In the final game of 2023, Fulham hosted Arsenal at Craven Cottage. With two losses, a draw and just one win in their last four matches, it was imperative that Mikel Arteta’s men bounced back and got a win.
The match started brilliantly. Gabriel Martinelli managed to make a yard for himself in the box and shoot. Bernd Leno could only spill the effort into the path of Bukayo Saka, who put the Gunners a goal ahead with the rebound.
However, that was all the joy Arsenal fans were going to get. The team did not play well after that and a well-worked but poorly defended Fulham move was finished off by Raúl Jiménez.
Then, after the break, it was the same old story as Arsenal conceded yet again from a corner. Until the final whistle, it looked more likely that Fulham would add a third than Arsenal equalise in what was a performance reminiscent of Arteta’s first year in charge.In the other two losses against Villa and West Ham, Arsenal were comfortably the better team, and while the results were disappointing, the performances weren’t. Against Fulham, both performance and result were very worrying.
Almost every Arsenal player had a bad game, and it really looked like the team was fatigued. There were still two decent performances, in my opinion.
Fulham FC vs. Arsenal FC, Premier League, Alex Pantling/Getty Images It wasn’t exactly Gabriel Magalhães’ best performance but he was the best defensive Arsenal player on the pitch.William Saliba and Declan Rice both had what was probably their worst performance this season but Big Gab was very solid.
Three blocks, two interceptions and three tackles—it could have been an even more sordid afternoon than it was without the big Brazilian.
I also liked his performance on the ball, as he tried to move the ball forward as much as was reasonable.
He has completely eradicated the error-prone and lunging-in side of his game and the team is so much better for it. He maybe should have cleared the corner that led to Fulham’s second-best, but he was good in a sea of bad.
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