Having spent the majority of the campaign firmly entrenched in mid-table, Marco Silva enters the final four games of the season – and perhaps his five-year stint in west London – aiming to claim a first European berth since 2012, with Fulham sitting just two points behind Bournemouth in sixth.<\/p>\n
However their form on the road threatens to hamper that push. The Cottagers have scored just 16 times on their 17 Premier League away days and won just one of their eight road games in 2026, coming at Sunderland in February. That 3-1 victory was also the last time they found the net away from home.<\/p>\n
Since then, Tottenham Hotspur, Burnley and Aston Villa last weekend have been beaten at Craven Cottage, while 0-0 draws were claimed at Nottingham Forest and Brentford and their only loss in that time was a 2-0 reverse at Liverpool three weeks ago.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Arteta: <\/strong>“I think we have enough fuel in the tank; we\u2019re playing to win the Premier League, and it\u2019s exactly where we want to be. Four games to go, it\u2019s game two, I\u2019m ready to go. Let\u2019s keep doing what we’ve done all season and bring that energy, that passion and together we\u2019re going to make it happen.<\/p>\n “I’m extremely grateful for the support, the atmosphere that we have created at Emirates. We always want more, we always want better, we always want every single action to be so positive behind the players. The more we do that, we all know that the outcome is going to be much better.”<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Silva:<\/strong> \u201cWhether the environment is tense or not depends on how we play and whether we are good enough to make it happen. Simple as that.<\/p>\n \u201cArsenal are a top side, a side that are title contenders, that play to win all of their games, but are also the most solid team in the league. \u201cWe also enjoy this type of situation, we just have to look at ourselves and be competitive. Three points to fight for \u2013 and we will fight.\u201d<\/p>\n After missing the midweek trip to Madrid, both Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber are still unavailable for selection with their groin injuries, joining Mikel Merino (foot) on the sidelines.<\/p>\n Martin Odegaard came off at the Metropolitano Stadium on Wednesday but Arteta hopes he’ll be fine to feature again.<\/p>\n Having scored the winner to beat Aston Villa last weekend, Ryan Sessegnon will miss the trip to N5 after being forced off with a muscle injury, while Alex Iwobi won\u2019t feature against his former club as he has damaged a hamstring.<\/p>\n Silva hopes that right-back Kenny Tete could be in contention as he rebuilds his match fitness after sitting out the last four games with a foot problem, the same issue that sees club-record signing Kevin miss out.<\/p>\n Adrian Clarke, writing in <\/em>the official matchday programme<\/em><\/a>: <\/em>Silva\u2019s stock formation is a 4-2-3-1, so we are unlikely to see any major surprises there. Fulham are happy to have the ball so while playing short passes through the lines is their preferred method, centre-back Joachim Andersen has made the second-highest number of long passes among all Premier League defenders.<\/p>\n The Cottagers are more patient in possession than most top-flight teams, ranking fifth for 10+ pass sequences. Last weekend against Aston Villa, they pressed extremely well, especially through the industry of Emile Smith Rowe, but they actually have the fewest shot-ending high turnovers and rank last for pressing sequences, too.<\/p>\n They are strong down the flanks, using their wingers and a pair of attack-minded full-backs to create 2v1s at opportune moments. Right-winger Harry Wilson is enjoying a fabulous campaign, scoring 10 goals and providing six assists, and three of the Welshman\u2019s goals have been blockbusters from outside the box.<\/p>\n Only us and the two Manchester sides have faced fewer shots on target than the west Londoners, but playing out from the back is a possible weakness. Only Burnley and Tottenham have conceded more high turnovers, so pressing with conviction could be a sound tactical ploy.<\/p>\n We have never lost in 32 home league games against Fulham (W25 D7), the most any side has faced another without defeat in English Football League history.<\/p>\n Fulham have won just one of their last 15 Premier League games against us, a 2-1 home win in December 2023.<\/p>\n We have lost just one of our last 26 Premier League London derbies, going unbeaten in our last 13 since a 1-0 home loss to West Ham in February last year.