João Palhinha praised Fulham’s ‘amazing effort’ as they made a mockery of their numerical disadvantage to claim a point at Arsenal this afternoon.

The Portuguese midfielder, making his first start of the season after damaging his shoulder during the summer tour of America, drove home an 87th minute equaliser to earn a share of the spoils for Marco Silva’s side after the Whites had seen Calvin Bassey sent off with the Gunners leading 2-1.

Palhinha told BBC Sport:

“I came from an injury and it was tough for me this last month because I miss all the pre-season with my team-mates. It is really good to be back and to help my team-mates and finish the game like this. Unfortunately we didn’t win but I think it is a good result. It is always tough to play against Arsenal. We came to try to win but the most important thing was the effort we showed until the end, even with ten men.

It was tough in the last ten minutes. I go to the back line and we tried to give our all until the end to defend the spaces and it meant we could achieve a good result. The manager said we needed to give better value to the ball and we gave up a little bit of possession. We have the quality to do better with the ball. The effort was amazing from all the players and that is the soul of this team.”