Mikel Arteta 'gutted' as Arsenal drop points away to Fulham

The Arsenal manager side effectively lost the Premier League title race by dropping five points against Fulham last season and their failure to win this match could prove just as costly.

They came back from a Raul Jimenez first half goal to equalise through William Saliba after the break and closed the gap on leaders Liverpool to six points.

The reality of that is Liverpool now have a game in hand and could easily restore a nine point gap at the top of the table.

Norwegian midfielder Martin Odegaard, captaining Arsenal for the 100th time, summed it all up pretty well afterwards when he said: “We dominated most of the game. The first half wasn't great. We were a bit sloppy and lacked energy and power. The second half was a lot better. It's frustrating.”

Pushed for his thoughts on the state of the title race, he added: “We have to focus on ourselves. We don't care about the other teams [in the title race]. It's a very long way to go. We've said hundreds of times we have to keep going game by game."

Arteta could not hide his frustration and disappointment as he also referenced a wafer-thin VAR offside decision that denied Bukayo Saka a later winning goal.

He said: “I am gutted that we didn’t win it, because I think we deserved to win from the beginning to the end. We did almost everything that we had to do to win it. But this is the quality of the opposition, with one chance they score a goal.

"And then the margins of the league as well. For millimetres we could have been sitting here with three points after a really strong and dominant performance against a really good team.

“We cannot feel sorry for ourselves. We have to stand up for ourselves. We had a really good performance against a really good side. Normally you don’t see these kind of games here. Now we have to continue to improve and look at what we can do better so that the opposition have zero chances to win the game. That’s the objective.

“We have good momentum and it was a really crucial moment for us to go for it. We certainly did. We certainly tried and we were so close to doing it. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to achieve it.”

Fulham coach Marco Silva explained how his side had been outplayed without ever feeling Arsenal were capable of creating many chances and that his players had shown great discipline and effort to keep Arteta’s in-form side relatively quiet.

He stated: "It's always tough when we play against Arsenal but they know it will be tough too. We create a difficult scenario for them. We have to be honest and fair. On the ball it was one of the games we had less time on the ball. We scored a very good goal. Second half was more difficult. The team has less energy.”

Arteta had issued more injury news with his line-up as Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori missed their second game this week and Olexsandr Zinchenko did not travel, picking up a problem in the midweek win over Manchester United.

Thomas Partey came in at right back and Jorginho covered for the Ghana international in midfield. It meant Arteta had to select a ninth different back four in only 15 games this season.

Fulham were pinned into their own half for the first ten minutes until a Kenny Tete through ball sprung Jimenez. Centre back Jakub Kiwior was caught in two minds and out of position as the Mexican striker ran clear to score with a low shot past David Raya. It was a quality finish from the Mexican forward but Arteta will have felt the chance should not have been allowed.

Perhaps William Saliba could have done more to get across and cover for his team-mate, too. Either way, Arsenal were behind in a match they had to win, and Fulham broke a 65-year-old club record by scoring for the 14th consecutive match. Long balls to Jimenez against Kiwior was a tactic worth pursuing.

Now Fulham had a lead to defend they could revert to their safety-first approach of defending deep and in numbers. It meant for a busy afternoon for former Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno as he fended off a series of crosses from open play, corners and free kicks.

Arsenal turned up the pressure going into half-time and they went up another level at the start of the second half. It was their fifth corner that resulted in a 52nd minute equaliser. Declan Rice pinged the ball to the far post where Kai Havertz found himself in space to head powerfully down and Saliba tapped the ball over the line.

Arsenal could and should have taken the lead from a 69th minute corner - their sixth - when an unmarked Partey headed wide with the goal at his mercy.

Then, just as it seemed Arsenal’s mission was doomed and Fulham’s dogged defending would be rewarded, Saka appeared to head in there winner until VAR and a hairline offside decision came to the home side's rescue.

Fulham: Leno 6, Tete 6, Diop 7, Bassey 6, Robinson 6, Berge 6, Lukic 6 (Cuenca 90), Adama 6 (Wilson 60), Smith Rowe 5 (Pereira 60) , Iwobi 6, Jimenez 7 (Muniz 80).

Subs not used: Benda, Castagne, Sessegnon, King, Godo.

Arsenal: Raya 6, Partey 6, Saliba 7, Kiwior 5, Timber 7, Odegaard 6 (Nwaneri 79), Jorginho 6 (Merino 73), Rice 6, Saka 7, Havertz 5 (Jesus 73), Trossard 5 (Martinelli 60).

Subs not used: Neto, Tierney, Lewis-Skelly, Heaven, Sterling.

Referee: Chris Kavanagh 5.

Attendance: 26,594.