Brazilians Willian, Gabriel deliver on debuts in Arsenal win

Opening day glory for Arsenal, and with Brazilian duo Willian and Gabriel instantly making a difference on ir debuts.

t every opponent Arsenal faces during rest of season will, however, be as easy to roll past as Fulham was on Saturday.

For w, Mikel Arteta will savor opening his first full English Premier League as manr with a 3-0 victory produced by a trio of assists from Willian, including for Gabriel's second-half header.

“I don’t think it gets much better than that," Arteta said. "It’s really good for m, for ir confidence, ir belief and to settle in group quickly. That’s always a challenge when you bring in new players, but way y played today and commitment y showed with boys was terrific.”

Willian was back in west London where nearby Chelsea released 32-year-old winger at end of last season, which ended only seven weeks ago due to disruption caused by pandemic.

free signing took just eight minutes to make an impact with a close-range shot parried by goalkeeper Marek Rodak and tapped in by Alexandre Lacazette.

It was a corner from Willian four minutes into second half that allowed Gabriel to claim a goal to cap a commanding defensive display. center back, who joined from Lille for 30 million euros ($35 million), benefited from slack defending himself as he was left unmarked to head into net.

“"He had only trained (for) a few days with team," Arteta said. "Physically, he hasn’t played a competitive match in six months. So obviously re was a risk of injury as well but credit to him, he performed really well, physically he felt good and he was a handful.”

third goal came from a player Arsenal fans are waiting on confirmation will be staying beyond this season. This was ar reminder of quality of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who faced little resistance after meeting Willian's pass, before cutting in and curling into top corner.

It was a chastening start to life back in top flight for Fulham. Just like Craven Cott — where stand by River Thames still is being constructed — manr Scott Parker has a lot of work ahead if west London club is to survive in world's richest league.

“When you are a team like us you need to quickly learn and that has been constant mess from me since we have been back,” Parker siad. “This year we are going to lose football matches, but what we can’t afford to do is when you go and lose two or three on bounce — which is going to happen with us — let it cripple you.

“You need to learn from it, you need to develop, you need to be big eugh to understand where mistakes are made.”

Premier League started a month later than scheduled due to pandemic that is still preventing fans from attending games.

Arsenal has already played once this season without fans — winning Community Shield at Wembley Stadium.

Picking up trophies wasn't problem in August, with month starting in FA Cup glory. challenge is returning to Premier League's top four to qualify for Champions League for first time since 2016-17 season after finishing eighth last season.

only blot on opening day for Arsenal was Eddie Nketiah and Dani Ceballos needing to be separated in warm-up after clashing.

“I haven’t seen anything, sorry," Arteta said. "I was inside.”

But Ceballos later posted a photo alongside Nketiah on Instagram, saying, “ problems here my bror.”

Im credits: AP