Arsenal maintain perfect start after nervy win over Fulham

Look what it means! Arsenal's William Saliba celebrates Gabriel's goal after the Brazilian tapped in the winner against Fulham. It ended 2-1. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Arsenal maintained their perfect start to the season after surviving a rash Fulham scare at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

News broke out before kickoff that the Gunners will be without Thomas Partey and Alex Zinchenko due to injuries and both were replaced in the line up by Mohammed Elneny and Kieran Tierney respectively. Fulham remained unchanged from the team that beat Brentford last weekend.

Arsenal dominated the opening exchanges as expected; Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus both came close to scoring but former Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno stood firm in goal. Fulham didn’t offer much going forward in the first half but they stood firm in defense against the Gunners.

Arsenal fell behind for the first time this season when Gabriel Meghalaes fumbled on the ball while trying to play out from the back; Alexander Mitrovic picked his pocket and sent one past Aaron Ramsdale in the Arsenal goal.

Arsenal took only eight minutes to respond. Mikel Arteta sent on Eddie Nketiah in place of Tierney. The Gunners changed shape and Fulham were pegged back many times before Saka fed Martin Odegaard who saw his effort deflect past Leno.

Arsenal dominated from there but Fulham had a chance to score but were denied at point blank range by Ramsdale. Arsenal kept probing and it was the same defender that committed the error for the Fulham game that came back to help his team with the winner.

A corner from the left was fumbled by Leno, Saliba helped in to the path of Gabriel and the Brazilian defender atoned for his error with a simple tap in. Arsenal had to defend deep following Fulham’s response and Ramsdale was called upon again at the death but Arsenal held on for a famous win that saw them retain top spot at least for another game week.