A VAR screen announcing Arsenal's disallowed goal at Fulham
Arsenal had a late winner at Fulham disallowed for offside
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta rued the "unbelievable" small margins that kept his Gunners side from victory at Fulham.
Arteta's side went to West London knowing they had a chance to close the gap to Liverpool to just four points after Saturday's Merseyside Derby was postponed. They were only able to claim a draw, though, making it three games without a victory against Marco Silva's men.
After an early opener from Raul Jimenez, Arsenal benefited from a tight offside call as William Saliba stayed just the right side of the line to equalise. Those narrow margins went against the Gunners late on, though, with Gabriel Martinelli straying offside before setting up Bukayo Saka for what looked like being a winner.
Arsenal end the weekend six points behind Liverpool, having played a game more, though they remain two clear of last season's champions Manchester City. Arteta was pleased with his team's reaction to going behind in the first half, but his frustrations were clear.
Martin Odegaard makes blunt title race assessment after Arsenal stumble at Fulham
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Gabriel Martinelli warned of Mikel Arteta reaction after 'criminal' moment in Fulham draw](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-fulham-gabriel-martinelli-arteta-34273480)
"Very disappointed not to win the game," Arteta told Match of the Day. "Overall we absolutely dominated the game from start to end, we did all the things that we wanted to do during the game and unfortunately we concede one goal in one shot but the way the team played, the way the team wanted to win, it was unbelievable and very unfortunate for millimetres to win or don't win in this league and that's the disappointing thing tonight.
"The way we started was unbelievable, we started to dominate the ball, dominate the high press. dominate every aspect of the game and suddenly you're one goal down and that's the quality of this league as well. You're 1-0 down but the team reacted immediately, you score the goal and we wanted another one. We fight until the end and unfortunately we didn't get the reward today."
When asked about the inability to capitalise on Liverpool's postponement, the Spaniard added: "Yeah, we have really good momentum, the teams playing really well, winning a lot of games and today we wanted to do it again but the performance 100% was there. The winning probability would be so high but this is football and the margins are so small."
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Mikel Arteta and Arsenal had to settle for a point at Fulham
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Image:
Getty Images)
Former Arsenal star Paul Merson was in the Sky Sports studio for the match, and made clear his frustration at Martinelli's failure to stay onside in the lead-up to Saka's goal. "He is offside and in football terms it's criminal what Martinelli has done," the pundit said. I can't express enough how in football terms, you just can't be that. You cannot be offside, you're looking along the line, you've got pace.
"He's electric so he's not even someone who's got to try and nick a yard and play on the edge. He can give a yard or two. I'll be surprised if he isn't on the end of one in the dressing room when he gets in by the manager. Honestly.
"He even knows. You could see it on his face after, he knew you can't do that. You just cannot be offside when you're looking along that line. The one thing when looking along the line is do not be offside, it's as simple as that."
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