Gabriel Magalhaes has been a hero from scratch as he redeemed Fulham with the winning goal to give them the lead and extended Arsenal’s perfect start to the Premier League season.
The Brazilian defender was trailed by Alexander Mitrovic, but the Gunners won 2-1 to retain the lead.
Mitrovic’s goal, his 100th at Fulham and his fourth goal of the season, is already more than he achieved throughout the relegation campaign two years ago, giving visitors hope to continue the unbeaten start to the season. I was.
Instead, after Martin Odegaard equalized with a deflected strike, Gabriel fixed the winners home five minutes after the end.
Mikel Arteta has been forced to make a line-up change for the first time this season after injured Tomas Parthi and Oleksandar Zinchenko were eliminated.
Granito Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli took chances early without testing former Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno. The hosts are on the same momentum as their win at Bournemouth last week.
However, unlike their win on the South Coast, the Gunners were unable to set the tone with a quick opening goal as Fulham kept them at bay.
Leno was not forced to take any meaningful action until after half an hour had passed, preventing Bukayo Saka’s strike, breaking Fulham’s offside trap and going one-on-one with his old teammate.
Arsenal have been very frustrated with Marco Silva’s players.
Gabriel Jesus could have done better if he had the chance. The home side looked set to kick in near the end of the first half. After Xhaka found him inside the penalty area, he fired a shot that was held back by Leno.
However, it was Fulham who broke the deadlock, with Gabriel catching Dudling on Mitrovic’s possession, who overwhelmed his marker and quietly slotted home.
Arteta responded by bringing in Eddie Nketiah to bring it back to three and paid the dividend immediately.
Audegaard, who had just scored a brace against the Cherries, equalized with a touch of luck as his shot deflected to Tocin Adalabioyo and past the lame Leno.
Fulham were still in the game and came close to regaining the lead. Aaron Ramsdale pushed off a towering Mitrović header before Ben White bravely blocked a Bobby Decodova-Reed follow-up.
As Arsenal geared up, Nketiah fired wide, shooting Leno straight out of a Martinelli cutback and fluffing his line with another decent chance.
Leno enjoyed his return to the Emirates Stadium, turning back Martinelli’s sharp-angled strikes to keep the home side out of trouble.
From the resulting corner kick, however, it was Gabriel who made amends for an earlier error by sticking a loose ball home after Leno failed to deal with a corner that fell at the Brazilian’s feet.
They survived two VAR checks, the first for a Leno foul and the second for a Gabriel handball, both of which were called out by Arsenal.
There was still time for Lumsdale to make a fine save and prevent Fulham substitute Nathaniel Chalobah from securing a draw, as Arteta’s team scored another three points.
