Arsenal run rampant in first-half thrashing at the Emirates

Gyokeres and Saka earn 3-0 win over floundering Fulham

If scientists are looking for the cause of the next pandemic, they should take a visit to Motspur Park, where reports of sickness overshadowed Fulham’s dismal visit to North London. Hyperbole, of course, but the result remains the same - Arsenal dismantled Fulham in a devastating first half, in which the return of Bukayo Saka prompted three goals, one from the England man and two for teammate Gyokeres. For Mikel Arteta, a brilliant result in their quest to win the Premier League - for Marco Silva, another setback in pursuit of Europe, and a reminder of how wide the gap is between Fulham and the very best in the league.

First Half

A bout of illness, an injury list creeping up by the game, a visit to the league leaders, what could go wrong? Reed arrived for the unwell Berge and was hurt within minutes of action, catching a stray boot from opposition squad player Miles Lewis-Skelly. It set the tone for the half - Arsenal consumed the pitch, prowling around in search of the ball and seldom giving Fulham a moment’s peace on the ball. Of all the games for Reed to come back, this was the wrong one - he couldn’t disrupt Arsenal’s consolidation on the ball, he couldn’t take Fulham forward and collectively he, Lukic and the forwards slunk into submission, barely able to probe Arsenal’s half.

You couldn’t create more favourable conditions for Arsenal at this point in time. With a massive Champions League semi-final midweek and the title race likely to go down to the wire, a comfortable start against a passive opponent was ideal for Arsenal’s stretched squad. Rice was a stalwart and cruised around the pitch intercepting play. With purpose, he carried it forward, for the creative talents of Trossard, Eze and the rejuvenated Bukayo Saka to ping around our half. Lewis-Skelly had a solid start - pinching the ball off the wayward Reed, he worked it to Trossard in the box, who jaunted away from Castagne and drilled a shot narrowly wide of the right post.

The pressure didn’t take long to topple Fulham’s defence. A free kick in our half saw Rice, viewing our defence camped around the box, play a short routine with Lewis-Skelly. He moved it wide to Saka, in a pocket of space on the wing - with Raul as his opponent, the starman dragged the striker to the box before turning skilfully, felling Jimenez in the process. Unopposed, he moved to the sideline and played the ball across the box, for certified poacher Gyokeres to tap into the gaping net. It was a painful watch, and one wonders why a world class winger is given a not-that-fast striker as his marker, but it demonstrated Arsenal’s motives in the game.

They were enjoying their football, Trossard firing a shot just wide of goal from outside the box, Rice pumping balls into the box for Leno to flap away, Gabriel bullying Raul off the ball and Eze earning Lukic a yellow card for a petulant retaliation. Saka had Robinson in his crosshairs, pulling the strings down our left and winning a corner - Leno rode his luck as Gabriel’s header travelled straight into him and only escaped the goalmouth scrambled after Reed kicked it away, and did so moments later as from a long ball the Brazilian forced a spill under his pressure, Gyokeres firing the shot straight into his body and Saka slicing the second rebound wide of the goal. We were falling to pieces, and Arsenal had the ball in the net again - another Saka corner led to Rice and Saka constructing more clever interplay along the left, Eze smacking a shot into the crowd before Trossard, again too nimble for the Fulham defence, lifting a ball for Calafiori to head beyond a diving Leno. VAR proved a better defender than ours, and chalked the goal off with a marginal offside.

For a moment, it looked as though the reprieve might have boosted the players’ morale. After 30 minutes we finally strung some passes together in Arsenal territory, Reed and Lukic at last getting on the ball and forcing Arsenal to commit to defending. Another team might have prized open the cracks: Ben White stumbling around at right back, Calafiori miscommunicating with Raya in the box, even put the pressure on the ever-present Rice and his junior partner Lewis-Skelly. But it never quite came to fruition, with Wilson having a wretched touch across the game, Raul pushed into the shadows by Gabriel and Robinson’s radar completely off for the scant crosses he attempted. Smith Rowe’s energetic runs at defence went by in vain.

