Arsenal will try to keep their perfect record in the Premier League when they play Fulham at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
The Gunners are the only team in the Premier League to have won all of their games so far. They have won against Crystal Palace, Leicester, and Bournemouth. If they win the London derby, it will be their best start to a season since 2004.
But it’s by no means certain that Mikel Arteta’s team will get all three points. Fulham hasn’t lost a game yet this season, and they surprised everyone by holding Liverpool to a draw on the first weekend of the season.
When asked what he thought would happen this weekend, Arteta said, “A really tough match.” “They had a great season last year in the Championship. They did very well, and they haven’t lost a game yet in the Premier League, even though they’ve played three tough teams. It will be a very hard game.”
The Gunners manager has a full team to choose from, except for Reiss Nelson. This gives him a lot of headaches as he tries to figure out who will be the best team to win this London derby.
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne is a writer for the Arsenal.
Right now, picking the Arsenal team is pretty easy, and after three straight wins to start the season, it would be surprising if Mikel Arteta decided to change things up against Fulham, even though they still have to play Aston Villa and Manchester United.
There is a case for bringing back Kieran Tierney or Takehiro Tomiyasu because they would be better equipped than Oleksandr Zinchenko or Ben White to deal with the aerial threat of Aleksandar Mitrovic. The Serbian striker likes to isolate full-backs at the far post. But since we’re the home team and it’s up to us to show who’s boss, I’d only make one change.
Bukayo Saka needs to take a break sometime in the next week. I do think that his “slow” start to the season is mostly because he has played so many games for club and country over the past year. Saturday might be a good day to take him out of the starting lineup and put Emile Smith Rowe in his place.
The three players in the middle of the field should stay the same as they were last week. Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli should stay up front, and Eddie Nketiah, Albert Sambi Lokonga, and Fabio Vieira should be ready to make changes or finish the game if necessary in the second half.
Deniran-Arsenal Alleyne’s lineup against Fulham: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Thomas, Odegaard, Xhaka; Smith Rowe, G. Jesus, Martinelli.
Kaya Kaynak is the main reporter for Arsenal.
After a good start to the season, Arsenal’s schedule starts to get a little tougher this week. On paper, they have a good home game against Fulham on Saturday to start a week in which they play Aston Villa, who spends a lot of money, and Manchester United, who can’t be counted out no matter what.
With that in mind, I’d try to make a few changes from what was an impressive performance at Bournemouth to keep things interesting.
The first of these would be at right back, where I would replace Ben White with Takehiro Tomiyasu to deal with Aleksandr Mitrovic’s physical threat. The Japan international is a monster in the air and would probably be the best way to stop Fulham’s most dangerous offensive asset.
I would keep Aaron Ramsdale in goal and keep the rest of the defense the same as last week. The midfield stays the same at the start, but I would try to give Fabio Vieira his first competitive minutes in an Arsenal shirt. What could be better than a home game against a team that just got promoted?
First of all, I don’t think Gabriel Martinelli or Gabriel Jesus can be dropped right now. Bukayo Saka is almost certainly going to be cut, but I’d keep him on the team for this game and then try to switch up the lineup a bit more for Wednesday’s game against Villa.
Kaynak’s Arsenal XI vs Fulham: Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard; Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.
