Arsenal headed into the game knowing they needed a win on the day to restore their five-point lead atop of the Premier League.
Fulham, meanwhile, had slipped down to 8th but could have gone level on points with 5th if they won on Sunday.
And when all was said and done, Arsenal came away with the three points.
It was a fairly slow start to the game, with Arsenal having the majority of the possession.
The Gunners’ first chance of the day came 16 minutes in and led to a goal. Granit Xhaka played a lovely ball to Gabriel Martinelli, who saw his shot saved by Bernd Leno but the deflection hit off Antonee Robinson and went in his own net. However, it was ruled out for offside by VAR.
Arsenal would actually score five minutes later though, with Gabriel guiding in a Leandro Trossard corner.
ARSENAL TAKE THE LEAD 🔴
Gabriel scores his third Premier League goal this season ✅ pic.twitter.com/giryW73RZr
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 12, 2023
MARTINELLI 💥
Two headers ➡️ 2-0 ✅ pic.twitter.com/178Yq0xcch
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 12, 2023
Xhaka should have made it 3-0 35 minutes in following a lovely passage of play but he took a touch instead of hitting it first time when he was through on goal.
Martinelli also came close to adding a third right before the break but Leno saved well. It was Martin Odegaard who got the third two minutes into injury-time to kill the game off. Zinchenko played a ball to the Norwegian who was under no pressure before smashing in a shot.
Fulham had a better second half and hit the bar 68 minutes in but were still unable to find a goal.
📰 Table Of Contents
Player ratings
Fulham
- GK: Bernd Leno (4.5)
- RB: Kenny Tete (4)
- CB: Tim Ream (4)
- CB: Tosin Adarabioyo (5)
- LB: Antonee Robinson (4)
- CDM: Harrison Reed (4.5)
- CDM: Sasa Lukic (4)
- CAM: Andreas Pereira (5)
- RW: Bobby Reid (5)
- ST: Aleksandr Mitrovic (5)
- LW: Manor Solomon (4.5)
Substitutes
- Daniel James (4)
- Harry Wilson (4)
Arsenal
- GK: Aaron Ramsdale (6)
- RB: Ben White (6.5)
- CB: William Saliba (7)
- CB: Gabriel (8)
- LB: Oleksandr Zinchenko (7)
- CDM: Thomas Partey (6.5)
- CDM: Granit Xhaka (6.5)
- CAM: Martin Odegaard (7.5)
- RW: Bukayo Saka (7)
- ST: Leandro Trossard (8)
- LW: Gabriel Martinelli (7.5)
Substitutes
- Reiss Nelson (5)
- Kieran Tierney (5)
- Gabriel Jesus (4)
- Fabio Vieira (4)
- Takehiro Tomiyasu (3)
Match report
Saka taken out again with no coloured card given, of course
— jessie (@jesshoskingx) March 12, 2023
Nothing’s going our way. #afc
— ARCHETA (@archeta_) March 12, 2023
Gabriel Martinelli has now scored 12 Premier League goals so far this season, that’s twice as many as he scored last season.
Growth. 📈 pic.twitter.com/obV027fCNq
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) March 12, 2023
Gabriel has scored more Premier League goals (8) than any other defender since the start of last season.
Arsenal have their own Monstro. 💪🇧🇷
— William Hill (@WilliamHill) March 12, 2023
23 – Gabriel Martinelli has scored 23 goals for Arsenal in the Premier League, levelling Nicolas Anelka’s total for league goals scored for the club while 21 or under, and trailing only teammate Bukayo Saka (27) in this age category overall. Fearless. pic.twitter.com/fxhfaigMIX
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 12, 2023
3 – Leandro Trossard is the first player in Premier League history to make a hat-trick of assists in the first half of an away game. Trio. pic.twitter.com/kQKI0zRtA3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 12, 2023
⚽️ Arsenal have 3 of the 4 youngest players to score 10+ PL goals this season (they are still the only team with more than one player to have done so)
21y 188d SAKA
21y 267d MARTINELLI
22y 234d Haaland
24y 85d ODEGAARD 🆕 pic.twitter.com/8YhLhtZpfe— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) March 12, 2023
Who has kept the most clean sheets in a single Premier League season?