And sure enough, Arsenal didn’t take long to regroup and take advantage of the additional space our ventures forward opened up. Some dithering in midfield let Eze fire a killer ball through the pitch, curled into Gyokeres leading the line. He cleverly dragged Andersen away from the box, and slipped a ball past a dawdling Robinson to Saka, moving away from the wings to the centre. Gliding into the box, Saka thundered a shot into the bottom right corner, far too well-placed for Leno’s dive, and the lead was doubled.

It felt like the game was over - the nerves Arsenal might have endured with a slender lead dissipated, and the fun returned to their football. Our nightmares at the back continued, another short free-kick leading to Saka manipulating Robinson again, playing Calafiori into our open left flank of the box - Saliba lifted the ball marginally too high for his teammates to turn it in. Our half was Arsenal’s plaything - Eze, in acres of space, cruised into position and fired another long-shot marginally wide. And, as the game appeared to be winding down for half-time, a thoughtless Wilson press let Arsenal move the ball into Trossard, who had the freedom of the Emirates along our right. With Castagne scrambling back, he bounded into the box, beating his compatriot and lofted a ball into the reach of Gyokeres, who leapt impressively over Bassey to loop a header over Leno. The lead was three - Fulham were in disarray.

Second Half

Where do you go from such a pitiful first half? Arsenal had everything they wanted: goals, confidence and an opportunity to play the rest of the game in energy-conservation mode, duly substituting top performer Saka for Noni Madueke. It might have been a chance for Fulham to roll the dice too, but Marco’s numbers have thinned in recent weeks and we opted to save our cards for later. Perhaps a half-time rollicking would inspire a superlative comeback?

It didn’t seem likely, even if Fulham managed to get on the ball a little at the start of the half. Arsenal are a team built with a steel spine, and were all too happy to let us skip around 40 metres away from goal, swatting us away if we dared venture closer. Jimenez, perhaps fed up of watching Gyokeres score for fun, blasted a shot from distance - it wasn’t close, but the paucity of opportunities for Fulham livened things up at least. Certainly it shook things up for Arsenal, as a Smith Rowe pass to Robinson produced a cross that Saliba awkwardly skewed over his own crossbar, producing a couple of corners and off-target headers for Castagne and Jimenez.

But Arsenal are a very strong side, and just as in the first half were soon in control of the game again through their physical domination of the pitch. We didn’t have the capacity to maintain the pressure on Arsenal, not least through the chasm in the scoreline, and with Madueke on the pitch had a quick option to push play back into Fulham territory. Their turnovers were alarming - one saw Gyokeres slipped through the backline by Trossard, dispatched into the box - Leno was more alert than our centre-backs and stormed off the line to rush Gyokeres’ finish, blocking the shot. A horrid piece of defending from Robinson let Madueke outwrestle him and win a free kick on the edge of the box, leading to a Trossard volley Leno caught well.

After watching Robinson hit yet another cross into an Arsenal player, Fulham made their first chances - Cairney, King and Bobb arrived for Reed, Chuwkueze and Wilson. It was a fresher set of attackers, and with the impressive Rice and Gyokeres taken off for Zubimendi and Jesus at least gave Fulham a bit of energy to take to an Arsenal side hoping to coast through the rest of the game. King’s usual tenacity let him fizz around productively, drawing Raya into a rushed goal kick before winning free kicks against Madueke and Zubimendi. The former produced a couple of shots from Jimenez and Cairney that bounded into the wall, before head-tennis from the corner led to Castagne pumping a close-range volley that Raya needed to react quickly to repel.

But even this was short-lived - a Bassey pass through to Smith Rowe saw him drill a shot into the left side-netting before injuring himself. It’s such a cruel coincidence that on his return to the Emirates yet another injury hit the man, especially on a day he was better than most of his teammates on. Kusi-Asare arrived for him and what little interplay we’d fostered disintegrated - indeed, with Arsenal taking the opportunity to introduce teen sensation Max Dowman, our loanee spent more time tracking back to try and smother Arsenal’s late lease of life. Dowman had a fun cameo, bullying Cairney off the ball in one move and taking play from the halfway line to our box in another - the shot, on another day, might have given him another golden moment at home. Only disappointment remained for Fulham, as even our late chances couldn’t come to fruition - King surging into space behind Calafiori couldn’t even produce a shot, as his cut-across scuffed off his feet and couldn’t reach the three teammates to his left. A poor conclusion to a poor day out for Marco’s men.

