Bukayo Saka was part of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side that secured a 1-0 win over Fulham on Saturday evening, but he walked away from the match disappointed with one part of his performance
Bukayo Saka was incredibly critical of his “rubbish” corner taking as Arsenal secured a 1-0 win over Fulham. The Gunners reigned supreme at Craven Cottage thanks to Leandro Trossard’s 58th minute goal.
And while the win means that Arsenal temporarily retain their top spot in the Premier League standings, three points clear of Manchester City who secured a 2-0 win over Everton earlier in the day, Saka couldn’t help but rue over the finer details of the match.
Speaking with Sky Sports after the clash, the winger said of set-pieces: “We have some big guys in the box. At the start of the game, I took some rubbish corners.
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“I was quite disappointed. I kept going, and I think this (the one that Trossard converted) is the fourth one. I put it in, and it was a nice delivery. Gabriel got the touch, and Leo got the goal, so I am very happy with that. Did you not see them?”
Saka was also disappointed to see a penalty he won overturned by VAR. Anthony Taylor immediately pointed to the spot when Kevin brought down the 24-year-old in his own area, judging that the Fulham forward had fouled Saka.
When reviewing the footage, however, Taylor saw that Kevin made slight contact with the ball as Saka cut inside, making the choice to reverse his decision. Announcing the decision, Taylor said: “After review, number 22 makes a challenge and plays the ball therefore no foul is committed.”
He added: “No penalty, restart with a drop ball from the goalkeeper,” much to the distaste of travelling Arsenal fans. Meanwhile, the Premier League Match Centre took to X to write: “After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of penalty to Arsenal.”
Arsenal took the lead in the second-half of the match via Trossard, who was in the right place at the right time to knock in Saka’s corner which had taken a flick off Gabriel. The Gunners looked in complete control thereafter, despite a late rally from Fulham to steal at least a point for their efforts.
Speaking after the match about his frustrations, Fulham boss, Marco Silva told Sky Sports: “I really believe that we did prepare ourselves very well in that moment, and as you say, most of the time we did it very well. We blocked, we knew that the way they came to block ourselves.
“We wanted to block that strong run and power run from Gabriel most of the time. I really believe that path cannot be open. Most of the game we did control well the inside path for him to run in the direction of the goal.
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“That moment [Ryan] Sessegnon opened out a bit more, he went in the way and you see how high that he can jump. And in that moment, the flick at the front post killed us a little bit on the far post with the touch from Trossard.
“But blocking better the run from Gabriel was a key for us to control, because that we did control most of the time. That situation is a frustration for us because the first 30 minutes it was very good from ourselves. The possession, we kept them away, we didn’t let them play in the area or to create a pass to do it.”
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