Arsenal held to 2-2 draw by 10-man Fulham

LONDON: Arsenal were held to a 2-2 home draw by 10-man Fulham after the visitors grabbed a late goal to deny Mikel Arteta's side provisional top spot in the Premier League on Saturday (Aug 26).

The result leaves the Gunners second with seven points, behind north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on goal difference.

Andreas Pereira put Fulham ahead in the first minute but Arsenal eventually bounced back with two goals in two frantic second-half minutes from Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah.

Fulham then had Calvin Bassey sent off for a second yellow card in the 83rd minute but despite going down to 10 men they rescued a point when Joao Palhinha swept home from a corner.

"Unfortunately we didn't win but I think it's a good result," Palhinha told the BBC. "It's always tough to play against Arsenal. We came to try to win but the most important thing was the effort we showed until the end even with 10 men."

"It was tough in the last 10 minutes. I go to the back line and we tried to give our all until the end to defend the spaces and it meant we could achieve a good result."

Fulham struck after 57 seconds when Pereira pounced on a loose back pass from Saka and the midfielder saw goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale well off his line, pulling the trigger from almost 30m to score and silence the home crowd.

The mistake fired up Saka, who created several chances in the first half, saw a cheeky free kick to the near post deflected for a corner and missed a close-range header, much to the relief of Fulham's former Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno.

But the home side won a penalty when Kenny Tete tripped Fabio Vieira in the box and Saka redeemed himself with a confident spot kick in the pouring rain, burying his effort into the bottom corner after 70 minutes.