Positives and Negatives: Arsenal 2-1 Fulham

After the crushing blow of losing to Crystal Palace on the weekend, Arsenal away looked to be the best opportunity to brush the cobwebs away and reignite the fire in Fulham, as we still have so much to play for in the league. A lucky deflected goal for Mikel Merino, coupled with Bukayo Saka’s header off the bench after his return from injury, saw us dealt another blow in our chase for Europe. Here are the positives and negatives from our disappointing night at The Emirates.

Positives

He’s one of our own

What does Ryan Sessegnon need to do to earn another start in a Fulham shirt? His performance against Wolves was excellent, we all know what happened against Spurs, and this display against Arsenal brought healthy doses of aggression while never losing composure on the ball when working his way up the wing. Yes, his legs were fresh and he was coming up against more tired bodies in the final 15 minutes, however there is no denying that he looked like the only player who was really going to make something happen in the match, and that he did.

Making an excellent run while always maintaining control of the ball, Sess slipped a perfect pass into the path of Rodrigo Muniz for the centre forward to tuck away the consolation goal. Ryan has always been consistent when it comes to dribbling, passing and finishing, very understated and meticulous. With his body bulking up and strength evidently growing, he’s starting to look like a real handful for defenders to deal with, maybe even growing to be better than the younger player we keep harking back to in our fond Fulham memories. I’m excited to see this boy thrive and I’m ready for the new peak Sess era.

Silva’s super subs

In stark contrast to Marco Silva’s rash changes at the weekend against Crystal Palace, the subs that came on against Arsenal all looked calm and composed, with something different to offer in favour of their counterparts who came off.

Andreas Pereira already looked leaps and bounds above Emile Smith Rowe (again), bringing more energy and aggression onto the pitch. Alex Iwobi and Willian played some tidy football and the link-up play started to click more fruitfully. I’m a huge fan of Adama Traoré, but he proved to be in one of his more wasteful moods this evening with the shot-cross missing Raul Jiménez in acres of space by the penalty spot summing that up.

And of course there’s the aforementioned Sessegnon, and Muniz. Rodrigo missing the target with a glaring header from a well-delivered Iwobi cross was criminal, but he salvaged his reputation with a deflected finish late on. While albeit short-lived, Ryan was the star of the show in a Fulham shirt tonight.

Top 10 testament  

It might not feel like sunshine and rainbows given the significance of the results in the past week, but our victory against Spurs gave us some small breathing room to allow for a tough result here and there, if we’re looking to achieve a top ten finish. Like most Fulham fans, I still quietly dream of Europe, with the idea of continental football being very much a dream for the time being, however a top half finish is still very respectful given the wild journey we’ve been on during the Khan’s tenure. If we can get through Liverpool unscathed and still within reach of our ambitions, then that’s the toughest two fixtures out of the way and we can try to compete more strongly against the teams around us. It won’t be easy though, and I was really hoping for something more from this fixture.

Negatives

Fun for 30, same old story

“We played well for the first half an hour, but then…” sounds familiar? Tonight was the same old story for Fulham. A strong start that fills the heart of our fans with joy and hope, only to be sunk shortly after by a deflected goal. We look to the stats in hope of seeing some justification of our excitement only to find one measly shot on target in the first hour and Arsenal’s dominance growing into the game as we were pegged back. With a top-class centre back like Gabriel being taken off so early on and Jurrien Timber looking flakey, I really thought we would have an opportunity to take the game to Arsenal. 

It looked like we were set up to succeed, while the formation was a little defensive, you’d think having Traoré and Raul on the counter could be an effective outlet, but alas, we were wasteful and very Fulhamish with the passion coming far too late in the game.

Criminal how we’re not clinical

No one wants to go there, but let me take you back to Crystal Palace’s perfect execution of a counter attacking performance away from home in a big game. The Eagles were clinical; they looked dangerous at any point of asking and had a very clear direct gameplan.

Fast-forward to Tuesdat, and Fulham were giving the ball away for fun at times. Just before Arsenal’s winning goal, the usually eagle-eyed Andersen punts the ball into the path of the Arsenal attacker to set up the perfect counter-attacking goal against himself. We were woeful in possession for large parts of the game with the ball not sticking to Traoré as if it were oiled up like the man himself, who you would expect to run clear away from Timber’s last ditch challenge in the early stages of the game. We just didn’t know how to look after the ball with Issa Diop and even Sasa Lukic passing straight to the opposition with time to evaluate the options.

When we look at having to take chances, going back to that Muniz miss, can you really get away with that in the Premier League?

Players who didn’t cut it

Poor Timmy Castagne. How many crosses did we see coming over from the left-hand side, as Gabriel Martinelli had a field day. He couldn’t keep up with the pace despite his hard work rate, it was quite painful to watch at times with him literally being floored at one point.

Emile Smith Rowe looked like he was trying a little harder than usual, but that amounted to nothing meaningful. I’m desperate to see him make that clinical pass that cuts the opposition defense open, or that shot that the keeper just tips wide which looks really unlucky, I just don’t see any end product out of this guy and the safe passes backwards are tediously painful, he’s making Andreas look world class when he comes off the bench which is saying something.

Winning only one of six ground duels against the gunners, Sasa Lukic hasn’t returned from his two-match ban in a blaze of glory for me yet either. Don’t get me wrong I know how crucial he is for this Fulham side, but he seemed a little off the pace tonight. As mentioned earlier, Traoré just wasn’t explosive enough in the first half and didn’t seem to show any end product… again.

It really feels like our season is slipping away from us and it’s remarkable how the mood around camp can change in the space of four days. The wider question is, what implications will our final position in the table have on the likes of key personnel such as Marco Silva and Antonee Robinson? If we don’t make Europe, you have to wonder who is going to stay, and with Liverpool looming it makes results like this one that little bit more painful, but this is football, and our history is full of great comebacks. Let’s not forget this was a solid Arsenal side we were facing, and there are another eight games for us to show what we’re made of.