Arsenal were held to a 1–1 draw in the Premier League away against Fulham at a rain-soaked Craven Cottage in a well-contested London derby.
The Gunners’ point moves the team six points from the top of the table, but the visitors will be frustrated to have not closed the gap further with leaders Liverpool not playing this weekend after the Merseyside derby was canceled on Saturday.
Arsenal had dominated the opening proceedings in west London, but Fulham took the lead after 11 minutes from an excellent team move, which ended with Raúl Jiménez’s superb drilled finish low past goalkeeper David Raya.
Arsenal was caught cold against the run of play, and despite dominating the match, struggled to land any impactful blows upon their opponents for the remainder of the first half.
However, set pieces once again provided joy for Arsenal this season after William Saliba poked in the visitors’ equalizer from close range after another well-worked corner.
Thomas Partey later missed a gilt-edged chance for Arsenal to take the lead, steering his header wide from seven yards out with the Ghanaian standing unmarked in the penalty area.
Bukayo Saka thought he had scored a late winner for Arsenal when his 89th minute header from Gabriel Martinelli’s cross went through goalkeeper Bernd Leno’s legs, but the goal was shortly ruled out after Martinelli was found to be offside.
Here are three things we learned from this London derby at Craven Cottage:
Arsenal set piece masters once again
Arsenal’s imperiousness from set-pieces this season has gained many headlines, and paid massive dividends for both their goals in the Gunners’ 2–0 home win against Manchester United on Wednesday. Fulham showed it had prepared for this eventuality in the first half, and Adama Traoré’s robust presence was deployed by the home side to block the runs of Saliba, and initially this proved effective.
However, in time, Arsenal’s set piece prowess proved too much for Fulham to contain when Declan Rice’s corner was headed back across goal by Kai Havertz, before Saliba prodded the ball into an empty net. This marked the Gunners’ 23rd Premier League goal from set pieces since the start of last season, and continues to prove a fruitful avenue for Mikel Arteta’s side when goals from open play prove to be in short supply.
Fulham surrender another lead this season
Fulham were comfortably second best for the first 10 minutes of this match, but the home side launched a spring-loaded attack from their own half, after a 23-pass move was ended with a terrific low finish from striker Jiménez after the Mexican’s excellent movement.
However, manager Marco Silva will perhaps be irritated that his side had surrendered the lead in this match, as this result means Fulham have now dropped 14 points from winning positions in the league this season. Although, they were pinned back for large periods of this encounter, Silva will be keen to prevent leads continuing to be given away as the Cottagers sit in 10th, but potentially could have been higher if more of their leads had turned into wins.
Arsenal struggle to create from open play
Arsenal’s set pieces have definitely given the team an advantage, but it is perhaps telling in this match that their best chances came from dead-ball situations, and manager Mikel Arteta may be concerned at his team’s lack of marked threat from open play. Aside from Saliba’s goal and Partey’s glaring miss, the Gunners struggled to consistently create chances, despite the best efforts of Martin Ødegaard and Saka this afternoon.
This team appears to need an extra gear, and an additional attacking outlet, with striker Kai Havertz notably anonymous in this match, and left wingers Leandro Trossard and Martinelli were much less threatening than Saka on the opposite flank. Arsenal may need to address this creative deficiency from open play in tight matches like these. Otherwise, they may fail to mount enough of a resurgence to dislodge Liverpool at the Premier League’s summit.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Three Takeaways: Arsenal Drops Points to Fulham in Draw at Craven Cottage.
