Marco Silva shares what he ‘knew’ Arsenal would try to do against Fulham in 1-1 draw

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As was the case for the Gunners last season at Craven Cottage, Fulham frustrated Arsenal and held them back in pursuit of the Premier League title.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side were frustrated to draw 1-1 on a weekend in which Liverpool’s trip to Everton was postponed.

Arsenal failed to put some ‘scoreboard pressure’ on Arne Slot’s side and delivered an uninspiring performance from a creative point of view.

Fulham defended resolutely, something that was best demonstrated by Alex Iwobi playing as second right-back for much of the game.

Martin Odegaard wasn’t able to influence things and Arsenal dropped two vital points.

Marco Silva says Fulham were ready for Arsenal’s second half surge

That being said, when speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Fulham boss Marco Silva shared some interesting comments about Arsenal, whilst also praising his team.

Silva thought that Arsenal were nullified by Fulham who didn’t allow them to create ‘good chances’, and the home team were aware of what the Gunners would do in the second half. 

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He said: “The first thing is to praise the [Fulham] players for their commitment. On the ball it wasn’t the game we like to play normally. 

“The weather conditions weren’t the best. They are really strong in the pressure.

“In some moments we should have kept the ball. Not many chances [for Arsenal] I think were good chances.

“We knew they’d start the second half strongly. I’d like to see us making better decisions because we had some good moments to punish them more but they equalised.

“It was less than 72 hours [since the last game]. Second half I felt the energy wasn’t there because when you have so much time without the ball you need fresh legs.

“Overall the commitment and fighting spirit was really good.”

Arsenal made to pay for costly defensive error vs Fulham

Although Silva was right to praise his side for limiting Arsenal from open play, the Gunners were largely to blame for not winning themselves.

Thomas Partey missed a golden chance from another Arsenal set-piece, a header that simply had to hit the back of the net.

Similarly, Jakub Kiwior cost Arsenal at the back – he let Raul Jimenez run off of his shoulder far too easily to score for Fulham.

A frustrating afternoon for Arteta and his side who failed to put the pressure on Liverpool as mentioned.

It’s certainly not a result that Arsenal can’t recover from, but it increasingly feels as if Arteta’s team still have the same squad issues that existed last season.