{"id":16633,"date":"2020-09-12T10:04:40","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T14:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633"},"modified":"2020-09-13T10:06:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T14:06:51","slug":"willian-makes-impact-as-gunners-defeat-fulham-in-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633","title":{"rendered":"Willian Makes Impact As Gunners Defeat Fulham In Season Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/arsenal_fulham.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/arsenal_fulham.png 600w, https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/arsenal_fulham-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Willian registered three assists on his Arsenal debut as the Gunners beat Fulham 3-0 in the opening game of the 2020\/2021 Premier League season.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old signed on a free transfer after Chelsea refused to offer him a three-year contract and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will be delighted with his new signing.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal opened the scoring after eight minutes as Alexandre Lacazette tapped in.<\/p>\n<p>Moments after Fulham had a shot saved by Bernd Leno, Arsenal took the lead.<\/p>\n<p>Lacazette reacted quickest following a scramble in the box to tap the ball past Marek Rodak and score the first Premier League goal of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Willian hit the post but the Gunners were unable to extend their lead and were 1-0 up at the break. Fulham started the second half sluggishly and were punished for it in the 48th minute.<\/p>\n<p>Debutante Gabriel rose above Michael Hector to meet a Willian corner to head home during his first match in an Arsenal shirt.<\/p>\n<p>The home side were then caught almost immediately on the break and captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang weaved through the defense before curling the ball past Rodak to all but secure the three points for the Gunners just before the hour mark.<\/p>\n<p>Goalscorer Lacazette was delighted with Arsenal\u2019s winning start and paid tribute to the work conducted on the training ground this week.<\/p>\n<p>Lacazette told BT Sport: \u201cIt was the best way to start the season. We did some good things defensively and respect what the coach wanted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wants us to be perfect and we work a lot in the week for this game, because we know it\u2019s important for the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a big ambition and I want to help the team to be on top. I want to do my job and try to do my best this season. I\u2019m really happy with Arsenal, I want to play and win the title.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-16633\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-16633\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-16633\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Willian registered three assists on his Arsenal debut as the Gunners beat Fulham 3-0 in the opening game of the 2020\/2021 Premier League season. The 32-year-old signed on a free transfer after Chelsea refused to offer him a three-year contract&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-16633\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-16633\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-16633\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16633\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16635,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions\/16635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}