The French striker also collected a red card, in the 90th minute, which seemed a harsher decision from referee Andre Marriner than the Sidwell dismissal. It barely looked a foul as Giroud challenged Stanislav Manolev by the touchline but Wenger accepted it afterwards.
"I spoke to Giroud and he said he did slip when he went for the ball," Wenger said. "It was not a tackle but he went a bit over the ball. Knowing that Sidwell had been sent off before I had no illusion over the card."
Fulham manager Martin Jol was under no illusion either. Sidwell overstretched to challenge Mikel Arteta and caught the midfielder on the ankle.
It could have been very nasty; a potential leg-breaker. Marriner was close by and the card was soon out as Sidwell lay on the turf, appearing to feign injury, hoping for some sympathy. He knew the colour.
Jol said: "You saw from his reaction straight away that he was in trouble. But it was the first foul and spoiled the game a bit. But if you are consistent then, yeah, it's a red card."
Surely, now, Arsenal would canter to victory and it was game over? Intriguingly Fulham played better when reduced with clever players such as Dimitar Berbatov and Bryan Ruiz springing on the counter while there was threatening pace from Alexander Kacaniklic and Eyong Enoh broke up play with growing effectiveness. Chances came.
Ruiz broke and slipped the ball to Berbatov whose powerful right-footed drive was pushed away by Wojciech Szczesny and then Kacaniklic's cut-back just evaded the striker before Urby Emanuelson tangled with Monreal, gained possession, and forced a sharp low save from Szczesny at his near post.
Arsenal's threat was minimal although there was a glimpse of quality when Santi Cazorla found Giroud who struck a low cross-shot that beat Mark Schwarzer — in his 500th Premier League game — to hit the outside of the post. Then came the Arsenal goal. It arrived with Walcott flighting a free-kick and Ruiz allowing Laurent Koscielny to run free and head back across goal.
The timing, just before half-time, was cruel on Fulham but Arsenal failed to press home their advantage and build possession, and appeared jaded with the second half meandering.
"It was tight because we could not score the second goal and we became cautious," Wenger acknowledged while Jol was more bullish — or indeed – leonine: "We fought like lions and had better chances than them." Not that there were many chances even if Manolev had the ball in the net, after Szczesny spilt Kieran Richardson's free-kick, only to be correctly pulled up for offside.
The tension grew. Fulham sensed their opponents' nerves, and draining confidence, and the pressure mounted. Could they strike?
Corners came, crosses came but there was not a clear-cut opportunity while Arsenal failed to make their numerical advantage count until they lost that advantage with Giroud's dismissal. Would Arsenal hold on? They did. Just. But it was far from convincing.
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