Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has admitted he was wrong about Arsenal's winning goal after reacting angrily at the Emirates Stadium.
Gabriel's late winner was upheld after a VAR check, with officials looking at a potential handball from the Arsenal defender after the ball bounced towards him off teammate William Saliba. Mitrovic complained vocally in the moment, approaching referee Jarred Gillett after the Arsenal players ran off celebrating.
The Serbian striker, who had earlier put Fulham in front, seemed certain an offence had been committed. However, after the dust settled on the result, the former Newcastle and Anderlecht man accepted he was mistaken.
“I was arguing with the referee, but I just saw the goal. And yeah, it’s my mistake," Mitrovic told Match of the Day. "It’s clearly a goal and the referee gave the goal. It’s the right decision.”
Mitrovic had spoken to Sky Sports after the final whistle, and spoke of the opponents' good fortune. "Hurts a lot. That is football, sometimes you win, last week last minute but today we lost," he said.
"We gave everything out there, we fought until the end but we conceded two unlucky goals. First was rebound, second was after ricocheted. Very sad we didn't take any points but we move on."
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Fulham boss Marco Silva also spoke of Arsenal's stroke of luck after their late comeback. The away side led after an hour and were level going into the final five minutes before Gabriel broke their resistance.
"They [Arsenal] didn’t have many clear chances, they had two goals and both were lucky goals," Silva said. "It was bad luck for us.
"I didn’t see many clear chances for Arsenal. After 1-0 when the game seemed to be more open they had luck to score with the deflection. Even after they scored the winner we tried until the end. I hope the bad luck we had this evening will go our way in the future.
“In that moment, the way they scored that goal with the deflection was bad luck and the second goal, they don’t know how they scored the goal, that’s the reality. It didn’t come for us the result but this attitude, this commitment we showed this afternoon, it will come for us I don’t have doubts.”
The defeat for Fulham was their first in the league this season, after draws with Liverpool and Wolves and a victory over Brentford. They were also knocked out of the Carabao Cup in midweek, with lower-league side Crawley Town pulling off a shock.
Silva's side have a chance to immediately make amends for the loss, with Brighton set to visit Craven Cottage on Tuesday. The London side will follow that match with back-to-back derbies against Tottenham and Chelsea as the Premier League season begins to take shape.
