FROM Arsenal’s point of view, the match might almost have been subtitled “The Importance Of Being Fabregas”. Without the dynamism, invention and awareness of the young Spaniard in central midfield, Arsenal were always in danger of domination by Fulham’s Danny Murphy and Jimmy Bullard.

Well might Roy Hodgson, Fulham’s manager, praise them both. “Certainly defensively it was the best performance from Jimmy Bullard and Danny Murphy since I’ve been at the club and I thought they passed and moved the ball well,” he said. Indeed they did, though Hodgson eventually had to bring off Murphy when “he started to cramp up” some nine minutes from the end.

Until then, there was no doubt of their superiority over the Arsenal pair of the young B r a z i l i a n D e n i l s o n a n d Emmanuel Eboue. To give Eboue his due, there were two occasions late in the game, at a time when Hodgson felt his team had lost their command, when Eboue dashed through at speed, only to be brought down just outside the Fulham box, gaining a couple of free kicks, both of which went to waste.

Hodgson, taking an objective view even of such a spectacular and unexpected victory, felt that “to maintain our position it’s important to play 90, not 70 minutes, because it’s always dangerous”. He believes with some justification that this was what happened yesterday, and although Arsenal did consistently attack in the concluding minutes, it was never with any great penetration.

One wondered why it was that after 65 minutes Arsène Wenger should remove Theo Walcott from the right flank and replace him with an extra striker in Nicklas Bendtner, with little profit to show from it. Wenger said he wanted “balance” in the shape of a 4-3-3 formation, which seemed rather strange given that any effect Walcott may have produced with his pace and control from that right wing disappeared, although he had previously received scant service.

The Arsenal manager could have been a little more adventurous and brought on the precocious 17-year-old Welsh central midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who has shown, even on taxing occasions, the creative skills, the cool control and the ready ability to beat a man that was certainly lacking in the Gunners’ midfield yesterday.

Wenger himself was characteristically philosophical about the defeat. “It was a game,” he said, “in which you could not make a mistake until half-time and we made one; a massive one. You could see on the pitch it is the kind of game you go to half-time at 0-0.

The massive mistake, unworthy of an Arsenal defence, came when Fulham scored the game’s only goal after 21 minutes. They had already threatened moments before when only a desperate tackle by Kolo Toure prevented Bobby Zamora shooting from a dangerous position. Bullard took the ensuing corner and Brede Hangeland, the towering Norwegian centre-back, lunged in on the far post to beat Manuel Almunia for the decisive strike.

For Fulham, it was a blessed relief after their defeat a week earlier at Hull, the newly promoted team many are expecting to go straight back down to the lower divisions from which it had taken them over a century to climb. That game was most embarrassingly decided by an abysmal error by the F u l h a m l e f t - b a c k , P a u l Konchesky, who was missing injured yesterday, when he recklessly gave the ball away. Fulham were offering no such charity yesterday and had several other chances but Zamora was hardly at his sharpest and failed to exploit them.

“I thought Fulham started the game stronger than us,” Wenger said. “They were sharper in the first half, but I don’t think they created many chances. In the first half we were not fast enough and not first on the ball. The corners showed that and we were punished. It is harsh to lose the game, but it is fair to say Fulham played well. In the first half, in midfield we were dominated and not strong or quick enough - and we suffered. We tried very hard into the last second of the game - but we could not score.”

Hodgson defended his side over the defeat by Hull. “I didn’t think we played that badly last week,” he said. “Our ambitions for the season remain the same - we have to stay in this league, and it is a very tough one to stay in.”

Goalscorer Hangeland was naturally delighted with the result. “When we play our best like we did in the first half, it is possible to beat any team,” he said. “It’s been a while since I scored, so it feels really good to get one. I thought we were a bit unlucky last week, but we are really proud of ourselves today to put in a performance like this and win against Arsenal.”

Star man:Jimmy Bullard (Fulham)

FULHAM:Schwarzer 7, Pantsil 6, Hughes 7 , Hangeland 8 , Kallio 6 (Baird 74min), Davies 7, Bullard 8, Murphy 8 (Teymourian 81min), Gera 6, Zamora 6, Ki-Hyeon 6 (Dempsey 77min)

ARSENAL:Almunia 6, Sagna 6, Toure 6 (SongBillong 77min), Gallas 6, Clichy 6, Walcott 6 (Bendtner 65min), Eboue 6, Denilson 6, Nasri 6, Van Persie 6, Adebayor6

Referee:M Atkinson Attendance:24,276