Key events
40 min: Saka delivers low to the near post. Gyokeres cushions it back to him. Saka crosses long. Trossard can’t connect with a header. Arsenal are on top now.
39 min: Saka dribbles hard down the right and nearly gets the better of Jimenez. He settles for a corner, which he’ll take himself.
38 min: Saka reaches the byline down the right and loops long for Calafiori, who certainly isn’t shy of shooting. His volley creams over the crossbar. Leno had it covered.
37 min: … and that prediction nearly comes to pass immediately. Saka slips a pass down the inside-right channel to release Gyokeres into the box. Gyokeres – taking just his third touch of the match – swivels and shoots low and hard. Leno parries. The looping ball doesn’t drop kindly for Trossard, and the keeper claims.
35 min: … so Calafiori gets fed up, strutting in from the left and looking for the top-right corner again. Andersen hangs out a leg and deflects wide left, and nothing comes of the corner. Meanwhile here’s more from Fulham fan and pre-match bag of pessimism Richard Hirst: “Six shots to one, four corners to one: we all know how this is going to end. Who’d be a football supporter?”
34 min: Arsenal pass and probe, probe and pass, but Fulham hold their shape. The hosts happy to sit back for now.
33 min: Cairney is back up, but doesn’t look wholly comfortable, still grasping his neck and shoulder. But he’ll continue.
31 min: Cairney is down feeling his right shoulder. On comes the physio.
30 min: Eze cheaply ships possession to King, who makes off down the right. King looks to be going nowhere, turning tail, but then Eze makes a half-hearted attempt to close him down, allowing King to spin back and mishit a cross that nearly sails over Raya’s head from a ludicrous angle. Raya, backtracking, is forced to slap over the bar. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. So close to an outrageous fluke.
28 min: King tries to release Wilson down the right, but Gabriel comes across, stepping in to take control and usher the ball back to Raya. A necessary defensive intervention.
26 min: Much better from Iwobi here, as he waltzes in from the left and rolls a cute diagonal pass towards Wilson, on the right-hand edge of the D. Wilson tries to catch out Raya with a forensic shot towards the bottom right, but it’s always heading wide. Might have been better to put his foot through that. It was a good chance, and a great pass from Iwobi.
24 min: Iwobi probes down the left but upon reaching the corner flag, sees his cross ping off the nearby Timber, back off his startled face and out. Goal kick.
22 min: Saka drives down the right and glides infield, at which point his shot is blocked the nanosecond the ball comes off his boot. Then a throw comes in from the left, but doesn’t quite fall to Trossard. This is end-to-end all right.
21 min: Arsenal calm things down with some of the old sterile domination.
19 min: One corner from the right leads to another … and then Jimenez is penalised for a not-particularly-high kick on Eze, who was ducking into a clearing header.
18 min: Sessegnon advances down the left and crosses towards Jimenez, who is penalised for an overly physical stretch for the ball. Then Fulham come again, King cutting in from the right and taking a shot from distance that’s deflected over the bar. This is a really open game. It’s great fun.
16 min: Arsenal put the ball in the net, in spectacular fashion. Timber sends a long diagonal towards Trossard on the left-hand corner of the box. Trossard high-kicks infield, where Calafiori instantly lashes across Leno and into the top-right corner! What a pearler! Unfortunately, he was clearly offside upon receiving the ball. The goal’s immediately chalked off.
15 min: Fulham will be happy with this start, though. They’ve responded very well to Arsenal’s earlier attempts to impose themselves, and carved out a couple of decent half-chances.
13 min: Now Fulham latch onto a Gabriel mistake, Wilson advancing down the inside-right channel and into the box. He attempts to steer a shot into the bottom left, but in circumventing Raya, he also sends the ball wide of the post.
11 min: … but here come Fulham again, Wilson drifting down the right and rolling the ball infield for Jimenez, whose shot across Raya takes a deflection and rolls out for a corner. The set piece comes in from the left and is met first time by Cairney’s sidefoot. The ball may be heading into the bottom left, it may not, but we’ll never know for sure, because instead it slaps poor Zubimendi square in the fruit bowl. Arsenal clear as their brave midfielder catches in breath.
10 min: King snaffles the ball in the centre circle and finds Jimenez, who in turn looks for Wilson down the right. The pass is too strong and the move breaks down. A shame for Fulham, as a better weighted ball would have sent Wilson through on goal.
