It was on New Year's Eve last year that Fulham welcomed Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal to Craven Cottage and turned them over, 2-1, to place an eventually telling dent in the Gunners’ title hopes.
Arsenal’s return to the banks of the River Thames is a chance for Fulham to repeat the trick less than a year on. And for four players in particular, it is a chance to travel back in time.
It seems there are few more common routes for a Premier League player these days than from the Emirates to Craven Cottage. Four ex-Arsenal players could line up against their former team on Sunday: Emile Smith Rowe, Bernd Leno, Alex Iwobi and Reiss Nelson (on loan from the Gunners at Fulham).
First to make the 10-mile trip was Leno. Following three seasons as their No1, Arsenal began to evolve away from the German’s style. Arteta brought in Aaron Ramsdale ahead of the 2021/22 season and Leno sat patiently on the bench for a season before moving on.
Fulham paid just £3million up front for Leno, which rose to £8m after add-ons. A steal for Fulham; questionable business from Arsenal.
“I have to say it’s a bargain,” Leno said in an interview with Standard Sport during his first season at Fulham. “It’s very, very cheap, especially in the Premier League. I am not £3m — I’m probably worth a little bit more.”
The German international insisted he still has a “connection” with Arsenal, saying: “I was really happy with my performances. Even when they dropped me, I did nothing wrong.”
After sitting on the bench for the opening two games of his first season, just days after he had joined, Leno has since started all 88 Premier League matches for Fulham, becoming one of Marco Silva’s most trusted players.
The arrival of Iwobi at Craven Cottage came a season later, when he made his deadline-day move from Everton. Iwobi was one of very few players who came out of the Unai Emery era at Arsenal with any credit. Everton paid big — as much as £34m — but he found it tough to express himself in a defensively rigid system and was always a London boy at heart.
He had joined Arsenal’s academy while still in primary school, and despite being almost released on two occasions he broke into the first team aged 19. The sixth senior start of his career came in the Champions League against Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
If a piece of the Nigeria international went missing at Everton, it is most certainly back now. “Alex has been incredible in all his roles,” Silva said this week in a nod to his versatility. “I felt he was going to be even better for us [this season]. What a player he is.
“I call him a happy boy. When you are in a happy place, when you are so positive and people around you are positive, I think good things will come to you.”
Good things certainly came to Iwobi and Fulham in July, when the Cottagers paid £34m to sign the player Silva had most wanted: Smith Rowe.
Iwobi and Smith Rowe had overlapped at Arsenal for nine years and the Nigeria midfielder interrupted Smith Rowe’s medical to tell him how happy he was that he was joining him at Fulham.
Three man-of-the-match awards later, and Smith Rowe is feeling loved again, having fallen out of favour at Arsenal after time out of Arteta’s team with groin and hamstring injuries.
In the summer, Silva had phoned him up and told him that he would build Fulham’s attack around him. The rest is history.
“I told our board that we had to go with everything that we can, because we needed a player like him,” said the Portuguese.
Silva phoned Smith Rowe and told him he would build Fulham’s attack around him. The rest is history
“He is a lovely kid. He wants to learn, he wants to improve. He is already a really good player; he is going to become a man and top player.”
There is hope that the same level of success will follow for Nelson, still contracted to the Gunners but on loan at Fulham where he is getting more game time and making a name for himself on the left wing. West Ham wanted him, Ipswich thought they were getting him, but deadline-day interest from Fulham swayed him.
After Nelson’s first start against Brentford, when he linked up well with ex-Arsenal team-mate Smith Rowe, Silva explained: “We wanted one-v-ones down the left-hand side with Reiss Nelson. He has made a good impact in our squad so far. He is going to help us, for sure, to be stronger throughout the season.”
All four players sought opportunities away from the Emirates. That they all ended up at Fulham is perhaps a coincidence, but that they are all making a success of their new venture is not. The question is, will more Gunners follow suit?
