Arsenal v Fulham predictions: Fast-starting Gunners can continue to set the pace

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Arsenal v Fulham in the Premier League

Where to watch

Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event, 5.30pm Saturday

Best bets

Arsenal-Arsenal double result
2pts 10-11 general

Granit Xhaka to score first
0.5pt each-way 14-1 bet365

Team news

Arsenal
Nicolas Pepe has joined Nice on a season-long loan. Reiss Nelson (thigh) is out but Mikel Arteta has an otherwise fully-fit squad to choose from.

Fulham
Neeskens Kebano missed last week’s win over Brentford and will be assessed. Harry Wilson and Manor Solomon (both knee) are still a few weeks away from returning.

Match preview

Arsenal have never lost at home to Fulham in any competition and even allowing for the daftest of starts to the 2022-23 Premier League campaign, Saturday's clash doesn’t look far off a home banker.

The Gunners are top after three straight wins and can maintain the Premier League’s only 100 per cent record in a game that promises to be open and a good watch.

Their performances to date have shown us that Arsenal are at it from the off – they have already scored five first-half goals – so there’s a case to be made for the Gunners leading at the break and at full-time.

Fulham won’t roll over. They have come up swinging under Marco Silva, unlike on their last top-flight foray, and their return to the Premier League has so far been a largely entertaining one.

Indeed, you’d have got long odds on them being unbeaten after their first three matches, especially as the first of those was at home to mighty Liverpool.

As it transpired, they caught Jurgen Klopp’s stretched group cold, took a second point from Wolves and then fended off a Brentford fightback last week to win 3-2. They’ve been fun to watch, averaging 12 shots per game.

But they were also offered a timely reminder of their mortality on Tuesday night in the League Cup when they sank to a grim 2-0 loss at League Two strugglers Crawley. It doesn’t undo the strides they are making but it has taken a bit of the gloss off their start.

And Arsenal are looking merciless. However Mikel Arteta perms his front four, so long as it has Gabriel Jesus at the heart of it, there’s a threat which was seldom evident before his £50m arrival.

Arteta worked for so long under Pep Guardiola that the City fluidity was bound to influence his thinking and he now has a group of forwards who are hellishly difficult to guard against.

It also allows room for his midfielders to come through, especially someone like Granit Xhaka, who will still have say at some free-kicks and have a pop when the ball breaks to him around the edge of the box.

If Fulham get penned in a lot, the Swiss will get a sight of goal and he has bagged one already this term. He could be worth an each-way interest to score first at the Emirates.

Fulham have a couple of gems of their own, one holding midfielder in Joao Palhinha who will give Xhaka a run in a season-long yellow card match bet, the other Andreas Pereira, a far more creative influence and a critical figure while Harry Wilson is absent.

For Fulham it’s going to be all about the service they get to three-goal Aleksandar Mitrovic and the possibilities at set-plays, although the Gunners conceded only eight times from set-plays in 2021-22 and are clean in that department this term.

Key stat

Arsenal have led at half-time and gone on to win seven of their last ten league games.

Inside info

Arsenal

Penalty taker Bukayo Saka
Assist ace Martin Odegaard
Set-piece aerial threat Gabriel Magalhaes
Card magnet Granit Xhaka

Fulham

Penalty taker Aleksandar Mitrovic
Assist ace Bobby Decordova-Reid
Set-piece aerial threat Aleksandar Mitrovic
Card magnet Aleksandar Mitrovic

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