Fulham 1-1 Arsenal

Fulham and Arsenal played out a 1-1 draw at a cold and wet Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon.

Raúl Jiménez’s clinical finish was the difference between the sides at half-time, before William Saliba restored parity from close range soon after the restart.

Bukayo Saka thought he’d snatched the points in the 88^th minute in front of a jubilant away end, but VAR spotted an offside in the build-up, to ensure the boys claimed the point that their disciplined performance merited.

There were four changes to the side that dispatched Brighton in midweek. Timothy Castagne, Harry Wilson, Rodrigo Muniz and the injured/ineligible Reiss Nelson all dropped out, with Kenny Tete, Adama Traoré, Raúl and Saša Lukić brought in.

Having scored Fulham’s first goal in this fixture last season, Raúl repeated the trick again in the 11^th minute, racing onto Tete’s perfectly weighted through ball and finishing low across David Raya from a tight angle.

Arsenal had enjoyed plenty of the ball up to that point and continued to dominate possession afterwards, too, but a dragged Declan Rice volley and a couple of corners didn’t cause Bernd Leno too much concern.

Saka got into a more dangerous position in the 38^th minute, but Leno was down quickly to push away his former teammate’s right footed strike, before a wicked delivery from the England winger was centimetres away from being tucked in by the stretching Rice.

An off-target Issa Diop volley in stoppage time proved to be only our second attempt of the half, but the boys deserved tremendous credit for their shape and discipline, frustrating the Gunners time and again.

Arsenal have won plenty of plaudits for their success from corners this season, and they had another in the 52^nd minute when Saliba poked in Kai Havertz’s knockdown from Rice’s delivery, with the centre-back remaining onside by the finest of margins.

That goal gave the visitors a confidence that we hadn’t seen in the first half, with Leandro Trossard and Havertz both working shooting opportunities, drawing a save from Leno and dragging wide, respectively.

Another excellent Rice corner presented danger with 20 to play, but Thomas Partey could only head wide.

A minute later substitute Andreas Pereira tried to catch Raya out at his near post after running half the length of the pitch to get on the end of Sander Berge’s excellent ball over the top, but the Arsenal goalkeeper stood his ground and made the save.

Fulham had defended manfully throughout, so Saka’s late header felt like an absolute knife to the gut, but we were handed a reprieve as his assister Gabriel Martinelli had strayed offside in the build-up.

It would have been cruel on the Whites, and so the VAR intervention made the point feel all the more satisfying.