Arteta's 'painful and sad day' feels all too familiar as Arsenal falter again

Premier League: Fulham 2-1 Arsenal

MIKEL ARTÉTA’S Arsenal side wasted another opportunity to top the Premier League by following up a shock home defeat against West Ham with an even more significant loss against mid-table Fulham. It is over a decade since the west London side last beat their north London rivals.

Defeat leaves Arsenal three games without a win and on four defeats for the season. Liverpool could be five clear at the top before they play again. They are suddenly clinging to a top-four spot instead of leading the title race going into the New Year. This is how Arsenal ended last season; opportunities to go top spurned, the same key players playing in every match, tired, predictable and no striker.

Party time for Fulham, though, as they recorded their first win after three-consecutive defeats thanks to goals from Raul Jimenez and Bobby Decordova-Reid after Bukayo Saka had shot Arsenal into an early lead. Their head coach Marco Silva rightly claimed his side fully deserved their victory, felt unthreatened by Arsenal and called it an important stage in their development as a Premier League side.

Arteta looked pained and baffled in equal measure when asked for his assessment of the match afterwards. He called it the worst of the season and said: “A painful and a sad day - that’s how I would sum it up. We had the chance to be top of the table after 20 games with the consistency that we’ve shown. We haven’t managed well enough to earn the right to win the game. Three days ago, we lost a game that we deserved to win, today was a very different story.

“The other one, we didn’t put the ball in the net and they scored the way they did. It’s OK. Today the overall performance was more worrying."

If anything, Fulham