EPL: Arsenal beat Fulham to restore five-point lead, Casemiro off as Southampton earn draw at Old Trafford

Arsenal restored their five-point advantage at the top of the Premier League in outstanding fashion with a ruthless victory at Fulham.

Mikel Arteta’s side responded to Manchester City’s narrow victory at Crystal Palace on Saturday night by wrapping up this win by half-time as they opened up a 3-0 lead with a devastating attacking display.

Gabriel Martinelli had already had a goal narrowly ruled out for offside by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), before defender Gabriel headed in Leandro Trossard’s corner after 21 minutes – the first of a trio of assists for the Belgian.

Trossard then crossed for Martinelli to beat the static Antonee Robinson to head home at the far post five minutes later, before providing the delivery for captain Martin Odegaard’s cool finish in first-half stoppage time.

Fulham mounted a belated threat after the break as visiting keeper Aaron Ramsdale denied Bobby de Cordova-Reid, while Tosin Adarabioyo headed against the woodwork.

Arsenal, however, were always in control and Arteta was able to re-introduce influential striker Gabriel Jesus for the first time since he required knee surgery after being injured playing for Brazil against Cameroon at the World Cup for a 13-minute cameo.

At Old Trafford, Casemiro was dismissed after 34 minutes of the 0-0 draw for a tackle on Carlos Alcaraz, but Ten Hag has not ruled out an appeal.

The midfielder’s sending off followed a VAR review, with referee Anthony Taylor overturning his initial decision to show a yellow card for a tackle that hit the top of the ball first before going into Southampton forward Alcaraz’s leg.

As Casemiro was also dismissed against Crystal Palace last month, an additional game will be added to an automatic three-match ban, meaning he won’t be able to play a domestic match again until the trip to Nottingham Forest on 15 April.

“When you freeze anything it looks bad – but everyone who knows something about top football knows what is bad and what is fair,” said Ten Hag. “And Casemiro is a really fair player. Tough but fair.

“It shows, he had played over 500 games in big leagues and never been sent off. Now it has happened twice.”

Ten Hag complained about the lack of consistency in the use of VAR, noting the referee was not sent to the monitor to review controversial incidents in Saturday’s game between Leicester and Chelsea.

Despite having a man advantage for almost an hour and managing 17 shots, Southampton were unable to capitalise and remain bottom of the Premier League.

Even before Casemiro’s early exit, David de Gea needed to make a brilliant reaction save to turn away Theo Walcott’s close-range header.

De Gea then produced a one-handed save after the break when Walcott ran clear of the home defence, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka cleared off the line when Scott McTominay turned a Kyle Walker-Peters cross towards his own goal. In addition, James Ward-Prowse’s free-kick skimmed of the top of the bar and Walker-Peters also hit a post with an angled drive.

United had some dangerous moments themselves, with captain Bruno Fernandes’ goalbound effort tipped on to the inside of a post by Gavin Bazunu.

The result consolidated United’s top-four position, whilst Southampton are effectively three points from safety given their goal difference, with 12 games of the campaign remaining.