Rene Meulensteen remains optimistic despite Fulham sitting just a point above the drop zone after being beaten by two Santi Carzola strikes in the space of five second half minutes at Arsenal.

The Whites boss said afterwards: “I couldn’t have asked for anything more at half-time. We knew it would be even harder in the second half because of the quality of players they have. If you switch off for one moment they can hurt you, and that’s what they did, but there were lots of positives to take from it from our point of view.

“You must always see the results and the performances, they are interlinked. Our performances have been really good, but (we) haven’t had the results. I think we can survive, definitely. The spirit is good, we have got plenty of quality, and I believe the short time I have been in with these players we are improving all the time, working hard. What we need is a break with a run of results, but that’s not easy because of the opponents we are facing.”