It still feels like it’s early in the season and too soon to be making definitive statements and yet, despite that, our chances of an elusive Premier League title look like they’ve slipped away.
That might sound like hyperbole, like there’s still so many points to be won and lost, but the size of Liverpool’s lead and the momentum they have are verging on insurmountable, if it hasn’t already crossed beyond the point of return.
A draw at Craven Cottage on Sunday wasn’t a disaster by any means, at least the performance was decent enough. They were ambitious, the passing was good, movement fine, even the defending was solid despite the crazy number of injuries the squad is having to absorb at the moment.
But Fulham had a half a sniff and they took it. That was all it needed; one ball, one shot, one goal and one point. Arsenal, for all their intent and dominance, simply don’t have that same ruthless edge, they don’t have a player capable of turning the merest hint of a chance into a goal. It cost them last season and it’s going to cost them again this time around.
Thomas Partey from three yards out again, Gabriel Jesus inexplicably when through on goal, and Kai Havertz with a feeble shot from 10 yards when well placed. They were good chances all and the sort of chances that must go in if you’re going to get past tricky opponents away from home.
But none of them went in. For all those chances, for all the dominance, we came away with just a point and a goal for our efforts. It wasn’t enough tonight and it hasn’t been enough on more than a few occasions this season.
And, look, we might have snatched it late on through Bukayo Saka and we’d all be sighing with relief at a big win tonight. But VAR once again proved our nemesis and the win was denied. Infuriating though that was, it shouldn’t have gotten to that stage. The game should have been won long before.
Given Manchester City’s capitulation this season and the gap that left for a new challenger to emerge, it feels extra tough.
Mikel Arteta and his side will keep going, of that I’m certain, but they’ll know how difficult it looks from here. He can’t legislate for some of the misses we’ve seen from some of these players so far in this campaign but his failure to recruit sufficiently up front and in support of our wide players looks more egregious with every result that slips away from us.
If there’s any consolation, it’s in the fixtures coming thick and fast from here. We’re still in a lot of competitions and there’s lots more still to fight for in this campaign. But the Fulham game was a hefty blow and a warning sign of how things might get away from us if we don’t start putting our chances away.
It should also sound alarm bells for the manager with January around the corner. There’s no doubt in my mind, we need to accelerate any plans we may have had in the transfer market because we’re looking very thin on the ground at the moment.
If we’re looking for positives from the game, something a bit cheerier on which to end, we can at least say we were by far the better team and really should have won. Fulham offered absolutely nothing after their goal because we didn’t allow them anything. They were utterly suffocated and came away with a point not by their own endeavours but by our misfortune.
Saka, as usual, was excellent, and there were positive performances from Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard too. There was also much to enjoy about the continued chaos of our set pieces which now seem to be inevitable, and that’s despite Partey’s insistence on squandering them too.
But, despite all that, a bitter taste remains. This was an opportunity at last to put some pressure on Liverpool and we let it drift away. Dominate we may well have done but we don’t have the points to show for it.
That’s all the matters.
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