Arsenal were forced to draw with hosts Fulham with a final score of 1-1. Mikel Arteta’s squad failed to secure three points, while Fulham won one valuable point.
Sunday, December 8, Arsenal visited Tottenham at Craven Cottage in the continuation of the 2024/2025 Premier League. The Gunners must win to continue competing at the top.
Unexpectedly, Fulham appeared strong in front of their own supporters. They even took the lead through Raul Jimenez’s goal in the 11th minute, the score of 1-0 lasted until halftime.
Arsenal rose and were only able to reply in the second half. William Saliba scored a goal in the 52nd minute. The Gunners had scored a second goal in the 90th minute through Bukayo Saka’s action, but it was disallowed by VAR for offside.
The Gunners came to Craven Cottage with a mission to atone for their 2-1 defeat at the same stadium last season. Arsenal appeared dominant from the start of the match, pressing Fulham’s defense with high intensity. However, they were caught out in the 11th minute when Raul Jimenez scored a beautiful goal with a cross into the corner of the goal from the hosts’ first attack.
Despite conceding first, Arsenal continued to dominate the game. However, the resilience of Fulham’s back line and the duels won by the hosts made it difficult for the Gunners to create clear chances in the first half.
After a goalless first half from Arsenal, the situation changed at the start of the second half. William Saliba scored from a corner, his second goal from a similar situation in two consecutive games. Saliba managed to capitalize on a loose ball in the penalty box and ensured he was not offside.
The moment that almost brought Arsenal victory came at the end of the match, when Martinelli sent a cross which was finished well by Saka. However, VAR disallowed the goal because Martinelli was deemed offside in the build-up process.
Eight minutes of added time was not enough for Arsenal to score a third goal. They failed to break the deadlock despite dominating the game until the end.
Fulham held on for a draw despite Arsenal having 70% possession and peppering the hosts with six corners.
“It’s a shame we didn’t win it because I think we deserved to win it from start to finish,” said Arteta.
“We did pretty much everything we had to do to win it,” said Arteta.
“It’s the quality of the opponent and the league, so you can’t cry about it. In millimetres we could have been here with a really dominant win.”
The Cottagers have been a thorn in Arsenal’s side, beating them last season with a win at home and a draw at the Emirates.
“It’s never enough if you don’t score three, four or five goals. If they (the opposition) make 11 balls straight, I want to win 11 balls. We want to win 100%,” said the Spaniard.
Arteta defended his backline against Fulham when asked if they would have conceded an early goal to Jimenez had injured defender Gabriel Magalhaes been available.
“I can’t promise you with a different line-up it wouldn’t have happened. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opponent,” he said.
“We had to change the whole unit. That’s it, they were not available. We had to respond to that, and I’m very happy with the way they did it,” said Arteta, praising defender Jakub Kiwior who came on as a special replacement for the absent Gabriel.
