Arsenal

Premier League leaders Arsenal did enough to hold Sporting Lisbon to a 2-2 draw in a lively first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday.

Register for free to Reuters and know the full story Victor Boniface opened the scoring for the visitors in the 28th minute and Josip Juranovic levelled just before the break. In Germany, Belgian side Royale Union almost shocked Union Berlin, who are third in the Bundesliga and had to fight back to earn a 3-3 draw after going behind three times.

Indecision plagued a performance that struggled to get off the ground, and that cost Mikel Arteta's side in the first leg of their Europa League last 16 tie.

Two of those players and the still-injured [Gabriel Jesus](https://theathletic.com/football/player/gabriel-jesus-lmzbBZ9WUccDYEbt/) were not available to add to the absences of Tierney and Odegaard. And it was in the closing stages of 2021-22 that Xhaka was first used in his more advanced role before hitting his stride during the first half of this campaign. Maybe it does not need to, but Arsenal’s second-string need to be better than they have been this season. This was a theme that also caused their levels to dip in early February, with the inactivity in defence coming to the fore as they trailed 2-1 at half-time of a 4-2 away win over [Aston Villa](https://theathletic.com/football/team/aston-villa/) — both Villa goals coming from a lack of intensity off the ball. If we don’t expose them (the players who came into the team) though, that’s never going to happen.” That moment of indecision lost Gabriel valuable seconds and, despite winning a throw-in, the Sporting player doing the pressing managed to keep Arsenal penned in. The groundwork was laid two years ago when Arteta first trialled Arteta’s six changes to his starting XI were mostly expected. Arsenal’s determination to take the initiative has carried them through some tough moments of late, but indecision, combined with tired legs meant that did not happen late on here. When the ball was lost in midfield minutes later, however, the defence backpedalled. Martinelli had two chances go astray (both courtesy of Zinchenko deliveries) while Vieira saw a snapshot flash just wide. “When you concede two poor goals, like we did, away from home in Europe it’s very difficult to get a positive result.

Arsenal have conceded four goals in two games after shipping two apiece against Bournemouth and Sporting Lisbon; Mikel Arteta insisted his side must improve ...

We made a lot of changes today and sometimes that takes time to get that cohesion. "We had some positives because we showed a lot of resilience to get back in the game," he continued. You could feel in the first 15 minutes that it needed some time to adapt and click. "But we need to defend our box much better and we have to be in the return leg to beat them. "In other moments we had total control of the game and we lost a little bit of threat today, especially with the four players we are missing in our frontline. Mikel Arteta urged his much-changed Arsenal side to improve 'massively' after they needed to fight back to earn a scrappy 2-2 draw with Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday.

Watch all the best of the action from our game against the Portuguese giants at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.

Copyright 2023 The Arsenal Football Club plc. However, Granit Xhaka’s shot spun off Hidemasa Morita and into the corner of the net to help ensure we went into the second leg at Emirates Stadium next week level pegging, and you can see that as well as everything else by watching the bitesize package above, with an extended cut and full match halves to come. Thursday night saw us battle it out with Sporting CP to claim a 2-2 draw in the Europa League, and you can see the best of the action in our highlights package.

Fulham host Premier League leaders Arsenal in this London derby at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon. Can Mikel Arteta's side win yet again?

Their most likely league finish is 10th (28.1%) or ninth (25.8%) while they still have a 0.6% chance of finishing in the top five. Fulham have lost just three of their 13 Premier League home games this season (W6 D4), going down to Newcastle, Man Utd and Spurs. Fulham’s poor Premier League record against the Gunners, coupled with four consecutive home defeats against them help to fuel this outcome. Manor Solomon has scored in each of his last five appearances for Fulham across all competitions (five goals). Bukayo Saka may have only turned 21 years old in September, but he’s already one of the best talents in the Premier League. Solomon, who had to deal with a knee injury that kept him out for the bulk of the Premier League action before the turn of the year after signing on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk, has arguably been Fulham’s key player in 2023. These three winners have all come in their last eight games (against Man Utd, Aston Villa and Bournemouth). Fulham’s defence has been impressive since the return of the Premier League post-World Cup on Boxing Day. This has helped the Gunners win a league-high 15 points from losing positions so far this term. The exceptions in this run were victories in March 2006 (vs. This was also the Serbian’s 100th goal in all competitions for Fulham. They have won all four of their away Premier League London derbies this season by an aggregate score of 8-0.

