Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has claimed that his side were “10 times better” in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against 10-man Fulham than they were against the Cottagers in their 2-1 win last year.
The Gunners sought to make it three wins from three to start the 2023-24 Premier League season, but Marco Silva‘s men exposed Arsenal’s defensive frailties at home to end their hosts’ unblemished start.
An early mistake from Bukayo Saka gifted Andreas Pereira the opening goal with less than a minute gone, but the Englishman redeemed himself from the penalty spot before Eddie Nketiah came off the bench to prod the Gunners ahead.
Calvin Bassey‘s late sending-off would ostensibly help Arsenal on their way to another maximum, but Arteta’s men failed to deal with a Harrison Reed corner in the 87th minute, and Joao Palhinha picked out the far corner with a delicate half volley to steal a point for the visitors.
Arsenal’s four-goal stalemate comes almost exactly 12 months after they came from behind to beat Silva’s men at the Emirates, where Gabriel Magalhaes – who was on the bench again on Saturday – scored the winner.
Despite gleaning two fewer points this time around, a defiant Arteta insisted that he witnessed a major improvement in his side, and he brushed aside Saka’s individual mistake as “part of football”.
“Well, if I compare the game that we played against Fulham this season and last season, we were 10 times better than last season, at least 10,” Arteta said in his post-game press conference. “We were much better than last season. Last season we won 2-1 in the last minute, today we drew 2-2.
“With the way the team played, the way the team generates and in any other sport you win by I don’t know how many hundred points difference, but this is football and we draw and we conceded two very, very poor goals today and that’s the reason why in the Premier League when you give something up then you’re going to get punished and we were today.
“Errors are part of football and it’s where you make them and how the opponent takes them, it’s the difference. We had a big one last year here against Fulham that we just gave a goal to [Aleksandar] Mitrovic as well. It’s part of football.”
As was the case in their slender wins over Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, Arteta kept faith in his experimental system with Thomas Partey at right-back, while Jakub Kiwior deputised for the suspended Takehiro Tomiyasu on the opposite side, as Oleksandr Zinchenko joined Gabriel on the bench.
With Partey in his unfamiliar role, Kai Havertz continued in the engine room, but the German once again left a lot to be desired, and he was upstaged by Fabio Vieira during an eye-catching cameo from the Portuguese, who won the hosts’ penalty before picking out Nketiah for his second goal in three games.
While Arteta affirmed that he was “delighted” for Vieira, the Spaniard was loath to criticise Havertz, although he admitted that the German’s lack of ruthlessness in front of goal needs working on.
When asked if he thinks Havertz will eventually get the fans on his side, Arteta replied: “Yes, I think so. I think he’s already done some really good things and today it was tough for him in certain moments.
“He got in some great areas again and the ball didn’t arrive and he had a lot of situations. He should have already scored a lot of goals already this season and that’s the thing that is missing there.
“I saw an action when he played backwards and he could have turned, but that’s one of the things and the demands of everybody, to play forward and to impact the game in the final third because we had the urgency to win it, but no.”
Arsenal now have a week to dissect Saturday’s draw before they welcome Manchester United to the Emirates for next Sunday’s blockbuster top-flight battle.