5/10 Arsenal star just had his worst game all season

Another massive opportunity missed for Arsenal; that’s what this feels like,

With Storm Darragh postponing Liverpool’s clash with fierce rivals Everton on Saturday, Mikel Arteta’s men had the opportunity to bridge the gap to just four points. Alas, they could take that golden chance.

The Gunners failed to get the better of Fulham last season and it was a clash at Craven Cottage on New Year’s Eve where the title was perhaps lost. On that occasion, Arteta’s side lost 2-1. This time around it was 1-1.

Not disastrous, that is true, but it’s yet more dropped points for a team that since the last break had been flawless.

Arsenal have knocked three past Nottingham Forest, five past Sporting, another five past West Ham and two past Manchester United. Fulham stopped them in their tracks, yet again.

So, where did it all go wrong?

Arsenal’s poorest performers against Fulham

While William Saliba scored a second goal in as many matches, there weren’t many on the away side who shone truth be told.

Instead, it was a team of underperformers with Jakub Kiwior the notable culprit at the back when Raul Jimenez opened the scoring.

Kenny Tete played a ball in behind and the Polish defender – deputising for the injured Gabriel once again – was caught in two minds.

Should he go towards the ball or should he follow the player? Kiwior did neither. He left an acre of space down Fulham’s right channel which Jimenez duly exposed.

He raced away from the Poland international and even with Saliba coming across to cover, it did not deter the Mexican who fired home a lovely finish.

Arsenal did fight back but they were not given much of a helping hand by their forward line. Bukayo Saka did look to have won it with a late header at the back post but Gabriel Martinelli was caught ball-watching and was adjudged to have been offside in the build-up.

As for Leandro Trossard who started ahead of the Brazilian, he faded in and out of proceedings as he so often does.

Another underperformer was substitute Gabriel Jesus, but something had to change and Kai Havertz needed to be brought off.

Kai Havertz’s performance in numbers

Last summer Arsenal ignored the need to bring in a centre forward. Havertz had done a sterling job towards the back end of last season and indeed, started the current campaign like a house on fire.

The German scored four goals in his first seven league outings but in the following seven Premier League matches, he has scored just once.

It’s not too much of a cause for concern given the form of Saka and Martin Odegaard but his flaws were laid bare at the Cottage on Sunday afternoon.

Admittedly, Havertz played a key role in the goal, nodding the ball across the box for Saliba to tap home, but that was his only important contribution during what was arguably his worst performance of the season.

Handed a 5/10 match rating by Football.London’s Kaya Kaynak, he wrote at full-time that the former Chelsea man was ‘non-existent for much of the match’ and ‘lacked conviction in the No.9 spot’.

That has been a rarity this season it must be said, but it showed why Arteta could do with investing in a proper penalty box poacher.

Havertz was unable to make it stick and rarely got involved, making just 15 passes in his 74 minutes on the field, two fewer than goalkeeper David Raya.

So used to battling hard against the centre-backs, his duel winning left plenty to be desired too, winning only two of his five contests.

It was an incredibly wasteful display from the £65m signing who committed more fouls (1) and was caught offside on more occasions (2) than he had shots on target.

Jesus ultimately replaced him but the Brazilian was hardly much better, completing an abysmal 17% of his passes.

Where do Arsenal go from here? Well, with the January transfer window set to open in a matter of weeks, perhaps a forward has become a necessity, rather than a luxury purchase.