By Geoff Pruce

João Palhinha marked his first start of the season with the Man of the Match award from Fulham’s trip to Arsenal.

A shoulder injury sustained in our first Summer Series encounter out in Philadelphia meant the midfielder missed opening day, but was back on the bench last week.

That sparked hope that we’d see him from the off at the Emirates, and thankfully that was the case, with Palhinha delivering the sort of performance which saw the Fulham faithful instantaneously take him to their hearts last season.

Winning big, big tackles all over the park, Palhinha was also forced to fill in at centre-back following the dismissal of Calvin Bassey, but it was at the other end of the pitch where he made the most telling impact.

Sneaking away from his marker, Palhinha ran onto Harrison Reed’s 87th minute corner and guided a perfect first time shot away from Aaron Ramsdale and inside the far post.

Joao Palhinha celebrates scoring against Arsenal

It prompted a classic João celebration as he sprinted towards a jubilant 3,000-strong away end, though he held back slightly when he reached them…

“What I wanted to do was jump into the stand!” João told FFCtv. “But I remembered the yellow card I received against Nottingham.

“I didn’t know [that was a bookable offence] when I did it, but I need to be careful because I don’t want more yellow cards, so I just tried to celebrate with our fans, because that’s always amazing.”

Palhinha was the comfortable winner of the Man of the Match vote, with more than two thirds (68.6%) of supporters opting for the Portuguese.

Raúl Jiménez worked his socks off up front and was unfortunate not to score a spectacular first for the Club, duly coming in second with 8.9%, ahead of the ever reliable Bernd Leno (7%).

Joao wins Man of the Match against Arsenal