aspect of the game is something to be critical of.

Not least when a win away from home puts us back on top of the table, and means we’ll stay there for another week regardless of what happens in today’s games. All in all, a really good win and another game which – compared to last season – has added points to our tally based on those fixtures.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Enjoy your Sunday, back with more on the blog tomorrow and an Arsecast Extra. Until then.