Bukayo Saka makes brilliant 'rubbish' Fulham set-piece claim as Arsenal move four points clear

Bukayo Saka admitted to delivering some "rubbish" set pieces despite providing the winning cross for Gabriel and Leandro Trossard to claim victory for Arsenal at Fulham

Mikel Arteta celebrated his side’s latest set-piece exploitation and succeeded where previous iterations of this Arsenal side have failed. The cliché that this is a game that Arsenal would not have won last season is completely fair in this case.

This was the third straight league game where the Gunners had managed to turn a winless result from last season into a win. After beating Newcastle United and West Ham, this victory made it a net gain of plus-eight points from the same three fixtures from last season.

Most importantly, it takes Arsenal four points clear of Liverpool ahead of their clash with Manchester United.

While Craven Cottage has been a happy hunting ground for Gabriel Magalhaes to score, he could not be more delighted to have seen his flicked header from Bukayo Saka’s corner tapped in by Leandro Trossard.

Having been held at bay so often in the past by oppositions sitting deep and absorbing pressure, it was as if Arteta sent a warning to those who, like Fulham, are happy to set up this ever-so-familiar game plan.

Effectively saying if any side thinks they can just sit deep in a block, then we’ll find another way to score. And inevitably, that is exactly what they did.

“Obviously, we generate so many set-pieces, so you have to start from there,” he said. “We generate so many, we have to understand them, and against these low blocks when they don't really want to drop and commit that many players there.

“We'll have another opportunity to put the players that we want in the position that we want, with the role that we want, and we need to exploit that.

“We could have exploited it today in different ways. At the end, it was a set-piece, so more than welcome.”

Gabriel’s game could have been received far differently had either of his two early mistakes been punished. Yet Arteta was happy to use this as another example of a player responding to some challenging moments with a game-changing intervention.

“That's exactly the part that I loved about it, because when everything goes well in the first few minutes for a player and he's confident, and things are flowing for you, it's easy to continue,” he said.

“Gabi had two difficult moments, but I know that's his standard. The way he reacted to that and the sense of security that he transmitted, that's maturity, and that's the mindset that we need in the team.

“So that's a really good example to use, and that I will use for sure.”

Fulham boss Marco Silva admitted that his team had worked on the Brazilian centre-half’s presence. Clearly, however, the Gunners’ talismanic defender was too much for even the best laid plans.

"I really believe that we did prepare very well in that moment,” he said. ‘Most of the time, we did very well.

“We wanted to block that strong run from Gabriel. That part cannot be opened. Sessegnon opened up a bit more and he went and jumped really high. Blocking the run of Gabriel was the key to more control.”

It has been Trossard who has so often been the difference for the Gunners when they need a match-winning moment. But Arteta was keen to highlight the Belgian’s contribution beyond this potentially title-influencing finish.

“That he has this quality, that he plays these magic moments when the team needs him the most and that intuition, and he's in the right place in the right moment.

“And that's a huge quality for the team and a massive welcome for us. So really happy. I think he's been very, very good in recent weeks, and now we have a lot of players in a really high emotional state and performance level, which is really good to see.”

Yet Saka was without doubt the man of the match, and his creativity was almost exclusively the creative spark of this Arsenal performance. Yet even he was delighted with the side’s success from corners, even despite admitting he had not always delivered his best.

"We have some big guys in the box,” Saka said. “At the start of the game, I took some rubbish corners.

“I was quite disappointed. I kept going, and I think this is the fourth one. I put it in, and it was a nice delivery. Gabriel got the touch, and Leo got the goal, so I am very happy with that.”

The last point of contention is again Viktor Gyokeres, who had three good chances to score but couldn’t find the finishing touch in any of the situations, forcing two good saves from Bernd Leno. Arteta spoke of luck eventually turning in his direction soon, but apparently not soon enough.

His next opportunity is just days away against Atletico Madrid. The chances are now coming, it is up to the Swede to apply the perfect final touch and get the job done.