Bukayo Saka’s ‘beautiful moment’ delights Mikel Arteta | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta hailed a “beautiful moment” after Bukayo Saka marked his return from more than three months out injured with a goal in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Fulham.

The England forward, who had not played since December 21, came off the bench in the 65th minute to a deafening ovation and soon after took the roof off the Emirates Stadium when he headed Gabriel Martinelli’s flick into an empty net to double his side’s lead.

Earlier, Mikel Merino had continued his own fine goalscoring form as his team’s stand-in number nine, opening the scoring with a deflected strike for his fifth goal in eight matches.

Rodrigo Muniz’s goal in stoppage time for Fulham came too late to put the result seriously in doubt.

The edge was taken off Arsenal celebrations however as defenders Gabriel and Jurrien Timber both went off injured. Both will undergo assessment on Wednesday but with a Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid a week away it was a worrying sight.

Nevertheless, Arteta was upbeat following Saka’s explosive return.

“A beautiful moment to see how much our people love, admire and respect Bukayo,” he said. “It’s not a surprise to any of us.

“The best example is his reaction. Immediately after scoring what does he do? He goes and says thank you for all the hard work all the sports science guys and physios have done for him.

“He lifted the stadium, the energy. It’s great to have him back.

“He was very positive (after the match). The first one (back) is always the one, ‘how am I going to feel?’ He dealt with it really well.

“The downside to it is Gabby and Jurrien. We don’t know how they are going to be. We will be assessing them tomorrow and understand better where we are with those two.”

Gabriel was forced off with a hamstring injury in the 16th minute, with Jakub Kiwior coming on. Timber, who needed treatment during the first half but played on, was eventually withdrawn 13 minutes from the end.

It creates a defensive headache for Arteta, who was already without Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori and who has seen his team’s season badly disrupted by injury.

With Real to come at the Emirates next Tuesday, the timing could not be worse.

“The good thing is that it’s been like this the whole season,” said Arteta. “Martinelli we missed three months, we missed Bukayo four months, Kai (Havertz) four months, (Gabriel) Jesus almost the whole season.

“How we have managed to be where we are, with all those injuries…

“You can imagine, we lose four players in the defensive line in one week; Calafiori, Ben White, Jurrien and Gabriel. We still have another four, they are so bloody willing, they will do the job.”

Fulham boss Marco Silva reflected on a blip in an otherwise impressive campaign as his team pushes for Europe.

“We lost tonight, but we didn’t lose the season,” he said. “We lost three points, and we were not able to get points tonight.

“We are going to fight really hard, because we have another big game on Sunday to try to get it right again and to bounce back.”