For a while, Arsenal’s visit to Fulham on Sunday brought a shuddering sense of deja vu.
The league leaders’ last visit to Craven Cottage came during the sterile era of football in September 2020, when promoted Fulham suffered a similar home defeat — it included Gabriel scoring a header inside the six-yard box and ended as a 3-0 rout.
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Thankfully, that’s where the similarities end.
Fulham are an improved outfit these days, and evidence of that sat on the back row of the Craven Cottage balcony, adjacent to Willian and near Shahid Khan, the Succession actor Brian Cox and Mick Jagger.
That’s not where Fulham needed their talisman though.
Joao Palhinha was suspended and his absence loomed over this contest. Marco Silva’s side have taken no points in the three games he has not been in the team, conceding 10 goals along the way — more than a quarter of their league total for the season.
There is no doubt about his influence as a tour de force in midfield who possesses unique characteristics. It is not only that his tackling transforms Fulham’s play (no player has made more tackles in this season’s Premier League), but he makes other players look better too. He shields the back four and provides insurance for Andreas Pereira and Aleksandar Mitrovic in attack. Without him, Fulham are not the same team and they missed him against Arsenal. Even if Silva avoided saying so.
“It would be the easiest way for me to analyse the game,” the Fulham head coach said. “It’s our reality. The players on the pitch had all the conditions and ability to do much better.”
Arsenal took full advantage of Fulham’s midfield hole. They steamrolled them, providing slick, high-tempo passing that turned Fulham’s resistance into a non-entity. They frequently created overloads, with Oleksandr Zinchenko joining the party from left-back while Gabriel Martinelli or Bukayo Saka drifted into those areas whenever they fancied.
“We were on the pitch but, at certain moments, it looked like we weren’t,” Silva said. “Too soft, not brave enough, off the ball completely not aggressive and we let them play in the way that they wanted. We didn’t disturb them. We did 50 per cent of the work we should have done.”
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Aggression and bravery are what Palhinha brings to this Fulham team. Yet, he cannot apply those attributes on behalf of his team-mates.
For all Arsenal’s excellent play, this was still a team that had travelled to Lisbon on Thursday night and Fulham’s defending made it look like they had enjoyed two weeks to prepare. “Three good goals?” queried Silva when that was put to him by a reporter. “We were soft in all of them, in all of the first half. Credit to Arsenal. They deserved the three points. But the first goal, second goal and the third goal were completely our fault.”
There is no denying that.
For the first, Gabriel forces his way onto the edge of the six-yard box and beats four defenders in the air. The second rounds off a stunning passage of play from Arsenal but also a stunningly poor press from Fulham, and ends with Martinelli — all 5ft 8in (172cm) of him — beating Robinson at the back post. The third goal begins with a terrible throw-in from Kenny Tete, which Thomas Partey claims before Leandro Trossard again finds a player at the back post; Martin Odegaard evades Antonee Robinson, takes four touches unopposed and then scores.
Game over.
At half-time, Silva told his players to “wake up” and they did, creating good chances and being denied by the crossbar and Aaron Ramsdale. They had two shots in the first half but managed 10 in the second. “At least we expressed more of ourselves on the pitch second half,” Silva said.
Game state plays a part in that — Arsenal did not need to attack with the same gusto — but it showed that the XI on the pitch, despite being without Palhinha, could still compete. Like in the 4-1 home defeat by Newcastle — in which Fulham were without Palhinha and then also down to 10 men — Silva’s team did not need to be so open and so limp. The goals conceded were a product of poor defending.
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Every team is allowed a dip in form and this result had been coming. There can be no overlooking the other absences too. Willian has not missed a league game since October and Tom Cairney’s unavailability is hurting Fulham’s ability to change matches mid-game. He may start most games on the bench but he has made a significant impact this season. He is in individual training, and it is hoped he could return to join the group next week before the FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United.
In a way, it is good to wash out a performance like this before a contest that puts the team 90 minutes away from Wembley. Palhinha will be back for Sunday’s game, too.
After that, Fulham can reset during the international break. February into March was always likely to be tricky, but eight points from matches against Chelsea, Nottingham Forest, Brighton, Wolves, Brentford and Arsenal is not a bad return.
From April, Fulham have only three matches left against teams currently above them in the table. It is a chance to go again and put this blip behind them.
(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
