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Football London
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Kaya Kaynak

Why Odegaard shouted at Saliba as Mitrovic winds up the Arsenal fans: Moments missed vs Fulham

Arsenal maintained their 100% start to the season courtesy of a dramatic 2-1 victory over Fulham at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners started the game well but failed to turn their early dominance into too many clear cut chances. The best opportunity fell to Bukayo Saka, who forced a good save from Bernd Leno when through one-vs-one.

They were ultimately punished for that impotent first half as Aleksandar Mitrovic capitalised on a Gabriel howler to make it 1-0 to the visitors just as Arsenal appeared to be turning the screw. The Gunners bounced back well though and found themselves level after the talismanic Martin Odegaard's deflected shot beat Leno in the Fulham goal.

It was then a dramatic finish played at a frenetic pace before Gabriel popped up with a scrappy winner from a corner to make up for mistake just as it looked like all was lost for Arsenal. Here football.london takes a look back at some of the moments you may have missed from the game.

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Odegaard shows his leadership

There's been lots of talk in recent weeks about how the leader of this Arsenal team is Granit Xhaka, but the man wearing the armband is Martin Odegaard. He may not be the most traditional blood and guts Gunners skipper, but when he's on the pitch the Norwegian is more than happy to let his teammates know who is in charge.

This was on display against Fulham firstly as he was seen rallying his troops to get back in position after Kieran Tierney overhit a cross. Then when Arsenal were slow to get up the pitch when playing from the back, Odegaard began gesturing at William Saliba to dribble out from defence and shouting to give the Frenchman the confidence to stride forward. He may not be a Tony Adams or Patrick Vieira type, but the 23-year-old is clearly an influential figure in Mikel Arteta's side.

Gabriel Jesus forced to apologise

There's not much wrong that Gabriel Jesus has done in his Arsenal career so far. The Brazilian has two goals so far but he's been decisive in every singly one of the Gunners' games, not to mention the impact he's had off the field in terms of inspiring the dressing room.

However, as Martin Odegaard floated a delightful ball up for Gabriel Martinelli to try and knock he was caught napping. Martinelli had moved into the centre forward position and headed to where Jesus probably should have been on the left, but instead the 25-year-old was caught on his heels further back the pitch.

Ever one to keep standards high though, Jesus immediately held up both hands in apology to try to atone for his error. Safe to say he's allowed one after such a good start.

Mitrovic winds up the Arsenal fans

If there was a pantomime villain on the day for Fulham it was almost definitely Aleksandar Mitrovic. There were plenty of players for the Cottagers dabbling in the dark arts, but the Serbian was probably the biggest offender.

Aside from scoring the goal that put Fulham in front, Mitrovic did not exactly endear himself to the Emirates crowd after going down injured for a considerable period, despite a seemingly innocuous challenge from Bukayo Saka. The 27-year-old was non-plussed though and responded by cupping his ears to the Gunners support.

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