Fulham have never won at Arsenal in a competitive fixture. The 30-match winless streak is the worst in the history of English league history. The Whites haven’t won in their last twelve games against the Gunners at any venue since Bobby Zamora’s final Fulham goal clinched a come-from-behind victory over Arsene Wenger’s side in 2012. They’ve not managed a clean sheet in their last sixteen games – since Roy Hodgson’s side drew 0-0 at the Emirates in 2009 – and, after a week without signings following the dreadful Saturday that saw Marco Silva’s side subside to Brentford before the official departure of Aleksandar Mitrovic – they could have done without Mikel Arteta declaring that fit-again Gabriel Jesus was ‘ready to go’ after his knee injury.

Silva’s criticisms of Fulham’s tardy transfer recruitment have become more trenchant over the course of a summer that he had billed as critical. Forget matching the head coach’s ambition at this point: acquisitions are essential to ensure the Whites can be competitive in the top flight. Saturday’s calamitous capitulation at the hands of local rivals should have flashed warning signs to the Fulham hierarchy: it wasn’t just the ease with which the Cottagers were cut open but the fact that a side that looked so inventive in the final third created precious little for the second weekend running. There may have been mitigating circumstances, with Issa Diop presenting the first goal to Yoane Wissa with a dreadful backpass and Tim Ream’s ridiculous red card, but even before those incidents Fulham’s football seemed pedestrian and predictable.

Silva worked wonders with a small squad to steer a newly-promoted side to tenth in such adventurous style. It was all the more impressive that he did it by coaxing remarkable form of a series of senior players the pundits had written off like Ream, Mitrovic and Willian. He relied on Bobby Decordova-Reid deputising for Kenny Tete at right back and had to play Jay Stansfield on the right flank in the early part of the season. The three signings Fulham did muster, when the speculation about their head coach’s future flared up at the same time as our Serbian striker was being linked with Saudi Arabia, now look like attempts to placate an irritated manager rather than a strategy to strengthen on the back of last term’s success. While Tony Khan has always preferred operate late in the window, replacing Fulham’s seventh-highest goalscorer right at the end of August feels about as high-risk as braving the Oxford Street crowds at 5pm on Christmas Eve to find that present for the most important person in your life.

The uncertainty about who will lead the line has only been heightened by the fact that Fulham could easily have been playing Brentford this morning – with a full compliment – and probably not troubled the scorers. In the first half of their Premier League matches this term, Silva’s side have failed to test the opposition goalkeeper. The unconvincing nature of the opening day display at Goodison Park was handed further perspective by the way Aston Villa thrashed Everton on Sunday. The closest Fulham game to troubling Mark Flekken was when Decordova-Reid’s dink clipped the crossbar in the second half. I still feel it is harsh to blame our lack of threat solely on Raul Jimenez, who could easily have opened the scoring with a chance he made for himself on Merseyside, when all of Willian – a doubt for his return to the Emirates with an Achilles complaint, Harry Wilson and Andreas Pereira appear out of sorts but the Mexican’s 25-game scoreless run in the league also suggests the search for striking reinforcements should be much more urgent.

Playing Arsenal, unbeaten in their last thirteen London derbies, would have been a daunting prospect without the doom of the past seven days. Arteta has transformed a team that looked paralysed by fear into a formidable attacking outfit that came so close to ending their long title drought. He appears to have galvanised his charges following that colossal disappointment – no mean feat – and they have registered consecutive league wins to kick off the campaign for the fourth time in their last five seasons. The Gunners made light of their own controversial dismissal – Takehiro Tomiyasu for two bookings – to clinch victory at Crystal Palace on Monday and the brilliant Bukayo Saka is set to break Paul Merson’s record for consecutive league appearances this afternoon having made his first Premier League appearance as a substitute in Fulham’s 4-1 defeat at the Emirates in January 2019.

Silva’s simmering frustration is no doubt due to the fact that he has few ways in which he can shake up his side following the dismal display against Brentford. He’s demanded a reaction from his players but making wholesale changes would demand turning to most of Hayden Mullins’ under-21 squad. The only positive on Saturday was seeing Joao Palhinha back in a Fulham shirt and the Portuguese international should return to the starting line-up to protect a back four that will see Calvin Bassey make his first competitive start in Ream’s absence. Bernd Leno has already faced ten one-on-ones this season, saving seven, and the German goalkeeper can expect a busy afternoon on his return to Arsenal. You feel it will require him summoning the spirit of Mark Schwarzer, who superbly saved an Arteta stoppage-time spot-kick to pinch a point at the end of a pulsating encounter in 2012, and Edwin van der Sar, who singlehandedly stopped the Invincibles in their tracks in 2003, to ensure the Whites walk away with something. Stranger things have happened.

MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Diop, Bassey; Palhinha, Reed; Wilson, Decordova-Reid, Pereira; Jimenez. Subs: Rodak, Mbabu, de Fougerolles, Lukic, Cairney, Willian, Traore, Muniz, Vinicius.