Santi Cazorla scored twice for league leaders Arsenal, as they beat Fulham 2-0 in their Premier League match at the Emirates.
The hosts had an early chance to take the lead through Mesut Ozil after he was slipped through by Jack Wilshere, but his scuffed effort was cleared off the line by Brede Hangeland.
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Arsenal almost fell behind midway through the first half, as Steve Sidwell lashed in a strike from the edge of the box, that Wojciech Szczesny had to be alert to tip over the bar.
The home side came close at the end of the half, when a free kick from Cazorla broke kindly to Bacary Sagna inside the box, but Maarten Stekelenburg got down quickly to make the save.
Fulham came close to opening the scoring at the start of the second half, as Dan Burn saw his strike headed clear by Olivier Giroud following a corner.
Serge Gnabry then forced Stekelenburg to push away his powerful strike from the edge of the box.
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Arsenal continued to put the Fulham defence under pressure, and they took the lead in the 57th minute when Cazorla latched onto Wilshere's pass, before firing the ball past the keeper.
Cazorla scored the home side's second five minutes later after picking up a loose ball on the edge of the box, before drilling a low strike into the bottom corner.
Lukas Podolski almost extended Arsenal's lead just moments after coming on, but he saw his powerful drive pushed onto the post by Stekelenburg.
Alex Meyers
