Arsenal are held back despite playing better than people in the Premier League
Arsenal fans on Emirates on August 26 experienced too many emotions. They were worried when Fulham went ahead in the first minute, then exploded with joy when Arsenal scored twice in two minutes from 70 to 72 to take the lead. This joy increased when Fulham received a red card in the 83rd minute, then turned to disappointment when the home team was equalized just four minutes later. They also experienced a heart-stopping moment when Adama Traore rushed to eliminate William Saliba and then hit the corner to not beat Aaron Ramsdale in the face-to-face in stoppage time.
Not only lost three points, Arsenal also showed problems in defense. They have only kept four clean sheets out of 21 home matches in the Premier League since the beginning of last season. This is the worst number of the 17 teams participating in the tournament in the past two seasons, only after Fulham himself with three white-sheet matches.
Yesterday, with his name in the starting XI, Bukayo Saka made his 83rd consecutive Premier League appearance for Arsenal in the Premier League, since the match against West Brom in May 2021. This is the longest streak by any player for a club in the competition, overtaking Paul Merson's 1995-1997 record for Arsenal.
In the day that went down in Premier League history, Saka made a mistake at 55 seconds. The English midfielder passed the wrong home address to create conditions for Andreas Pereira to finish with one touch from outside the penalty area. The ball to fix Aaron Ramsdale's back was running back, and the English goalkeeper did not have time to react.
Arsenal have conceded a goal in the first minute in three of their last nine home matches at Emirates in the Premier League, against Bournemouth, Southampton and Fulham respectively. "Gunners" is the first club in Premier League history to receive this sad figure in a calendar year.
In the 70th minute, Saka made atonement to equalize the score. From the drop of Gabriel Martinelli, substitute Fabio Vieira entered the penalty area and was cut down by Kenny Tete, bringing home the penalty. On the 11m mark, Saka sank to the right corner, opposite the judgment of former teammate Bernd Leno.
A controversial situation took place two minutes later, when Arsenal still organized the ball even though a Fulham player was lying in the penalty area. From the right, Vieira stretched to Eddie Nketiah to cushion the corner to put Arsenal ahead. In the 83rd minute, Arsenal was even more competitive when Calvin Bassey stopped the ball with Nketiah and received a second yellow card.
It seemed that Arsenal would easily keep three points with home advantage and numbers. The surprise came in the 87th minute, when Harrison Reed took the corner to Joao Palhinha to kick Ramsdale's corner, silencing the Emirates bridge.
There were nine minutes of injury time in the game, but all Arsenal managed to do was Vieira's beautiful volley that was saved by Leno in the fourth minute of stoppage time. The result of a 2-2 draw made the "Gunners" break their winning streak from the beginning of the season, and ran badly before the great war with Man Utd on September 3.
