Bukayo Saka came back into Arsenal’s starting line-up and changed the game. The 24-year-old scored once and set up another as Arsenal surged into a 3-0 lead over Fulham, a sharp reminder of what had been missing during his spell on the sidelines.
Saka’s quick footwork left Raul Jimenez in a heap before he squared for Viktor Gyokeres to open the scoring, then Gyokeres turned the ball around the corner for Saka to finish inside Bernd Leno’s near post. It was Saka’s first start since mid-March, and his goal ended an 11-game run without scoring while also ending his wait for a goal at the Emirates Stadium since early December.
Arteta said Saka made “two actions that decided the game,” and added that he “certainly made a difference.” He said the pain in the winger’s Achilles appears to be gone, that Saka felt loose and relaxed, and that Arsenal had “the Bukayo that we know back.”
The manager’s faith was clear before kickoff. Arteta made five changes from the team that drew 1-1 in Madrid, and among them was a 19-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly making his first Arsenal start as a central midfielder. Arsenal also selected Saka, Lewis-Skelly, Leandro Trossard, Eberechi Eze and Riccardo Calafiori together, a combination that gave the home side more control and more invention than they have shown in recent weeks.
That mattered because Arsenal had not taken a two-goal lead in a game for eight matches before this one, and not since the Champions League round-of-16 tie against Bayer Leverkusen on March 17. Against Fulham, they reached that point before the break and never looked in danger of letting the match drift away.
Viktor Gyokeres finished with two goals, first with a simple tap-in and then with an excellent header from Trossard’s clipped cross. He reached 21 goals for the season, making him Arsenal’s most prolific scorer in a campaign since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hit 29 in 2019-20, and he went off to a standing ovation.
Trossard delivered what was described as his most imaginative display in months, adding another layer to an attack that looked far more fluid than it had a week earlier, when Gyokeres drew howls of derision from the home crowd after a misplaced pass killed a counter-attack. The contrast was stark. Against Fulham, the same player helped carry Arsenal through a match they controlled from the moment Saka began to find space.
Fulham, described as a poor side laid low by a training-ground virus, offered little to break Arsenal’s rhythm. The bigger question now is whether this is the start of Saka’s full return to sharpness, because Arteta said he had been working with the winger on the timing and positioning that produced the two goals and that the performance should give both player and team a big lift of confidence and energy.
