Arsenal remain top of the Premier League table for another week.

On Saturday evening, in a game that was far from thrill a minute stuff, Mikel Arteta’s team battled to a 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage against Fulham; Gabriel’s flick-on from a corner bundled over the line by Leandro Trossard’s thigh.

Cue the familiar song: set piece again, olé olé!

That makes it five wins on the spin across all competitions for the Gunners while, in a second successive Premier League match, their opponents failed to register a single shot on target, the first time Arsenal have achieved this since doing so against Birmingham and, coincidentally, Fulham during the Invincibles season of 2003/04.

While man of the match Bukayo Saka and match-winner Trossard, more on him in just a second, will get the headlines, another of Arteta’s most-trusted disciples also underlined his importance to this team in West London.

Arsenal's star man against Fulham

With Eberechi Eze deployed centrally to fill Martin Ødegaard’s void, the biggest team selection headache facing Arteta on Saturday was who to deploy on the left wing.

Both options had been on target during the international break; Trossard netted for Belgium in Cardiff, while Martinelli scored for Brazil in Tokyo, but Arteta will certainly feel vindicated in his decision.

Having scored as a substitute against Athletic Club and Port Vale last month, Trossard has started each of the last five Premier League and Champions League fixtures, forcing over the line his first league goal of the campaign at the weekend, and what an important one it could prove to be.

This, though, is nothing new, with the Belgian taking his tally to 31 goals and 25 assists for the Gunners, averaging a goal contribution every 130 minutes.

In fact, since his debut in January 2023, only Saka (42 goals) has scored more times for Arsenal than Trossard, just ahead of Kai Havertz and Martinelli, both on 29 goals.

So, while Trossard will rightly get plenty of plaudits, which other Arsenal player deserves to be spotlighted for their eye-catching performance at Craven Cottage?

Mikel Arteta's new favourite chaos merchant

The emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly was one of the key storylines of last season.

In the space of only five months, the teenager went from playing in the EFL trophy in front of 2,400 people to starting Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

This season though, the England international is yet to start a Premier League match, through no fault of his own, it should be reiterated, purely because Arteta is enamoured with what Riccardo Calafiori offers.

The Italy international accumulated just 1,497 minutes during his first season in North London, starting only 16 matches across all competitions, but has started all eight Premier League fixtures to date this time round, so far managing to remain injury-free.

His performance at Fulham on Saturday evening was Calafiori at his chaotic best.

Expected goals

0.04

9th

Shots off target

1

3rd

Defensive actions

5

6th

Clearances

4

4th

Accurate passes

27

9th

Pass completion %

87%

9th*

Duels contested

9

6th

Aerial duels contested

5

4th

Touches

50

9th

Average rating

6.8

11th

*minimum 16 passes completed.

As the table outlines, while Calafiori’s statistics don’t stand out for any one metric in particular, he ranks highly for a wide variety of numbers, underlining that he is contributing all over the pitch.

Early in the first half, the £42m Italian thought he had broken the deadlock, only for his thunderous volley to be disallowed due to offside, one that journalist Charles Watts posits may be one of the best disallowed goals in modern Arsenal history.

Now that you’re thinking about it, Pépé vs Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, Trossard at Leicester and Gabriel against Bournemouth are the other leading contenders.

Back to Calafiori, he continues to impress, with Andrew Mangan of Arseblog labelling him ‘defensively very solid again’ while, paradoxically, James Benge of CBS asserts that he is “the most electrifying man in sports entertainment”.

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To support this, amazingly, the left-back has attempted 16 shots in the Premier League this season, scoring at Old Trafford on the opening day of course, the second-most of any Arsenal player, behind only centre-forward Viktor Gyökeres.

It’s for that reason that he has, undoubtedly, been just as important as star man Saka of late.

Indeed, the fact the defender is able to combine being an excellent defensive presence with being a chaotic on-ball contributor, something this Arsenal team often lacks, especially when coming up against a low block, is absolutely invaluable.

Saturday saw Arteta’s team keep their eighth clean sheet in just 11 matches across all competitions this season, staggering numbers that would not be possible if one quartet of their back four was in any way a defensive liability.

William Saliba and Gabriel rightly get plenty of plaudits, while Jurriën Timber’s exceptional performances this season have earned plenty of praise too, but Calafiori’s contribution should not be overlooked, given that he offers this team so much, literally all over the pitch.