Arsenal just don't do easy against Fulham. It really should have been easy, but in one of the poorest performances from an Arsenal side this season, the North London club escaped with a 1-0 win over 10-man Fulham in their English Premier League game at at Craven Cottage.
The Cottagers were down to ten men after just 13 minutes, after Steve Sidwell was given a disputable straight red for a challenge on Mikel Arteta.
Per Mertesacker scored the winner just before halftime, with Arsenal, who were holding on for dear life in the final 20 minutes, finding themselves a man down in the final moments as Olivier Giroud was sent off.
However, Arsene Wenger will surely say a win is a win and the three points takes them up back to third on 63 points, two more than Chelsea, who have two games in hand.
The win, also, puts the pressure back on Chelsea and Tottenham, who play Liverpool and Manchester City respectively Sunday. Everton's challenge for a top-four pretty much ended with a 1-0 loss to Paulo Di Canio's Sunderland.
Arsenal made a couple of changes to their starting lineup, with Tomas Rosicky and Nacho Monreal expectedly coming in for Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs respectively.
The game wove an expected pattern, with Arsenal enjoying the bulk of the possession, while Fulham looked to break on the counter-attack.
In the second minute, Fulham almost broke through as right-back Stanislav Manolev, in for the injured Sashca Riether, made a searing run Arsenal's left, before giving the ball to Urby Emanuelson inside the penalty box. The winger, however, chose to play the ball across the box instead of taking a shot as Arsenal snuffed out the chance.
Theo Walcott had a goal disallowed correctly for offside, before the turning point of the match came just past the ten-minute mark. With less than 12 minutes on the clock, Steve Sidwell, who was just making his return from a three-match ban, lunged one-footed on Mikel Arteta, catching the Arsenal midfielder flush on the ankle with his studs.
Referee Andre Marriner had no hesitation in taking out the red card and sending the player off - it was a decision that was more yellow than red, even if it might be difficult to argue against the red.
However, after being reduced to ten men, it was Fulham who looked like the better side, as the home side showed a lot of spirit and looked dangerous on the counter.
Arsenal were poor really, giving Fulham's midfielders too much time on the ball, and allowing them to pick out the right passes.
Dimitar Berbatov nearly made it 1-0 soon after the red card, with the Bulgarian, after being sent free by a pass from Bryan Ruiz, seeing his shot at the near post well saved by Wojciech Szczesny.
Giroud hit the woodwork with a nice shot on the turn, before Emanuelson forced another save from Szczesny at the other end.
Arsenal finally broke through two minutes before halftime, from an unlikely source. Walcott swung in a freekick towards the far post, which Laurent Koscielny rather mishit with his head; but Per Mertesacker followed his fellow defender's shot in, nodding home into an empty net from three yards.
The first half was not too good for Arsenal, but the second half was even worse, as the Arsenal forwards just failed to find any sport of penetration, while leaving their defenders with a lot of work to do.
Fulham were by far the better side in the second 45, and for the final 20 minutes, they really threatened the Arsenal goal.
In fact it was almost like Arsenal were down to ten men and the Cottagers were playing with a man up. Manolev found the back of the net for Fulham after a freekick from Kieran Richardson was only tipped straight to the defender by Szczesny. But, the goalkeeper breathed a sigh of relief as the assistant referee correctly raised her flag for offside.
In the final minute of normal time, Giroud was given his marching orders for an over the top tackle on Manolev, as Fulham kept up the pressure in stoppage time. The Gunners just about saw off the final moments to take what could prove to be a precious three points.
Results: Swansea 0-0 Southampton; QPR 0-2 Stoke; Fulham 0-1 Arsenal; Norwich 2-1 Reading; West Brom 1-1 Newcastle; West Ham 2-0 Wigan; Sunderland 1-0 Everton.
