Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) only lasted 45 minutes of Arsenal’s clash with Fulham on Saturday but stole the show on his first start since March.

Here are our Scout Notes from the Emirates.

• READ MORE: FPL notes: 3 in 4 for £5.4m Osula + positives for Brighton
• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 35: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + DefCon

SAKA SUPERB – AND WHY ARTETA TOOK HIM OFF AT HALF-TIME

While he’s evidently building match fitness and having his minutes managed, the most encouraging part is how sharp Saka looks. He had appeared leaden-footed prior to his lay-off with an Achilles issue; on Saturday, he was more like the Saka of old.

“He certainly made a difference. He made two actions that decided the game and we know what he’s capable of. He’s come back in the most important period of the season and now he’s fresh, his mind is fresh, his hunger is at the highest possible height and I think he needed a performance like that to impact the team, so that’s a big platform for Tuesday.

“I think the pain is gone and that was obviously something that was restricting his capacity to deliver certain actions. Today he felt loose, he felt relaxed and I think we had the Bukayo that we need back.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka

Saka was central to many of Arsenal’s first-half chances. Supplying the run and cross for Viktor Gyokeres‘ (£8.8m) close-range opener, he then turned goalscorer – again, combining with the Swede – for the Gunners’ second.

In between, Saka had nearly scored with a rebound effort from 12 yards out and set up Eberechi Eze (£7.3m) for a really good chance from the penalty spot. One excellent bit of control and hold-up play on the touchline led to a back-post opportunity for Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.2m).

Above: The starters in Arsenal v Fulham who were involved (shot or set up) in the highest % of their team’s chances while they were on the field

And then, it was over. Saka failed to emerge for the second half. The drop-off in quality to his replacement, Noni Madueke (£6.8m), was stark.

The good news: his substitution was game-time management and not a fresh injury.

“We had to. He played 30-odd minutes in Madrid, now he’s played 45 minutes. We need to ramp up his load but we need to be careful because we need him on that pitch.” – Mikel Arteta on why he took Bukayo Saka off at half-time

ODEGAARD + HAVERTZ INJURY LATEST

Arsenal were without Martin Odegaard (£7.8m) and Kai Havertz (£7.3m) against the Cottagers.

It sounds like they’ll be back for Tuesday’s switch rematch with Atletico Madrid, at least.

“I think so, that both of them [will be ready]. We are going to do everything we can to have them ready.” – Mikel Arteta on the chances of Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz being fit for Tuesday

Arteta could accommodate Odegaard by moving Eze to the left wing but Havertz faces a battle to get his place back, with Gyokeres impressive in the last two games.

ARSENAL ATTACK!

Our Arsenal Scout Notes over the last few months have pretty much been copy and paste. Defensively sound, a threat at set plays, and struggling to create much from open play.

The Gunners were indeed solid at the back on Saturday, with Fulham creating very little. Timothy Castagne (£4.3m) had about the best of the visitors’ chances, forcing David Raya (£6.1m) into his only save of the game.

And they were their usual threat from set plays, with Gabriel having three sniffs and Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m) hitting the bar. Saka was back on corners, too.

What was unexpected was the energy, fluidity and invention of the attack, in the first half especially. It’s hard to look past Saka’s return as being the catalyst but the availability of Eze and Calafiori, who arguably offer more attacking-wise than their positional rivals, was also a factor.

“Probably [the best 45 minutes of the season], I don’t know, I have to go through all the games but it certainly was one of the best and the words that you use, I certainly agree with them. There was a certain connection in the team that I had a feeling that it was going to provoke that.” – Mikel Arteta

Capping it all off was a fine display from Gyokeres. Impressive without the ball in midweek, Saturday saw him get more goalmouth action. Outside of his brace, he could have scored on a couple of other occasions.

“He had a great performance, I think in Madrid, especially the first half, he was really good. Today, the minutes that he’s played as well, his contribution with the goals. In every attacking action he was involved, scored two great goals, position-wise, timing-wise as well, something that we’ve been working on. It’s going to give him a big boost of energy and confidence to the team as well.” – Mikel Arteta on Viktor Gyokeres

LEWIS-SKELLY ‘OOP’

Another shot in the arm of the Arsenal attack was Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.0m) operating in midfield. Martin Zubimendi (£5.0m) has been sub-par for a while, and this freshening up of the engine room worked well on Saturday.

It remains to be seen whether this was anything other than a mere breather for Zubimendi, however.

“He fully deserves it. I’ve been tough on him. He had a spectacular season last year when he jumped into the first team. He had some difficult moments after that, but he stayed very humble, very focused, very aligned with what we wanted to do, and I knew he was ready. He’s been showing in training every day the opportunities that he had to play. He’s done it and today he really stepped up and I thought he had an incredible performance.” – Mikel Arteta on Myles Lewis-Skelly

RICE DEEPER AGAIN – BUT DOES IT MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE?

Declan Rice (£7.2m) was again deeper in the Arsenal midfield. We had seen that in Madrid in midweek.

Detrimental to his FPL appeal? Perhaps, but was he that much of an open-play threat before the positional move? He hadn’t had a shot in the box since January anyway. Most of his assist potential comes from set plays.

At least as a ‘six’, there’s the theoretical possibility of more DefCon points. Despite being taken off just after the hour mark to save his legs, he had met the required threshold of 12 – that’s the first time he’s managed that in seven matches.

Rice didn’t take any corners on Saturday, but don’t worry – Arsenal didn’t get any from his side of the pitch.

FULHAM GO VIRAL

A day to just forget about for Fulham.

They’re 17th in the away table this season, so nothing much was expected from Saturday. Mercifully, their only remaining game on the road is at sorry Wolves:

It turns out that a virus had hit the Fulham camp this week, something Marco Silva alluded to in Friday’s presser. Silva didn’t want to use the bug as an excuse after full-time – but sort of did anyway:

“The virus in the training ground started with some players and, of course, some staff members, too, and it is something that can happen. I would not like to really start the press conference in this way because it looks like this is the easiest explanation or the easiest way to go to find excuses, and it is not really my way, but, of course, it was a completely weird week for ourselves.

“That is the reason why Sander [Berge] was not even in the squad list and some players who started the game, they had a completely different week. Some of them, they didn’t even have three sessions during this week, but it is what it is. We started with 11, that is not the reason why, first half, we were not at the level that we should be.” – Marco Silva

Silva didn’t name names other than the absent Sander Berge (£4.9m) but Harry Wilson (£5.9m) was taken off after 63 minutes, his earliest substitution since Gameweek 11, so you wonder if he was one of the players affected. Then again, at 3-0 down, perhaps his manager was just sparing him for the games to come.