Bolton's draw with Chelsea and Everton's loss to Manchester United on Saturday had secured Arsenal's place in the Champions League for next season and the Gunners only had pride to play for. Fulham had their Premiership future to play for.
Arsenal made the best of starts and, perhaps, the comfortable opening caused the home side to play with too laid back an attitude.
Arsene Wenger's men went ahead just four minutes after the opening whistle with a powerful Julio Baptista header that Antti Niemi could only watch as it looped over his head and into the top right-hand corner of the net. Cottagers boss Lawrie Sanchez was clearly upset with his team's slack marking.
Emmanuel Adebayor strolled past Carlos Bocanegra too easily before delivering the cross that the unchallenged Baptista was able to meet so precisely.
Baptista's inefficiency in front of goal this season has cast doubts as to whether Wenger would retain his services at the end of his loan spell that expires at the end of the campaign.
The Brazilian has scored ten times this season, but he should really have doubled that tally given the clear-cut opportunities he has spurned.
Arsenal's next couple of opportunities fell to Baptista, but he could be forgiven for not making the most of them.
The closest Arsenal came to doubling their tally was in the 31st minute when a well-crafted move ended with a shot from outside the area that Niemi did well to save.
Two minutes later Adebayor headed powerfully from Gael Clichy's cross from the left that the Finnish keeper saved with great athleticism.
The Gunners should really have wrapped things up before half-time, but allowed the visitors to gain a foothold and keep the belief that they could get something out of the game.
Claus Jensen, who had a good goalscoring record at Highbury, came close to claiming his and Fulham's first at The Emirates on 52 minutes when his shot from the outside of the area beat Jens Lehmann but rolled just outside the right upright.
Arsenal's first real chance of the half came on 70 minutes when Adebayor created an opportunity for himself on the left side of the Fulham area. But his shot from an acute angle with the outside of his right foot was well-claimed by Niemi.
Predictably, with Arsenal looking as though they were just going through the motions, Simon Davies levelled the scores on 78 minutes.
Lehmann had come out to sweep up and made a mess of his clearance. The ball fell to Davies, who, realising that the Gunners keeper was struggling to get back, floated the ball into the net.
Michael Brown was denied by Lehmann on 83 minutes after the former Spurs player had done well to get beyond Clichy.
The Gunners turned attack into defence as they swept forward with pace. Adebayor beat the offside trap as he took the ball past the last Fulham defender before curling a low shot around Niemi and into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
Arsenal made sure of the points with three minutes left when former Gunner Moritz Volz upended Alex Hleb.
Up stepped Gilberto Silva to coolly fire the spot-kick into the bottom left-hand corner of the net beyond the diving Fulham keeper as Arsenal finally sealed another win.