EPL: Fulham return to Arsenal with 1 point to prove

The Premier League can be cruel and if any team has ever suffered its cruelty more than any other, it has to be Arsenal as they are once again halted from going on a perfect run in the league against London neighbors, Fulham.

The weekend game was a high end fixture that started with Arsenal going down within the first minute via a loose pass by Thomas Partey that was capitalized by Fulham’s Andrea Pereira for the lead.

From the second minute on, Arsenal took the game on with a full on press and attack against the visitors, with Kai Havertz closest to leveling the Gunners up in the first half via a crucial chance created by Bukayo Saka.

The Cottagers on their end, maintained a defensive formation that rendered whatever Arsenal threw at them void, as former Arsenal man, Bernd Leno returning to the Emirates with a point to prove in goal for his new side.

However, a return to the Emirates wasn’t going to be the perfect story for the former Arsenal goalie as the introduction of Fabio Viera ruined a perfect game for Leno as minutes into his substitution into the game, Vieira forced a penalty against Fulham to gift Arsenal the equalizer via Bukayo Saka.

Fabio Vieira also played a hand in Arsenal’s second goal which could have been winner with an instrumental pass to Eddie Nketiah to put the Gunners up ahead in the 73rd minute.

The game looked to be won after Nigeria’s Calvin Bassey committed a tactical foul to stop an Arsenal counter attack to leave Fulham down to 10 men.

But as premier league tales have gone for Arsenal, it wasn’t to be the happy ending for Mikel Arteta’s men as a poor clearance by Oleksandr Zinchenko resulted in a corner minutes into Full time.

The set piece was converted by Fulham’s Palinha in what would be his first goal of the season for the cottagers to leave Arsenal counting their losses.

A hundred percent start to the season goes begging as Arsenal drop 2 points in the title.