Arsenal's Reiss Nelson, left, challenges for the ball with Sporting's Pedro Goncalves, right, and Sporting's Jeremiah St. Juste during the Europa League round ...

“We had periods in the game where we were in a lot of control,” reflected Arteta after the match, adding “but we lacked a little bit of strength in the final third because we had to adjust today with the players we did not have available. Despite plenty of endeavour in the closing stages, along with a raft of substitutes, this tie looks evenly set in London next Thursday, after an absorbing draw here in the Portuguese capital. Equally concerning was the bizarre way new Serie A arrival Kiwior ducked out of the way of the ball en route to Inacio. While the former Spezia defender appeared to have a handy burst of pace when required, it was his abject failure to contest for the ball in his own workplace that lingered long in the memory, his baffling bungle prompting serious fears over his viable, long-term future rather than any misplaced hilarity at such a revealingly poor vignette into his defensive ability. Amorim’s side rallied, with 21-year-old Goncalo Inacio testing Turner with a low shot from outside the area that the US keeper did well to turn away for a corner. If balmy sunshine on the Iberian peninsula — rather than snow in Britain — was the order of the day, there were to be no last-minute fireworks to match the intensity of last weekend's improbable comeback against Bournemouth to speak of.

The FA have cleared Arsenal of any wrongdoing after reviewing the wild and chaotic celebrations caused by Reiss Nelson's dramatic stoppage time winner ...

'I've no comment to make on what Arsenal did. [Arsenal](/sport/teampages/arsenal.html) of any wrongdoing after reviewing the wild and chaotic celebrations caused by Reiss Nelson's stoppage time winner against [Bournemouth](/sport/teampages/bournemouth.html) last weekend. [Chris Kavanagh made a note of the celebrations after staff charged on the pitch](/sport/football/article-11826189/FA-looking-Arsenals-wild-celebrations-Reiss-Nelson-winner.html)

After Reiss Nelson's 97th-minute goal to put Arsenal 3-2 up, their bench rushed onto the field at the Emirates Stadium in celebration. Referee Chris Kavanagh ...

[Fulham](https://theathletic.com/football/team/fulham/) at Craven Cottage on Sunday. [Manchester City](https://theathletic.com/football/team/manchester-city/) at the top of the [Premier League](https://theathletic.com/football/premier-league/) and manager Mikel Arteta was asked about the wild celebrations after the game [Arsenal](https://theathletic.com/football/team/arsenal/) will not face any further action from the FA for their celebrations during their late win over [Bournemouth](https://theathletic.com/football/team/bournemouth/) last Saturday.

Mikel Arteta warned Arsenal must "dramatically improve" their set-piece defending and avoid conceding cheap goals to stay on track this season.

It's true that it's something we must improve dramatically in the next few games if we want to keep winning." [Paulinho](https://www.espn.com/soccer/player/_/id/258271/Paulinho) gave the home side the lead 10 minutes into the second half with a close-range finish before [Hidemasa Morita](https://www.espn.com/soccer/player/_/id/270752/Hidemasa-Morita) suffered the misfortune of diverting [Granit Xhaka](https://www.espn.com/soccer/player/_/id/149981/granit-xhaka)'s pass into his own net just after the hour mark. "Today we didn't defend that well enough and we have to be better at threatening the opponents as well. "Sometimes the opponents are really good at what they do. We spoke about the importance of boxes, especially in a competition when you're in or out. If we don't expose them though that's never going to happen.