![\"Sa\u00efd](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cba89f383e213f704a2c60ea1abd51f75bead04\/0_276_3500_2099\/master\/3500.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=21c491cc1db4abae3f4364996d677917\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re gonna win the league,\u201d the travelling fans chanted after Gabriel Martinelli had made it 2-0 on 26 minutes, applying the finish to a lovely box-to-box team move, Fulham chasing shadows. It was supposed to be one of a clutch of tricky away games for Arsenal over the run-in \u2013 the others being Liverpool, City and Newcastle. But it was nothing of the sort, their lead over City back up to five points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es scored the first; the insistently brilliant Martin \u00d8degaard the third and that was that by half-time, Arsenal en route to a fifth\u00a0Premier League\u00a0win on the spin, 15 goals scored during the sequence. Up in the stands Mick Jagger could smile. For him and his fellow Arsenal supporters there was only satisfaction. It was a nice touch from Fulham to play Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones at half-time. They were the most accommodating of hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day had begun with talk of a selection headache up front for Arteta, who was without the injured Eddie Nketiah. It eased when Leandro Trossard passed a fitness test to lead the line, albeit in the false way of the times. He excelled, supplying the assists for each of the goals, and there was to be the further tonic of Gabriel Jesus getting on as a 77th-minute substitute for his first football since the World Cup. He stands to be a key figure in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was interesting to gauge the tone of Silva\u2019s pre-match interview when he lamented the continued loss of Jo\u00e3o Palhinha to suspension and talked up Arsenal\u2019s threats \u2013 their intensity, their proactivity, how they would do \u201clots of things we don\u2019t like\u201d. Silva feared the worst but he could not have foreseen his team\u2019s first-half no-show. \u201cWe were on the pitch but in some moments it looked like we weren\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The numbers tell their own story about Fulham without Palhinha; it is now played four, lost four, goals against 12. Fulham put minimal pressure on the ball and a breakthrough goal for Arsenal quickly came to feel inevitable; even Fulham appeared braced for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It came in the 21st minute, Gabriel rising to head home from Trossard\u2019s corner, shortly after Arsenal had the ball in the net only to be denied by an offside spot by the VAR. Granit Xhaka had released Martinelli up the left and, when he curled for the far corner, Bernd Leno pushed the ball out and into Antonee Robinson, who saw it bounce in off him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mercifully for Robinson, the VAR deemed that Martinelli had been fractionally in front of him on the other side when he began his run and, with the home crowd gleeful, the hope for them was that it would change the dynamic. Up until that point Fulham had been horribly passive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It did not. Fulham would get worse, much worse over the remainder of a desperate first half for them, sleepwalking into Arsenal\u2019s aggressive press, surrendering possession in dangerous areas, so soft in the duels, doing zero as an attacking force. It was as if \u00d8degaard was playing with his own ball while Bukayo Saka oozed strength and confidence, Robinson no match for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Mick](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2ad273df167deebfb125c16ef3ee041ddd351180\/0_88_7275_4367\/master\/7275.jpg?width=445&quality=85&dpr=1&s=none\")
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/b54dcc3be8f33c12272032fe71c4caf272150810\/0_99_2640_1584\/master\/2640.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c52947c3cde309261b1b344d72ae29f9\")
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