Former Chelsea forward Willian provided three assists on his Arsenal debut as the Gunners eased past Premier League returnees Fulham 3-0 at Craven Cottage.

Fulham had the first sniff of a chance inside two minutes when a loose back-pass was anticipated by Aboubakar Kamara, but Gunners goalkeeper Bernd Leno reacted well to smother the ball when Kamara looked to dink it beyond him.

A swift move down the right-hand side of the pitch five minutes later ended with Denis Odoi trying his luck from 20 yards, and Leno needed two bites of the cherry to get the ball in his grasp.

The bright start made Arsenal’s opener all the more frustrating. Granit Xhaka’s shot was deflected by Tim Ream to Willian who poked goalwards.

Marek Rodák made a superb stop but could only parry to Alexandre Lacazette who was left with the easiest of finishes.

Lacazette opened the scoring on eight minutes, tapping in after Marek Rodak had pushed Willian’s shot to him. In so doing, the forward became the first player to score the opening goal of a Premier League season more than once.

The striker’s goal was the difference between the sides in what was an evenly contested opening 45 minutes.

But the Gunners took control of proceedings in the second half, doubling their lead when debutant Gabriel headed in soon after the restart.

Three minutes after the break, Willian, who also struck a post with a first-half free-kick, sent over a corner that was headed in by another debutant, Gabriel.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang collected Willian’s long pass and curled home a lovely third to ensure the points would be heading to North London on this occasion.

It gave Arsenal their biggest away league win since beating Fulham 5-1 in October 2018.

Photo Credit: premierleague.com