ARS 2 - 1 FUL -- Gabriel Gets Himself Out of Jail

 Phew!  The announcer said that on paper this game should have been an easy win for the Gunners.  I don't know where he got that from.  Fulham won the Championship last season and they were unbeaten through three Premier League games.  They played very well, I thought.  Arsenal had almost all of the ball, but could not break through in the first half.  The Cottagers were well organized and resolute.  Early in the second, Arsenal was on top, but a dreadful error at the back by Gabriel Margalhes (we also had Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus on the pitch) gave Mitrovic the chance to show he was quicker and stronger than Gabriel:  he stole the ball and slotted it past Ramsdale expertly.

I'd be lying if I said that I was confident that we'd turn that around in the next 35-40 minutes, but of course that's what happened.  Odegaard's shot took a heavy deflection off a Fulham defender that took it past Leno, but I am not going to complain.  Then, late on, Gabriel put it in from very close range after the ball dropped to him on a corner, and he had the privilege of turning tragedy into triumph in half an hour.  Not many people get that chance.

Both keepers had great games; some excellent saves were made.  The Fulham left back did a fantastic job on Saka.  Our attacking players all looked dangerous; Martinelli was particularly pesky.  The level of play from both teams was high.  But the story Arteta will tell his men is about how they bailed Gabriel out when it looked as though he gave the game away.  In All or Nothing, he said this exact thing after another Gabriel error that led to a goal was followed by an Arsenal comeback.  I haven't seen the post-match comments, but I'm sure that the words "resilience," "suffer," and "belief" will feature.

Still top of the table, for now anyway.

I thought we did well to beat Bournemouth 3-0, but Liverpool put nine into their net today.  Ugh.  I guess the Cherries are not going to be helped by goal difference in a relegation battle.  I'll let my co-author discuss what happened at the Etihad.  Man U must feel they're back on track.