English Premier

2025-10-18 - Fulham vs Arsenal

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Fulham v Arsenal
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 18th October 2025 - Kick Off 5:30pm
This game is live on TV

Fulham

Marco Silva must have been left scratching his head as to how his Fulham team conceded three late goals in a fixture at Bournemouth where they had looked relatively comfortable after scoring first. The manager will be looking for more consistency from his team who have been as strong at Craven Cottage as they have been vulnerable on their travels.

It all adds up to Fulham sitting in 14th place in the Premier League table with 8 points on the board and a large majority of those have been earned at Craven Cottage. They have a 2-1-0 record at home in the League where Fulham have scored 5 goals and conceded twice.

Fulham had won 3 games in a row before consecutive 3-1 Premier League defeats at Villa Park and the Vitality Stadium. All of those wins have been at Craven Cottage and Fulham have won 4 in a row here in all competitions since the 1-1 draw with Manchester United.

Kenny Tete and Rodrigo Muniz are expected to miss out, but Raul Jimenez is set to lead the line.

Arsenal

The 1-1 home draw with Manchester City was not seen in a positive light by outsiders who felt Mikel Arteta had kept the handbrake on for his Arsenal team. The Spaniard insisted his team had played well enough to win, but the criticism may have sparked something which has seen Arsenal producing strong attacking football in a good winning run entering the October international break.

It was important for Arsenal to put a streak of wins together at the same time that Champions Liverpool have been in a slump and that all adds up to The Gunners topping the Premier League table out of the October international break. They are only a point clear of Liverpool, but Arsenal can extend that gap by building on the 2-0-1 away record in the top flight.

Arsenal have won 4 in a row in all competitions since the draw with Manchester City and they have scored twice in each victory. They failed to score in a 1-0 defeat at Anfield, but Arsenal make a relatively short journey to West London having won 3 away games in a row in all competitions, including a late turnaround at Newcastle United in the last away League games played.

Declan Rice picked up a knock in the last Arsenal game, but has played for England during this international window. Both Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke are expected to miss the next set of fixtures, while Martin Odegaard is a doubt.

Head to Head

Arsenal picked up four points from the two League matches against Fulham last season, but had a late winner ruled out at Craven Cottage in a 1-1 draw in December 2024.

Fulham had lost 5 home games in a row against The Gunners, but have now won 1 and drawn 1 in the last couple of fixtures hosting this London rival.

Prediction

The early signs are that this is not going to be like recent seasons when teams at the top have been able to win match after match and put up at least 90 points in the bid to finish as Champions.

Between 2017 and 2024, the Champions finished with at least 90 points six times in eight seasons and Liverpool might have managed to reach that total last season if they had been given even a slightly tougher challenge.

This time around it feels there may be more vulnerabilities in the top teams and it says something that leaders Arsenal have already dropped 5 points.

However, Mikel Arteta will not want his team to think they can coast at any stage and Arsenal play before Champions Liverpool and can start putting some pressure on the title rivals.

Winning at Craven Cottage would be a big statement of their intent.

Fulham have been strong at home and remain unbeaten here, while they have won 4 in a row in front of the fans. Marco Silva's team are not playing at their very best, but they are dangerous and Fulham have given Arsenal something to think about in recent meetings.

Teams arrive at Craven Cottage expecting to be tested by a Fulham team that have some real quality in the final third and who will work hard to contain threats the other way.

Containing Arsenal will be a different test with the team very capable of exploiting set pieces, but also having players like Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze who should be able to open up spaces in normal play. That has been something missing, which is another area critics like to attack Arsenal, but the chances being created by Mikel Arteta's team in recent games cannot be ignored.

You should not ignore the fact Fulham have won 4 in a row at home, but two of those wins have been in the League Cup against lower Division opponents. The other two wins have been against Leeds United and Brentford and Fulham needed an injury time goal to beat the former, while Arsenal have to take encouragement from the strong performance Manchester United produced here before losing some energy.

Arsenal are a better defensive team than Manchester United and they have shown a bit more consistency in the final third, which all adds up to another three points to be secured by The Gunners.

It will be a battle and they will have to show they are up for that, but Arsenal proved something by scoring those late goals to beat Newcastle United at St James' Park three weeks ago.

They may not need to do the same here to earn the three points, but Arsenal are likely going to need two goals and they can produce those for a fifth fixture in a row in a winning effort.