Player ratings: Fulham 1-1 Arsenal

Fulham earned yet another admirable result at Craven Cottage on Sunday, forcing title-challenging Arsenal to fight back from a goal down to earn a point against Marco Silva’s side. This leaves us unbeaten from a week that featured a run of games against Tottenham, Brighton and the Gunners – an extremely respectable effort. It doesn’t get any easier, however, with a trip to Anfield on the horizon next week.

Bernd Leno

Despite Arsenal being the best side in the world from set-pieces at the moment, I thought Leno dealt with them well. Granted, Arsenal’s goal and a glaring chance for Partey came from corners, but both deliveries went far too far over Leno’s head for him to consider claiming them. Bar those, he punched and caught crosses well all day. There were too important saves from the German in this one too. First, Saka had an angled effort saved by Leno at his front post. Then just after half time, Trossard manoeuvred a shooting opportunity from the left side of our box which was held on to well by our ‘keeper. 6.5/10

Kenny Tete

Started the game really positively, leading to his perfectly-timed pass down the channel into Raul resulting in the game’s opening goal. Defended really well against the Arsenal response for the remainder of the first half, tucking inside sometimes with the defensive support of Iwobi on his side. A crunching tackle from Trossard in the second half just after Arsenal had equalised summed up the way Tete plays, his last moment challenges and blocks vital to keeping Fulham level in the latter stages. 7/10

Issa Diop

If Joachim Andersen came back from injury tomorrow, I wouldn’t have him back in the team. That’s simply because of how good Issa Diop has been this season every time he has been called upon. I was particularly impressed here at how evident it was (with the benefit of watching on television) that Diop is a proper leader in the defence in the way he communicates and dictates to our defensive line. In the air he was sublime against an incredible opponent from a crossing perspective, especially from those dreaded set-pieces. 8.5/10.

Calvin Bassey

In the first half especially, Arsenal were trying a lot of through balls to Kai Havertz in between Bassey and Robinson, which Bassey was frequently first to, getting his body in front of the Germans and helping to ease any danger in that regard. Also made a huge interception in his own box five minutes from time to prevent the ball reaching Saka in an extremely promising shooting position. Bassey will be a huge miss at Anfield after reaching five yellow cards, fingers crossed Jorge Cuenca (who you assume will deputise) will fill his void well. 6.5/10

Antonee Robinson

What I love about Robinson is that the level of opponent does not unnerve him at all, he just wants to show off his ability to the world. It could be a National League winger or, as it was on Sunday, Bukayo Saka, and he’ll still show off his one-to-one defensive qualities against anyone. There cannot be a full-back in England at anticipating passes to their opposition winger the way Jedi does; he’s constantly getting his foot in first and looking to put his own team on the front foot in transition. His passing wasn’t the best today but I thought it was a game that magnified his defensive prowess magnificently. 7.5/10

Sander Berge

It’s saying something when you’re on a pitch with Martin Odegaard and Odegaard isn’t the best Norweigan midfielder on the park. Berge was absolutely monstrous in our midfield here, marshalling the gap between Arsenal’s midfield three and forward three incredibly well. Time after time he would make interceptions between the lines that almost make you forget Joao Palhinha ever existed in that position. His press resistance abilities are almost reminiscent of a certain Belgian midfielder from times gone by at the Cottage, muscling past multiple pressing Arsenal players at once on multiple occasions, in his own half no less. No player won possession more times (11), won more duels (eight) or made more tackles (six) than Berge in this game. He is well and truly settled in the black and white now. 9/10 – Man of the match

Sasa Lukic

Really like the partnership forming between Lukic and Berge and the freedom and fluidity it’s giving other cogs in this Fulham midfield. Having that extra balance is allowing a more advanced midfielder to press higher up the park and allows Lukic more freedom to cover every blade of grass and focus on ball progression as well as ball retention in midfield. He kept things ticking along nicely here on his return from suspension. 7/10

Emile Smith Rowe

Now I maintain that this is Smith Rowe’s best position and at times you could see the freedom he had to press higher but ultimately this was extremely underwhelming against his former side. When Fulham aren’t getting success on the ball, it feels like Emile is struggling to inspire any genius to get things rolling. For most of his hour on the pitch, he was largely anonymous on and off the ball, and this Fulham side can simply not carry under-performers in that scenario. He has so much quality, but for the fee we have paid for him, he needs to show it on a weekly basis rather than in random moments. 4.5/10

Adama Traore

Another who largely underwhelmed. Admittedly I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from Adama on the left. It’s obviously not his preferred side to play on, but it is a position that saw him have a lot of influence on the game at the Etihad where Fulham set up in a similar system to this one. He saw the ball a lot more than any other Fulham player in Arsenal’s half in the first half – it felt like anyway, and was sloppy on it far too often. When he did track back to get the ball deep, he kept pondering on the ball and giving it away in silly positions too. Not a great way to mark a return to the starting XI. 5/10

Alex Iwobi

As mentioned, Fulham set up similar to the way they did at the Etihad. This meant Iwobi having more responsibility at both ends of the pitch, often reverting to a right wing back out of possession. Although it prevented him from having any impact on the final third for most of the game, his support to Tete on the right side of defence was crucial while we had the lead. By the time Wilson came on and Iwobi reverted to the left wing and a more advanced position, Fulham weren’t threatening Arsenal enough for Iwobi to have any joy in front of goal. 6/10

Raul Jimenez

Could not have got off to a better start could he really? Raul’s first attempt on goal came off the back of a beautifully timed run down the right channel, followed by an exquisitely placed finish across David Raya into the far bottom right corner. He was industrious for the first half too, winning all seven of his duels and working hard for a team that, after his goal, did a hell of a lot of defending. Struggled to get any further opportunities as a result, but nice to see him already match his tally of goal contributions from last season as early as December this time round. 6.5/10

Substitutes

Andreas Pereira (60’ for Smith Rowe)

I thought this was a better cameo than the one against Brighton which yielded an assist, to be honest. He looked really lively and sharp, and within minutes of coming onto the pitch forced a good near post save from Raya after beating his man. Added intensity to our pressing that had previously been lacking. May have earned a start at Anfield. 7/10

Harry Wilson (60’ for Traore)

Feels strange not waxing lyrical about a Harry Wilson cameo off the bench but ultimately not much to wax lyrical about here. Hardly got himself on the ball for the half an hour he was on the pitch and didn’t offer the same defensive cover that Iwobi did to Tete. Maybe harsh to say, but were it not for VAR, his struggle to help close down Arsenal’s left wing cross may have contributed to us losing the game. 5.5/10

Rodrigo Muniz (79’ for Jimenez)

Much like at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Muniz showed no fear at throwing his body around, particularly in the air, and put fear into the opposition’s defence. He looked to win set pieces and hold the play up to give Fulham some control and calm as they looked to hold onto a point, which was important. 6/10

Jorge Cuenca (90+1’ for Lukic) on too late to be fairly assessed, but it’s fair to say he might have a huge part to play at Anfield next week.

Manager

Marco Silva

Ultimately a pragmatic approach, whether it was forced upon Fulham or part of Marco’s plan, won us a decent point in the end. Still not keep on going to a back five to see out games and still don’t like how often we’re conceding in the 45-60 minute mark, I just don’t know why those things continue to happen really but here we are. The changes from the Brighton game kept things fresh and continuing to play Berge and Lukic together acknowledges what most fans can see in that it offers far more balance to us, not just in the middle but to the team as a whole. Subs mostly worked well, especially in terms of Andreas. 7/10