Arsenal thought they had secured a late winner at Craven Cottage on Sunday when Bukayo Saka headed the ball into the net. However, VAR intervened and ruled out the ‘goal’ due to an offside offense by Gabriel Martinelli in the buildup.
This meant the Gunners had to settle for a single point in a game where they dominated for long stretches, restricting Fulham to just two shots throughout the 90 minutes.
Arsenal will rue their failed chances to win, especially as Manchester City failed to win against Crystal Palace.
Arteta disappointed Arsenal failed to grab three points
Arsenal’s manager reflected on the match at full time, expressing his concerns and providing an overall match report.
“I haven’t seen a team do what we’ve done here today against them,” the manager said.
“That’s the reality, but you want that and the three points, and that’s what was missing today. We’re going to have to work in that direction and improve those margins”.
“We’re very disappointed that we didn’t manage to get the three points, obviously. With the way we dominated the game from the start to the end, and how much the team wanted it, but these are the small margins”.
“They have the quality, they had one action to score one goal and we have to dig in to do so much to merit a lot of the stuff that happened in the game on our side. At the end, we find a way to score – it was disallowed – emotionally that was tough.”
The late VAR decision hinged on incredibly small margins. William Saliba’s equalizer was upheld after a video review, but Saka’s goal was disallowed—narrowly and after a tense wait. The boss admitted it was challenging to recover after the decision went against the Gunners.
“Yeah, it was, but again the way the team plays, the way the team wants it, adapts within the circumstances. At the back, we have the issues that we have, there’s no excuses, we were so intense and so dominant, that’s the way we have to continue to do, improve those margins because there are certain things there that we can still do better to be more efficient but that’s the way we have to continue”.
“Now, every three days there’s going to be a game in the festive period that we’re coming into right now, but the team is in a good place. To play the way the boys did today again, big credit, and we’re going to continue doing our best, that’s for sure.”
