Fulham 1-1 Arsenal: Late VAR drama as Gunners drop points in Premier League title race

Arsenal have failed to take advantage of Liverpool not being in action this weekend as a VAR check denied them a late winner against Fulham.

As a result of the Reds’ Merseyside derby clash against Everton being postponed due to Storm Darragh, the north London outfit were presented with the opportunity to close the gap on the Premier League leaders to four points.

However, despite moving above Chelsea in the table - albeit potentially for a couple of hours - and gaining some ground on Arne Slot’s side, the reaction from the Arsenal players at full-time suggested they felt it was two points dropped.

Though they dominated the opening exchanges, the Gunners fell behind after 10 minutes when Raul Jimenez sprung the offside trap, took one touch before drilling an effort beyond David Raya and into the bottom corner.

Set-pieces once again proved to be the best route for Mikel Arteta’s side as they equalised early in the second half when Declan Rice's whipped the corner found Kai Havertz who steered the ball into William Saliba's path to score.

A second goal in as many games for the Frenchman, though there was a nervous wait as VAR checked for offside before confirming the goal stood.

Thomas Partey wasted a glorious opportunity to give the visitors the lead as he glanced a header wide when five yards out but there was to be late drama at Craven Cottage.

With two minutes of normal time to play, Arsenal thought they had scored a winner through Bukayo Saka only for VAR to rule the goal out as substitute was Gabriel Martinelli in an offside position in the build up.

A run of three straight Premier League wins comes to an end for the Gunners and it remains to be seen just how damaging this result turns out to be.