Arsenal 3-3 Fulham

Mikel Arteta had a penalty saved with
the last kick of the game as Arsenal and
Fulham fought out a pulsating 3-3
draw at the Emirates.
Arteta was handed the chance to settle
a simply superb match, which lacked
any defensive responsibility, but he
was denied by an excellent Mark
Schwarzer stop that continued
Arsenal's frustrating run of form.
After a bright start from Fulham, it was
the home side who took the lead on 11
minutes when the excellent Olivier
Giroud got ahead of Aaron Hughes
and headed home Theo Walcott's
corner.
Fulham lost Kieran Richardson to a
hamstring injury and, while they were
waiting to replace him, Arteta set up
Podolski to make it 2-0 12 minutes
later, the German getting in front of
Sascha Riether to flick past Schwarzer.
But the visitors were never lacking in
threat and pulled a goal back on 29
when Dimitar Berbatov was lost by at
least four defenders and headed home
a Bryan Ruiz corner.
And five minutes before half-time, the
Emirates fans were left wondering
where their back-four were again when
Berbatov ran on to a finely-judged ball
down the right and Alex Kacaniklic
headed past Vito Mannone, who will
think he could have done more to
keep the ball out of the net.
Fulham nearly snatched the lead on
the stroke of half-time but Ashkan
Dejagah couldn't quite get enough on
John Arne Riise's cross and Arsenal
breathed a sigh of relief.
Ruiz snatched at a decent chance just
after the start of the second-half and,
at the other end, Walcott cut in from
the flank and fired just over the bar
from 20 yards.
More dreadful defending, this time
from Arteta, gave Fulham the lead on
67, the Spaniard losing possession and
bringing down Ruiz in the box, with
Berbatov making no mistake from the
spot.
Two minutes later the rollercoaster was
back on an even keel with Giroud's
shot hitting the post and rebounding
for Walcott to cross for the Frenchman
to score his second of the afternoon.
Giroud was only denied his hat-trick by
a superb save from Schwarzer, turning
his fierce 20-yarder around the post, as
a topsy-turvy game headed for the
final 10 minutes.
And there would be more drama in
the closing seconds with the last kick of
the game proving to be Arteta's
penalty, given for a marginal handball,
but Schwarzer came to the rescue with
a superb save to give Fulham a well-
deserved point.