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

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 postpon♚ed.

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

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

Martin ꦓOdegaard wasn’t able to influence things and Arsenal dropped two vital poinꦡts.

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

That being said, when speaking to 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 d🌠o in the second🍃 half. 

READ MORE: Arsenal quotedꦍ £50m for Champions League ace likened to Bruno G💖uimaraes

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 c🍃onditions weren’t the best. They are really strong i♓n the pressure.

“In some moments we should have kept the ball. No❀t many chances [for Arsenal] I think were good chances.

“We kn🎃ew they’d start the second half strongly. I’d like to see us mak🍌ing 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 ene🎃rgy wasn🎀’t there because when you have so much time without the ball you need fresh legs.

“Overall the 💫commitment and fightin﷽g 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 l🌠argely to blame for not winning themselves.

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

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

A frustrating afternoon for Arteꦓta and his side who failed to put the pressure on Liverpool as me✃ntioned.

It’s certainly not a result that Arse🦂nal can’t recover from, but it increasingly feels as if Arteta’s team still have the same squad issues that existed l♒ast season.