Mikel Arteta hailed the character Gabriel Magalhaes showed after the Brazilian’s late winner saved his own blushes and those of Bukayo Saka, too.
Saka, from out on the right-hand side, should not have played the ball in towards Gabriel on his own penalty spot midway through the second half. “That’s clear,” Arteta said when asked if he felt that was the case.
But after a decent enough first touch from the central defender, a dreadful second let him down and gave Aleksandar Mitrovic all the opening he needed to nick the ball off him and fire Fulham into a lead they did not deserve.
There have been times in recent seasons when Arsenal, who had dominated the game, would have dropped their heads. Times the supporters inside the Emirates would have turned on them and sent them right back into their shells.
But Arteta’s team are seemingly made of sterner stuff these days, and they kept their heads for Martin Odegaard to draw them level before Gabriel popped up in the Fulham box late on to stab home the winner.
Arteta, whose side were without Oleks Zinchenko and Thomas Partey through injury, added: “This is part of football, mistakes are part of it and it’s going to continue to happen. It’s about how you respond to that and I’m really pleased.
“It’s not a coincidence because Gabi has changed his mentality and the way he approaches every day is different to a year ago. How he looks after himself every day, what is most important in his life apart from his little daughter and his family, and how consistent he is every day in his habits and how much he really wants to become one of the best.”
There was a special mention for captain Odegaard, too, with Arteta asked whether it was the kind of performance which showed why he has been given the armband.
“Influence,” Arteta said. “And in difficult moments take the ball, that’s what he has done. I’m really happy with the performance, with the attitude and the mentality the team showed.
“We were on top of the game. It was about being patient because the goal would come because we were deserving that, but we had to avoid mistakes.
“We made an error, it cost us again, but even though that happened against adversity, Gabi, individually for how he continued to play, and the team were impressive.”
What a cracking game this ended up being.
In the first half, Arsenal dominated possession but Fulham defended really well with chances few and far between. The best fell to Saka and the youngster will perhaps wish he’d shot first time instead of taking an extra touch and not making the most of the opportunity.
Fulham were a different side after the break, and soon Saka and Gabriel contrived to present Mitrovic the chance from which he scored his fourth goal in four games.
Saka reacted well, though, and it was from his little nudged pass that Odegaard set himself, his effort taking a deflection past former Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno off Tosin Adarabioyo.
Leno’s replacement at the Emirates, Aaron Ramsdale, dealt well with a header from Mitrovic and that gave the home side the platform to mount another push for victory. And they duly took their chance when it came, Gabriel stabbing home after Leno had failed to deal with Gabriel Martinelli’s corner.
Fulham boss Marco Silva said: “It was a tough, tough result. Credit for our players, they deserved more than we took from this game.
“Arsenal’s obligation was more possession, more shots, more corners, but I didn’t see many clear chances from them.
“It was a better second half on the ball from ourselves than the first. Credit to Arsenal for the way they pressed us in the first half. But with our defensive organisation we did really well.
“It was really bad luck we conceded these two goals. The way they scored the first goal with the deflection is really bad luck and we don’t know how they scored the second.”
