{"id":4838,"date":"2019-01-01T12:19:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T17:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=4838"},"modified":"2019-01-02T09:20:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T14:20:52","slug":"gunners-start-firing-again-against-the-cottagers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=4838","title":{"rendered":"Gunners Start Firing Again Against The Cottagers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2.40425608.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4839\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2.40425608.jpg 600w, https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2.40425608-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Arsenal recovered from their thrashing at Liverpool by seeing off lowly Fulham at the Emirates Stadium \u2013 with Aaron Ramsey coming off the bench to wrap up the three points.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners were humbled by a 5-1 mauling at Anfield and still looked timid at times as Fulham missed a number of decent chances before Unai Emery\u2019s side ran out comfortable 4-1 winners.<\/p>\n<p>Goals from Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette, substitute Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added gloss to the scoreline, with Fulham\u2019s lone strike coming from Aboubakar Kamara.<\/p>\n<p>Emery replaced Lacazette with Ramsey, who has reportedly opened talks with a string of top European clubs about a summer move when his contract at Arsenal expires, and the Wales international scored a crucial third to give the hosts breathing space.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal should have been ahead inside three minutes as a nice move saw Xhaka feed Alex Iwobi, whose low cross was flashed over the crossbar from close range by Aubameyang.<\/p>\n<p>But the sort of lackluster first-half display that has become strangely synonymous with Emery\u2019s first half-season in charge soon followed.<\/p>\n<p>Fulham, with just two points and six goals on their travels, wasted two glorious chances to take an unexpected lead.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Sessegnon was the man who spurned both opportunities, firstly curling a shot wide after breaking in behind Arsenal\u2019s defense before fluffing his lines when picked out at the back post by Andre Schurrle.<\/p>\n<p>Just moments later and Fulham were made to pay for their profligacy as Xhaka turned home Iwobi\u2019s cross from six yards out after drifting into the box unmarked.<\/p>\n<p>Claudio Ranieri\u2019s side were still afforded chances by an Arsenal defense which showed how it had been so easily breached at Liverpool, goalkeeper Bernd Leno on hand to keep out Aleksandar Mitrovic\u2019s header.<\/p>\n<p>If Leno\u2019s first telling stop of the day was solid, his counterpart Sergio Rico made a spectacular save at the other end soon after to prevent Xhaka grabbing a second.<\/p>\n<p>Iwobi was impressing down the left and almost created another goal for the Gunners, only for Aubameyang to head inches wide as he connected with a cross to the near post.<\/p>\n<p>Rico was then alert to prevent Lacazette adding the second before the interval as he turned his strike behind.<\/p>\n<p>Emery\u2019s side needed less than 10 second-half minutes to double their lead, Lacazette on the spot to finish Sead Kolasinac\u2019s cut-back.<\/p>\n<p>The France striker passed up a fine chance to grab a third as he struck a shot too close to Rico before having a penalty shout turned down after a challenge from Fulham substitute Jean Michael Seri.<\/p>\n<p>Mitrovic headed straight at Leno as Fulham looked for a way back into the game, which came as Kamara arrived at the back post to sweep home Sessegnon\u2019s cross just nine minutes after his introduction off the bench \u2013 a moment the forward would have enjoyed after he missed a penalty he was not supposed to have taken in the recent win over Huddersfield.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal felt Lucas Torreira had been fouled by Seri in the build-up but referee Graham Scott was unmoved and the visitors were back in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Emery\u2019s decision to replace Lacazette with Ramsey was met with widespread jeers from the home support, with Arsenal seemingly holding on.<\/p>\n<p>But the Spaniard\u2019s decision was vindicated when Ramsey hit the third, reacting to Aubameyang hitting the post by sweeping in the rebound.<\/p>\n<p>The result was assured when Aubameyang rifled home a deflected shot for his 14th Premier League goal of the campaign.<\/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-4838\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" 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The Gunners were humbled by a 5-1 mauling at Anfield&#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-4838\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=4838&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-4838\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=4838&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-4838\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=4838&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=4838\" 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":4839,"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\/4838"}],"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=4838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4840,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions\/4840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}