Trossard the master creator as Arsenal play Fulham off the park

Fulham 0 Arsenal 3   
Premier League   
Sunday 12th March 2023 2pm 

At times yesterday, Arsenal’s play was the stuff of champions. One thing beyond dispute. The levels they can achieve at their best are good enough to hold off Manchester City, but whether or not these can be maintained until the season’s end is what is up for debate now. It would take a substantial collapse for the Gunners to finish outside of the top two with Manchester United dropping two points yesterday, and the hope is that the blip suffered at the start of last month is the last such run we will see from Mikel Arteta’s team during the current campaign.

 

Fulham have proven a difficult side to beat this season, and their form since the mid-winter break has taken them to within touching distance of European qualification. So everyone expected a far tougher Sunday afternoon than we witnessed. And in terms of the players’ mental reserves, it was surely a blessing to play this kind of game. All done by half-time, pressure off. In different ways, the twists and turns of the Bournemouth and Porto matches would have been draining, to say nothing of the fact that Arsenal flew to Portugal and back while Fulham could focus on preparation for this game. So it was highly encouraging to see a half of such dominant football from the away team, in which the margin between the sides could have been even bigger. 

 

Arsenal did not start like a train, but once they took control, it was one way traffic until the referee blew up for half time. Six of the players that began on Thursday in Lisbon also started here, and of the other five in the eleven, two had come on as subs against Sporting. Trossard was fit again, and after being rested Ramsdale and Odegaard were back to give Arsenal a full-strength feel, with the exception of Gabriel Jesus, who was to see a welcome return to action later on as a sub. It must be said that the bench was as strong as it has looked this season, the only player you might make a case for being on it that wasn’t being the injured Nketiah. Mo Elneny has slipped down the pecking order with the signing of Jorginho. The first leg result against Sporting means Arteta will need to play some players more than he’d have wanted to next Thursday, but at least the next two matches are at home, and the trip to Fulham wouldn’t have taken anything out of them. So it’s manageable, and were no signs of fatigue on the pitch at the newly renovated Craven Cottage, even if it seems to be taking an eternity to get their new riverside stand completed, with sections of the upper tier still vacant. 

 

As for the goals, it was the Leandro Trossard show, all three provided by his assists. A VAR determined offside saved Fulham’s left-back Robinson his blushes after he scored an own goal, but it was a taste of things to come as the ball returned to the net soon enough. Trossard’s corner was headed in by Gabriel for a real old school type of goal before the game was a quarter of the way through, and only five minutes later an easy close in header for Martinelli doubled the advantage. What Robinson, his marker was doing is another question, but he certainly wasn’t providing any kind of obstacle. It culminated a stunning passing move playing from the back. In first half injury time a Fulham throw across the middle was intercepted and the break that followed saw Trossard pick out Odegaard to finish sweetly. Game over. 

 

Yes, Arsenal could have scored more in both halves, but in the name of balance, Fulham created more danger themselves after a half-time gee up from Marco Silva, hitting the bar amongst other chances. You never felt that the result was at risk though, and that if a further goal were required, the visitors could move up a gear to find it. The brightest spark for them in the second half was the 15 minutes that Jesus got at the end of the match, and he was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet himself, foiled by ex-Gunner Bernd Leno.

 

The most striking thing about this display was how much better than a decent Fulham side Arsenal looked. At times their movement and passing was reminiscent of Pep-era Barca in the way their opponents were chasing shadows and indeed with the individual skill to beat a marker – as the forwards ably demonstrated. If you look back at recent performances, we have seen character building comebacks, winning points from unlikely situations (Villa and Bournemouth), grinding out wins when not in flowing football mode (Leicester), routine wins (Everton) and now a football masterclass. It’s a healthy mix and title winning sides need to be able to win in a variety of ways. And the photo with the clock in the dressing room after the game was indicative of the spirit of the collective, which – with the addition of experience – has gone a long way to making this season so very different from the two before. 

 

People talk about Arsenal going eight points clear of Manchester City if they can beat Palace next weekend. And that would be very useful indeed. However, let’s just say that the Gunners lose when they visit the Etihad on 21st April. So, reduce that to five points, City having played a game less. The bookies have Arsenal as favourites and while they are good enough to be champions, based on the 27 matches played so far, they are in unchartered territory. The approach of taking each game as it comes is the right one, because mentally, it’s enough. Don’t even talk about titles until May. Can they do it? Yes. Will they do it? Maybe. Based on what we’ve seen over the last five seasons, one thing that can happen is Guardiola’s team not dropping a point between now and the season’s conclusion – because that’s exactly what they have done to hold off Liverpool on two occasions. At least that is my memory of events. And if that happens again, they will be champions in my opinion. The hope is of course that Arsenal avoid defeat against them and that City do drop points elsewhere. 

 

But one thing football has taught me is to assume nothing. Arsenal really should have won the title in 1998-99 and 2002-03, but they didn’t. They shouldn’t have imploded in quite such dramatic fashion in 2007-08 but they did. The bigger picture here is that Arteta has found a winning formula and that there is a foundation for the club to return to competing for the big trophies, something that hasn’t been the case for too long. And the victory over Fulham was a signifier of brighter times ahead – because teams now fear Arsenal. More strengthening will be needed in the summer to move up a gear in terms of relying too much on certain players – an injury to either centre-back would weaken the team, for example. There were some games when the team were unable to compensate for the absence of Jesus. It’s still very much a work in progress but there is every reason for optimism, and if they could win the league this season, there can be no debate that they are way ahead of schedule. But for now, we wait, watch and bite nails when the games are closer than yesterday’s walk in the park. And that will surely be the case next weekend when Patrick Vieira brings his side to north London.

 

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