Arsenal star, worth £42m, becomes one of their best players

Arsenal remain at the top of the Premier League table for another week.

On Saturday night, in a match that was far from exciting, Mikel Arteta’s side battled to a 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage against Fulham; Gabriel’s shot from a corner goes over the line through Leandro Trossard’s thigh.

Cue the familiar song: play the song again, olé olé!

That makes it five wins in all competitions for the Gunners while, in a second successive Premier League match, their opponents have failed to register a single shot on target, the first time Arsenal have done so since against Birmingham and, coincidentally, Fulham in the Invincibles’ 2003/04 season.

While man-of-the-match Bukayo Saka and match-winner Trossard, more on him in just a second, will grab the headlines, another of Arteta’s most trusted disciples has also highlighted his importance to this west London side.

Arsenal’s star man against Fulham

With Eberechi Eze deployed centrally to fill Martin Ødegaard’s void, the biggest team selection headache Arteta faced on Saturday was who to deploy on the left wing.

Both options had been framed during the international break; Trossard scored for Belgium in Cardiff, while Martinelli scored for Brazil in Tokyo, but Arteta will certainly feel vindicated in his decision.

After scoring as a substitute against Athletic Club and Port Vale last month, Trossard has started each of the last five Premier League and Champions League matches, forcing his first league goal of the campaign at the weekend, and what an important goal that could prove to be.

However, this is nothing new, with the Belgian taking his tally to 31 goals and 25 assists for the Gunners, averaging goals every 130 minutes.

Indeed, since his debut in January 2023, only Saka (42 goals) has scored more times for Arsenal than Trossard, just ahead of Kai Havertz and Martinelli, both with 29 goals.

So while Trossard will rightly receive plenty of plaudits, which other Arsenal player deserves to be highlighted for his eye-catching performance at Craven Cottage?

Mikel Arteta’s new favorite chaos merchant

The emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly was one of the key storylines of last season.

In the space of just five months, the teenager has gone from winning the EFL in front of 2,400 people to starting Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

This season however, the England international has yet to start a Premier League match, through no fault of his own, it bears repeating, simply because Arteta is in love with what Riccardo Calafiori is offering.

The Italy international has logged just 1,497 minutes in his first season in north London, starting just 16 matches in all competitions, but has started all eight Premier League matches to date this time around, managing to stay injury-free so far.

His performance at Fulham on Saturday night was Calafiori at his chaotic best.

As the chart shows, while Calafiori’s stats don’t stand out for any one metric, he ranks highly for a wide variety of numbers, highlighting that he contributes all over the field.

Early in the first half the £42m Italian thought he had broken the deadlock but his thunderous volley was disallowed for offside, a goal which journalist Charles Watts said could be one of the best disallowed goals in Arsenal’s modern history.

Now that you think about it, Pépé v Chelsea in the FA Cup final, Trossard at Leicester and Gabriel v Bournemouth are the other main contenders.

Returning to Calafiori, he continues to impress, with Arseblog’s Andrew Mangan calling him “very solid defensively again” while, paradoxically, CBS’ James Benge says he is “the most electrifying man in sports entertainment.”

To support this, surprisingly, the left-back has attempted 16 shots in the Premier League this season, scoring at Old Trafford on matchday one of course, the second most of any Arsenal player, behind center forward Viktor Gyökeres.

It is for this reason that he has arguably been just as important as star man Saka in recent times.

Indeed, the fact that the defender is able to combine excellent defensive presence with chaotic delivery on the ball, something this Arsenal team often lacks, especially when coming up against a low block, is absolutely invaluable.

On Saturday, Arteta’s side kept their eighth clean sheet in just 11 matches in all competitions this season, staggering figures that would not be possible if a quartet of their back four were somehow a defensive liability.

William Saliba and Gabriel rightly receive a lot of praise, while Jurriën Timber’s outstanding performances this season have also earned a lot of praise, but Calafiori’s contribution should not be overlooked, given that he offers a lot to this team, literally all over the pitch.