<\/p>\n Fulham have never won a Premier League away game against the league leaders in 13 attempts (D3 L10), with this their first visit since a 2-2 draw at Liverpool in December 2024.<\/p>\n We have conceded just 11 goals in our 17 home league games this season, and have only failed to find the net once in that time.<\/p>\n Fulham are one of two sides \u2013 along with Manchester City \u2013 yet to concede a goal in the opening 15 minutes of Premier League matches this season.<\/p>\n Under Mikel Arteta, we have won nine of our 11 home Premier League games in May, with our only defeats coming against Brighton in 2023 and Bournemouth last year.<\/p>\n Gabriel has had a hand in more Premier League goals against Fulham than any other side (4 \u2013 3 goals, 1 assist) with all three goals coming from corners.<\/p>\n All seven of Ebere Eze\u2019s Premier League goals for us have come in London. Only Olivier Giroud (first 14) and Tony Adams (first 12) have had more consecutive goals in the capital from the start of their Premier League career for the Gunners.<\/p>\n Jarred Gillett has been appointed to referee this game, the first time he has handled one of our matches since September when we beat Newcastle United at St James\u2019 Park. He also oversaw our first home match of the campaign when we thrashed Leeds United 5-0. In total, we have won eight and lost three when he\u2019s been in charge.<\/p>\n He is a far less familiar face for Fulham fans, having been in the middle for three of their games in the past three seasons, with his only one this term seeing them knocked out of the FA Cup on home turf against Southampton when he awarded the Saints a stoppage-time penalty.<\/p>\n Referee: <\/strong>Jarred Gillett \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last season saw us extend our unbeaten home run against the Cottagers to 33 games when Bukayo Saka returned from injury to grab what proved to be the winner off the bench after Mikel Merino had given us the lead, but a late Rodrigo Muniz penalty led to a nervy ending.<\/p>\n The Cottagers\u2019 previous trip to Emirates Stadium came in August 2023 when Joao Paulinha netted a late equaliser to claim a 2-2 draw. That was after we had recovered from falling behind in the first minute via Andreas Pereira thanks to strikes from Saka and Eddie Nketiah, and the visitors having Calvin Bassey sent off.<\/p>\n 12 months earlier, Gabriel recovered from allowing Aleksandr Mitrovic to open the scoring by firing home a late winner to record a 2-1 success, with Martin Odegaard also on target.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nicole Holliday and Jeremie Aliadiere are Live from N5 on Arsenal.com<\/a> and The Arsenal app (download now on <\/strong><\/em>iOS<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\/<\/strong><\/em>Android<\/strong><\/em><\/a>) <\/strong><\/em>from 4.30pm UK time, bringing you the best build-up to the game.<\/p>\n Club legend and Academy Manager Per Mertesacker is in the studio ahead of his final few weeks at the club, as is singer-songwriter Sam Tompkins. <\/p>\n We’ll look back at Martin Odegaard joining us on Live from Sobha, crown our latest Hero of the Week and two great Emirates Stadium moments compete to be inducted into the Live from N5 Hall of Fame, before live commentary comes from Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke.<\/p>\n You can also find out <\/em>which broadcasters are showing the action live<\/em>wherever you are in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our league and European double dream remains intact as we enter May, and the next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} The story of how Arsenal and Fulham nearly merged <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nWHAT THE MANAGERS SAY<\/h2>\n
Every word from Mikel Arteta’s pre-Fulham presser <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nTEAM NEWS<\/h2>\n
TALKING TACTICS<\/h2>\n
FACTS AND STATS<\/h2>\n
MATCH OFFICIALS<\/h2>\n
Assistants: <\/strong>Simon Long, Steve Meredith
Fourth official: <\/strong>Rob Jones
OUR: <\/strong>Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: <\/strong>Adrian Holmes<\/p>\n Veteran Rooke sparks our revival after Fulham move <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nRECENT VISITS FROM FULHAM<\/h2>\n
From the vault: Five famous wins against Fulham <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nLIVE COVERAGE<\/h2>\n
How to watch Arsenal v Fulham on TV <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n