Bukayo Saka marked his return from a three-month injury lay-off to put the seal on Arsenal’s victory over Fulham at the Emirates Stadium. Look back at the match with the best facts and Opta data with our Arsenal 2-1 Fulham stats page.
Arsenal took advantage of playing 24 hours before title rivals Liverpool to reduce the gap between themselves and the Premier League leaders to nine points following this victory over Fulham at the Emirates Stadium. Goals from Mikel Merino and the returning Bukayo Saka were enough to defeat Marco Silva’s side, who struggled to trouble their opponents all night until Rodrigo Muniz‘s added-time strike.
Merino continued his excellent recent form in front of goal, opening the scoring in the 38th minute.
The Spaniard received the ball from an Ethan Nwaneri cutback before his shot took a kind deflection off Joachim Andersen and into the Fulham net. It was his fifth goal in eight appearances for the Gunners since his transition from midfielder to emergency striker following various injuries to his teammates.
Much to Arsenal fans’ joy, Mikel Arteta reintroduce Saka to the side midway through the second half following a three-month injury layoff.
Just six minutes after coming on, he doubled Arsenal’s advantage to make it 2-0 with a back-post header after good work from Merino and an excellent backheeled flick-on from Gabriel Martinelli. It was a rare headed goal for Saka, with it being just his third (of 53) in the Premier League.
Fulham scored a consolation deep in added time via Muniz, who’d earlier missed a simple header in front of almost an open goal. The forward hit the back of the net, beating David Raya via a deflection, That strike was the 14th scored by a Fulham substitute in the Premier League this season – just one off the all-time seasonal record by a single club in the competition.
While Arsenal will obviously be joyous with the win and the return of Saka to first-team action, they suffered a noteworthy blow just 16 minutes into the game when central defender Gabriel Magalhães pulled up with a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Jakub Kiwior.
It remains to be seen if the Brazilian will return this season, but it seems extremely likely he’ll miss Arsenal’s huge Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid later this month.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Arsenal 2-1 Fulham stats from their all-London Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Opta Stats Hub Premier League
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