Fulham are destroyed by classy Arsenal

Fulham 1 Arsenal 5

Fulham’s defensive shortcomings were ruthlessly exposed as Arsenal stormed to a ninth consecutive win.

Andre Schurrle equalised a minute before half-time after Alexandre Lacazette’s excellent finish just before the half-hour mark had put Arsenal ahead.

But Lacazette restored the Gunners’ lead early in the second half, Aaron Ramsey made it 3-1 just after coming on as a substitute, and two late goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang completed the rout.

Lacazette started and finished a fine move to open the scoring against the run of play with the first of his two goals.

He found Alex Iwobi, who drifted into space on the left and picked out Nacho Monreal, whose low ball into the box was superbly controlled by Lacazette before the Frenchman fired home.

Shortly after missing a decent chance to level for Fulham, former Chelsea man Schurrle collected Luciano Vietto’s lovely pass and clipped the ball over keeper Bernd Leno.

However, just after producing a superb save to keep out Hector Bellerin’s strike, keeper Marcus Bettinelli was unable to stop Lacazette’s 25-yard shot after he had been teed up by Danny Welbeck.

Worse followed for the Whites when Ramsey finished off a glorious one-touch move by back-heeling Aubameyang’s low cross into the net

As the home defence crumbled, Aubameyang helped himself to his first and Arsenal’s fourth, collecting Bellerin’s low cross and taking a touch before applying the finish.

And in injury time, Aubameyang slotted into the bottom corner after being set up by Ramsey – the 21st Premier League goal conceded by Fulham this season.

Fulham made a lively start and caused Arsenal some early problems.

Vietto intercepted a careless back-pass from Bellerin and saw his deflected shot saved by Leno.

Vietto was again in the thick of the action when he swung in a cross towards Aleksandar Mitrovic, who was thwarted by Shkodran Mustafi as the striker looked to apply the finish.

As Fulham kept up the first-half pressure, Mitovic volleyed over after Arsenal were unable to clear Jean Michael Seri’s free-kick.

But Unai Emery’s team got a foothold in the game in emphatic fashion and would have doubled their lead had Bettinelli not denied Henrik Mkhitaryan after Welbeck had found more space on Fulham’s right-hand side.

The hosts battled on and were rewarded by Schurrle’s third goal since his return to west London from Borussia Dortmund, but Arsenal took total control in a one-sided second half.