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Mikel Arteta bemoaned Arsenal’s meek New Year’s Eve 2-1 defeat at Fulham as the club’s worst performance of the season, warning that they will come nowhere near challenging for the title if they repeat it.
From their position at the top of the table a few weeks before Christmas, Arsenal have now dropped 11 points in their past five games, leaving them in fourth place at the turn of the year.
Goals from Raúl Jiménez and Bobby De Cordova-Reid enabled Fulham to win a game from behind for the first time in more than a year after Bukayo Saka’s opener. It was no less than the hosts deserved from a dominant performance.
“It’s a painful and sad day,” said Arteta. “What happened today, it cannot happen again. If we do that again we’re never going to have the chance to do what we want to do.
“Today could have been a beautiful day to end the year top of the league. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror because today’s performance is the worst we’ve had this season, that’s for sure.”
The manner of the defeat was startling. When Arsenal lost 2-0 at home to West Ham on Thursday they had 77 touches in the opposition box and took 30 shots. At Craven Cottage, they were second best in all facets.
“Against West Ham we lost a game that we fully deserved to win,” Arteta said. “Today was a very different story.
We simply weren’t good enough. We didn’t have enough rhythm, enough purpose, enough threat.
“Defensively we were second best. It was easy for them to win the first and second ball, and have the opportunity to run. We were never at the levels required. We didn’t deserve to win the game, that’s very clear and simple.”
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After his side halted a run of three straight league defeats without scoring, Marco Silva described the victory as one of Fulham’s best this season. “The last few months, we have been deserving of this kind of result against a top side because we have been so close,” he said.
“It’s the best way to finish the year. For us it was really important to finish on a high. The best way is to play against title contenders and do it at Craven Cottage, which is the perfect afternoon for us. We were the best team on the pitch and we deserved the three points.”