9 min: Rice slips a pass down the inside-left channel for Gyokeres, who reaches the byline and cuts back to … nobody in particular. Andersen blooters clear.
8 min: Sessegnon skittles Saka out on the right. The free kick’s worked to Calafiori on the other flank. Calafiori sends the ball back into the mixer, where Sessegnon makes up for his earlier intervention with a clearing header.
7 min: Arsenal are beginning to find their feet. Rice and Zubimendi seeing a fair bit of the ball in the middle.
6 min: A bit of space for Trossard down the left. He slices his cross into the stand behind the goal. Probably for the best, as King looked to have been illegally knocked over earlier in the move, but the referee waved play on, much to the home support’s ire.
4 min: Gyokeres nearly gets on the end of a simple long punt down the middle. The ball doesn’t quite fall for him, and Leno is able to come off his line to claim. But for a second, the striker’s eyes were lighting up.
3 min: All a bit scrappy so far.
2 min: Arsenal are kicking towards the Hammersmith End in this first half.
The players take a knee – there’s No Room For Racism – and then Fulham get the ball rolling. Plenty of noise, joyous bedlam, London derby, all that.
The teams emerge from the Cottage. Fulham in white, Arsenal in second-choice blue. A heady atmosphere down by the river. It won’t be too long now.
Marco Silva talks to Sky. “[To have Raúl Jiménez back] is crucial … we have two strikers who have been scoring more than 20 goals a season together … we miss Rodrigo [Muniz] … it is crucial to have at least one of them.”
Mikel Arteta, exuding determination, speaks to Sky Sports. “We have to learn from the [mistakes of the] very recent past … improve as a team … we have done it against Newcastle and West Ham … now after three years of not winning [at Craven Cottage] we must do it against Fulham … it is about momentum … flexibility … options … Fulham have a high level of organisation … patterns … a real threat … it is always a challenge to play here.”
Pre-match postbag o’pessimism. “Marco Silva’s team selections are getting more and more weird, and we’re most definitely going to be in the relegation struggle,” sighs Richard Hirst. “Love what Tom Cairney has given Fulham but he is not the player to take on this Arsenal midfield; we could be swamped today. Let’s just hope No Kings only applies in the States and that Josh finally gets some luck to go with his skill.”
Arsenal started the day atop the Premier League. Now, for a couple of hours at least, they’ve been knocked off their perch. Barry Glendenning has the details of Manchester City’s win over Everton in today’s Clockwatch. No change for Fulham, who remain in 14th place. A draw this evening will be enough for Arsenal to reclaim top spot, while Fulham can climb into the top half, though they’d need to win by three clear goals to leapfrog tenth-placed Everton.
That victory over West Ham sent Arsenal top. Ed Aarons takes a gander at 20 years’ worth of data and explains why that ostensibly welcome state of affairs for the Gunners comes with absolutely no guarantees whatsoever.
It’s been a while … so here’s a reminder of what happened to both teams last time around.
Fulham make three changes to their starting line-up following their 3-1 loss at Bournemouth. Raúl Jiménez, Jorge Cuenca and captain Tom Cairney return, at the expense of Issa Diop and Calvin Bassey, who are benched, and the injured Saša Lukić. Antonee Robinson and Rodrigo Muniz are also unavailable.
Arsenal make just one change to their starting XI after their 2-0 home win over West Ham. Martin Ødegaard is injured, so in comes Martín Zubimendi.
The teams
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Andersen, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Berge, Cairney, Wilson, King, Iwobi, Jimenez.
Subs: Lecomte, Tete, Bassey, Reed, Traore, Kusi-Asare, Kevin, Diop, Smith Rowe.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Eze, Zubimendi, Rice, Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Martinelli, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Merino, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
VAR: Stuart Attwell.
Preamble
Three weeks ago, the 2025-26 Premier League was Liverpool’s to lose. Now it’s safe in the hands of Arsenal. It’s all been a bit presumptuous seeing the season’s barely started, but that’s the modern discourse for you. Hey, we’re all at fault. So can Arsenal consolidate their lead at the top, against a side who have only defeated them once in the last 14 meetings? Or will they let things slip at a ground where they’ve failed to win in either of their last two visits? Fulham could do with a result themselves, having lost their previous two matches before the international break, so this London derby is set up deliciously. Kick-off is at 5.30pm. It’s on!
