Arsenal have not made things easy for their fans at the Emirates Stadium this calendar year.
For the third time in nine home games, the Gunners conceded in the opening minute. After watching Bournemouth and Southampton benefit from Arsenal's sluggish starts at the back end of last season, Fulham took the lead through Andreas Pereira inside 57 seconds on Saturday afternoon.
Fulham were subjected to an onslaught from the dark clouds in the London sky and Arsenal's front line. The Cottagers held on until the 70th minute before Kenny Tete gave away a penalty. Two minutes after Bukayo Saka converted from 12 yards, Eddie Nketiah had the Gunners in front. Calvin Bassey's 83rd-minute red card gave Arsenal all the impetus to see out a third consecutive victory to start the new season.
Yet, Joao Palhinha provided one final twist in an enthralling contest. The combative midfielder attacked Harrison Reed's corner like a 50-50 challenge, stabbing Fulham level with three minutes of normal time remaining.
Here are the Arsenal players who shone and stumbled amid the chaos of Saturday's thriller.
Arsenal's best player vs Fulham
Bukayo Saka - 8/10
It was Saka's shanked back-pass that gifted Fulham a careless opening goal but he did more than enough to rectify his misstep.
Antonee Robinson is nicknamed 'Jedi' but it was Arsenal's record-breaker who was playing the mind tricks, leaving Fulham's beleaguered Fulham in knots with his supreme combination of skill and strength.
Saka perhaps should have found the net from open play but impressively held his nerve to be reinstated as Arsenal's penalty taker and outfox his former teammate Bernd Leno from 12 yards.
Honourable mention
Fabio Vieira - 8/10
In less than one half of football, Fabio Vieira arguably had more impact on proceedings than all of his previous Arsenal appearances combined.
The replacement for Kai Havertz - who couldn't do anything to alter the forlorn look he lugs around with him - swung the contest in Arsenal's favour once he came off the bench. After winning Saka's penalty, Vieira kept a cool head amid of the chaos of a counterattack, with bodies strewn across the pitch like a battlefield, to tee up Eddie Nketiah.
Surely Vieira's moments - and Havertz's mediocrity - will persuade Mikel Arteta to give him a start in Arsenal's next match.
Arsenal's worst player vs Fulham
Thomas Partey - 3/10
Arteta ended Thomas Partey's experiment at right-back after 56 minutes on Saturday. It remains to be seen if the desperately awkward fit will make another appearance this season.
Theoretically, Partey is performing the same role as Oleksandr Zinchenko, stepping into midfield from full-back, but the gulf between the two players was painfully evident when the Ukrainian came on to dictate play in the second half.
As a natural midfielder forced into this complex position after a spate of defensive absences - be it through injury or suspension - Partey's recoveries into Arsenal's backline are understandably sluggish. Yet, Arteta's insistence on starting the 30-year-old at right-back in each of the club's three league matches is more perplexing.
Dishonourable mention
Ben White - 3/10
Arsenal have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine Premier League games at the Emirates. Ben White is hardly the sole culprit in that damaging run but his unconvincing display against Fulham was emblematic of the team's skittish rearguard.
Much like Partey, White has suffered from the tactical tweaks that Arteta has implemented this term. As soon as Zinchenko strode purposefully onto the pitch, White looked far more comfortable haring forward in support of Saka from a right-back position.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Arsenal's best and worst players from thrilling Fulham draw.