Arsenal - Champions of England?

We’ll start with Arsenal, because they were the active force in the game and dictated the course of the afternoon. It’s not unreasonable to say that if they’d had a fully-fit Bukayo Saka for the entirety of the season, they’d have won the league by now. The man is sensational - the work down their left today are the clips you see in compilation videos or highlights packages, and much to the chagrin of Robinson, Raul, and whomever else was unfortunate enough to try and stop him he wanted nothing but to the put the sword to us inside a single half. The goal was the pinnacle, but his presence alone lifts his team, and turns a good Arsenal attack into a great one.

It’s no surprise he brought the rest of the team together, too. Gyokeres was intimidating and ravenous, demanding the ball and barrelling it into danger when he got it. Two goals from close-range and a really nifty assist, alongside dozens of gruelling contests against Andersen and Bassey - it makes Raul’s afternoon pale in comparison. Eze was very cool in the middle, and he and Trossard could enjoy the focus switching back to Saka with the additional space they received.

Lewis-Skelly and Rice proved far too much for us to handle, moving fluidly and tenaciously through the middle - the ground they covered, combined with the expansiveness and vision of their passing, subdued Fulham for most of the game. Behind them, the back four was a wall - only speculative long shots and the occasion pot-luck effort from a goalmouth scramble came close to troubling Raya. It is remarkable how Jimenez, a man considerably over six feet tall, can look so small when Gabriel breathes down his neck. A great step towards the title for Arsenal, with the pressure firmly back on City to win their games in hand and score enough to match their goal difference, and minds can turn to the continent, where a similar performance against Atletico will put Arsenal in with a chance of a European double.

A Plague Upon Fulham

Further down the table lie Fulham, beaten again. I don’t think there are many who would seriously have made us favourites to upset Arsenal today, but given the timing of this game a stronger performance could have earnt us a point - even three - against a side playing a great many games in a high-pressure situation. We absolutely had the air of a team without the energy to make a game of things, and Arsenal need no invitation to outmuscle an opponent.

Even so, there should be criticisms. Cairney is criticised for not having the legs to play in the Premier League but Reed had a really poor return to the side, and looked limited on and off the ball in the middle. Lukic was stuck far deeper on the pitch and couldn’t join the attack in the way he did against Aston Villa, arguably riding his luck with a pull on Lewis-Skelly whilst on a booking in the second-half. Smith Rowe gets a lot of ire but I don’t feel he was the main culprit today and indeed had a few productive runs, particularly when we made changes and hand more energy in the second half. Conversely, Wilson was dire - his explosive energy was spent very early on, and Calafiori seldom looked stressed against the Welshman. Chukwueze may wonder whether he’ll get the chance to play in his preferred RW position given his teammate’s loss of form.

Speaking of losses, Sessegnon was a huge absence for us - after such a brilliant game last weekend, Robinson’s return felt like a step backwards, which is a sentence that would have been astounding to write not long ago. It was horrendous timing - Saka devoured the left-back with his guile, and Madueke blasted past him with his pace. One wonders whether we’ll be seeing some Roberto Carlos-esque action at the World Cup, because the loss of form has plagued the majority of his season at this point and Arsenal completely exploited his weakness. Bassey outperformed Andersen again, who looked feeble and brittle next to Arsenal’s attackers, and though Castagne was better than his American counterpart on the pitch (and had a vacant Wilson offering non-existent cover Trossard had no shortage of opportunities dinking around our right. Leno made some good saves and would have hoped for more upon his return to the Emirates.

What does this mean for the rest of the season? Brentford’s win certainly doesn’t help our European dreams, but the toughest game of the month is already beyond us now. Far more important for our priorities now is our home game against Bournemouth, a team just as involved in the race for qualification as us. One can only hope trust is placed in King, who showed more in a few minutes than several players managed in over an hour and may need to cover for Smith Rowe. One also hopes the fitness and health of the players clears enough for one last push towards the coveted places. Failure to do so may spell the death of our aspirations - let us hope this miserable afternoon was a blip against a very good side aiming for glory.