Leandro Trossard registered a first-half hat-trick of assists as Arsenal (opens in new tab) maintained their five-point Premier League lead over Manchester Metropolis (opens in new tab) by sweeping Fulham (opens in new tab) apart 3-0 at Craven Cottage.
Lining up at centre-forward as soon as once more, Trossard – a January arrival from Brighton (opens in new tab) – doubled his assists tally for the season.
The Belgian first teed up Gabriel’s header from a nook halfway by the opening 45 minutes, earlier than crossing for Gabriel Martinelli to nod in 5 minutes later; he then delivered one other effective cross for Martin Odegaard to strike the Gunners’ third purpose in stoppage time.
Fulham improved after the break, however the injury had already lengthy been accomplished by Mikel Arteta’s ruthless guests – who made it 5 league wins on the bounce since final month’s loss to Metropolis.
Together with his man-of-the-match efficiency, Trossard turned the primary Arsenal participant in 5 years to arrange three targets in a single Premier League recreation – since Henrikh Mkhitaryan did so in a 5-1 rout of Everton (opens in new tab) in February 2018.
Sunday’s victory additionally noticed the Gunners surpass their 2021/22 league targets tally of 61, reaching 62 for the present marketing campaign with 11 video games nonetheless to play.
Arsenal now head into a house triple-header: they face Sporting Lisbon within the second leg of their Europa League final 16 tie on Thursday, earlier than taking over Crystal Palace (opens in new tab) and Leeds (opens in new tab) within the Premier League both facet of the worldwide break.
Fulham, in the meantime, slip to eighth within the league after their second successive defeat; they journey to Manchester United (opens in new tab) within the quarter-finals of the FA Cup subsequent Sunday.
