I wrote in the lead up to this match about how nice it might be if Arsenal dispensed with the stupid mistakes and actually produced a clean sheet at home.
They contrived to do the exact opposite, however, and gifted the visitors not one but two goals and a share of the spoils they had absolutely no right to.
It’s not the first time this sloppiness at the Emirates has cost us and, even at this early stage of the season, it feels like a bitter pill to swallow – especially as Fulham had offered precious little in the match. Mikel Arteta must find the root of this issue we seem to have at home and really get a grip on it because it arguably cost us the league title last season and has already put us behind in this campaign.
What makes it worse is that we had managed to recover from being a goal down to deservedly take the lead and, with Fulham reduced to 10 men, the simple task of seeing the match out was all we needed to do. Nothing fancy was required, simply making our numerical advantage count.
In that simple task, we failed badly.
For all that would later transpire, I can’t help but feel that the tone was set from before the first whistle when Arteta opted to persist with Thomas Partey at right back, while Gabriel remained on the bench. It’s an experiment that has sort-of worked against teams that sit deep but Fulham under Marco Silva are not that sort of side and persisting with it as the manager did felt foolish.
It was no surprise then, that Fulham’s first goal came because Partey had tucked into midfield and left the entire right side of our defence badly exposed. He couldn’t have legislated for Bukayo Saka’s mistake of course but the oceans of space where the Ghanian should have been was ruthlessly exploited.
Predictably, with the lead under their belts, Fulham dropped off and Arsenal settled into chasing the game. And while they did create some good chances, the first-half will be remembered more for the sheer volume of sloppy and misplaced passes from the Gunners. Everything Fulham were able to create in that first half came because we were simply sloppy on the ball.
Leandro Trossard had been preferred to Eddie Nketiah in attack and it’s fair to say the Belgian did not have a good half. He struggled to get the sort of service in the areas that work for him and, when he did, the ball seemed to escape his control.
Unsurprisingly, he was switched for Nketiah at the break and, when Partey and Havertz were replaced with Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira scarcely 10 minutes into the second period, it was clear the manager had realised his error. The Spaniard rarely makes such a large volume of substitutions so early in a match and it was extremely telling that he did so on this occasion.
Credit to him, both substitutions made a big impact on the match as Arsenal poured forward relentlessly in the rain, with Vieira winning a penalty – duly dispatched by Saka – and then turning provider for Nkeitah to drill home in the 73rd minute.
With the lead established, the manager tried to make the game safe with some defensive substitutions, and, when the visitors were reduced to 10, it felt like their race was run. But, with this Arsenal side playing the way it is at home, you just can’t be certain.
Fulham had no right to get hold of the ball where they did, deep in our half, and no right to win a corner. We should have had the ball comfortably in our possession and passed them to death over the final 10 minutes or so but that simple ask was ignored.
We handed them a way back into the game and, credit to them, they made the absolutely most of it. They managed three shots on target and two of those resulted in goals. We managed two from 11.
The equaliser was a dagger to the heart and deflated the atmosphere around the ground in an instant. It felt like hope died after that. We had a few half-chances to snatch the lead again but it was a task that was ultimately beyond us.
This is a good Arsenal side, make no mistake about it, and they hammered Fulham for pretty much 100 minutes in this game. They created plenty, they played with intent and intensity and did so many of the things we want to see them do.
However, there remains a flaw in this side that, all too often, makes them their own worst enemy. Wins are so rarely straightforward that I genuinely wonder if this side shoots itself in the foot on purpose, to make it more of a challenge.
Arteta and his team need to sit down and half a serious rethink about what it is we’re doing at home because we need to be killing teams long before the final quarter of a match, not desperately trying to find equalisers or hold on.
This was a bad day. We have a point to show for it at least but the complacency we’ve shown again here needs to be consigned to the bin for good and all if we’re seriously pushing for the Premier League title this season.
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