On the second day of the New Year, Arsenal were haunted by the same occurrences the plagued them in the previous year. Fulham, who were helped immensely by referee Lee Probert, scored two late goals to stun the Gunners.

The real turning point in the game occurred when Probert decided to award a second yellow card to Johan Djourou. His first booking was probably justified, but the second was far from a foul. Bobby Zamora tumbled to the ground after realising that Szczesny would beat him to the ball, and out came the red card. Oddly, there were no other cards shown all night by Probert.

After we went down to ten men, Fulham started hunting down the equaliser. Ironically, it was Zamora who snatched the points away from Arsene Wenger’s side. The first goal was a result of our typical inability to defend set pieces. Fulham’s winner was an excellent volley by Zamora, though Szczesny maybe should have reacted quicker to the near-post finish. To his credit, Zamora did execute a van Persie-like strike.

Arsene Wenger was fuming at his post-match press conference about various decisions made by the referee:

“The referee influenced the game completely the wrong way in my opinion. We cannot influence that. We had a good first half … in the second half we were more tired and in the last 10 minutes we lost the game because we were down to 10 men. The first yellow card was not a yellow card; the second yellow card was a foul for us. It was also 100% a penalty for us in the first half.

“When Djourou got the first yellow, every time they went down to get him the second yellow. He did nothing at all. I saw it coming because when Frei came on the game was all [about] looking for the second yellow card for Djourou. The referee was naive enough to give it. We played many games recently and we knew that if we dropped our level we would be in trouble. But we would not have been in trouble if we had stayed with 11 on the pitch.” (Source: The Guardian)

Regarding the penalty incident in the first half, Senderos made minimal contact with Gervinho, although he made no contact with the ball. Had it been given, it would have been a soft penalty. That said, referees have simply refused to award penalties to us in recent weeks.

Many writers are now wrongly bashing Arsenal’s defending for the loss at Craven Cottage. Before the red card, the back four were very strong. Laurent Koscielny scored and was terrific at the back. Despite playing out of position, Francis Coquelin was fantastic at left-back. All of the trouble began when Djourou was sent off.

In reality, we should have killed this game in the first half. So many opportunities were wasted early on and we could have easily been up by three at the break. Unfortunately, Walcott was again under-performing, and Gervinho finds it very hard to put the ball in the net. The Ivorian winger can become one of the best wingers in the Premiership if he can only improve his finishing.

Chelsea have jumped back into the top four while we fall on the outskirts once again. My feeling is that the race for the Champions League spots will not finish until near the very end of the season.

Arsenal supporters found out that U2′s famous lyrics are correct: “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” Just as our club were seemingly moving on from our terrible 2011, the players and the problems with the team are still the same. Still, there is no reason to overreact to this result because it is very difficult to get a result away from home when your side is down a man.

Vermaelen was responisble for all the scoring on Satuday.

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Thomas Vermaelen. His own goal gave Fulham the lead, but his header took that lead away. Arsenal looked sluggish and were unable to defeat the organised Cottagers.

Top Performers

1. Fulham defence: The Cottagers really kept men behind to ball to stifle our forward play. Chris Baird made a goal-saving clearance on van Persie’s shot in the 59th minute. Mark Schwarzer made several remarkable saves, including a brilliant stop on Johan Djourou’s header in the 74th minute. Martin Jol made sure that none of the defenders took any risks by joining the attack. Fulham are just looking for points at the moment, so they can’t be blamed for playing so defensively.

2. Abou Diaby: Considering that this was his second appearance since his return from injury, Diaby was very impressive. Arsene Wenger brought the French midfielder on as a substitute in the 68th minute. Diaby still has the skill to glide past defenders and looked very fresh, which you cannot always say about our subs.

3. Johan Djourou: He looked really looked comfortably playing at right back. Djourou’s positioning was spot-on, and he was solid throughout the match.

Worst Performers

1. Aaron Ramsey: His performance on Saturday at the Emirates reminded me of his terrible display against Spurs at White Hart Lane last month. Far too many give-aways. Instead of providing his usual penetrating passes, Ramsey was simply attempting ambitious long balls that failed to come off. Realising his poor form, Wenger removed Ramsey in the 68th minute.

2. Andrey Arshavin: The little Russian was finally given the opportunity to start a match alongside Robin van Persie, and he failed miserably. He did have a goal disallowed because of a close offside call in the 4th minute, but he never supplied any threat after that early moment. He was withdrawn in the 75th minute in favour of Marouane Chamakh. Arshavin should give Wenger a reason to play him before he start crying to the press about his lack of playing time.

Team Performance

The Gunners were noticeably tired from their mid-week victory over Dortmund in the Champions League. The passing wasn’t as quick or accurate, and the finishing left Gooners wanting more. Even the incredible Dutchman couldn’t convert his chances against Fulham. The lack of urgency made the job easier for Fulham.

To be fair, Fulham did not let any holes open in their backline. Gervinho and Theo have been successful getting behind the back four in recent weeks, but the Cottagers would not allow Arsenal to break quickly.

Whenever Fulham got the ball, they tried to slow the match down. They made us play to their pace. Fulham also did a nice job of keeping the ball, especially in the first half.

While Martin Jol’s side did defend expertly, we did not make enough of our chances. One goal on twenty shots (nine on target) is simply not clinical enough. We are not a one-man team, but someone needs to step up when van Persie is not having his best day.

The Managers

Martin Jol said he was satisfied with the result (Sky Sports): “They’re a good team are Arsenal and we thought they might be tired after (their Champions League game on) Wednesday. We ended up with a draw. We would have loved a win but I would have settled for a draw before the game and I will settle for that now.”

Arsene Wenger on the fatigue his players in this match (Arsenal.com): “It is a punctual problem because we gave a lot on Wednesday night. It is the shortest time you can get Wednesday night to Saturday afternoon. But it is not an excuse. It is an explanation. We want to be in the Champions League so we cannot cry when we are tired. Our challenge is to win these kinds of games even when we are tired.”

Exactly. Mid-week match or no mid-week match, we still need to beat Fulham at home. Manchester United drew 1-1 with Newcastle (who are also above us) and Manchester City and/or Liverpool will drop points on Sunday. We had an opportunity to gain some ground but we wasted it.

One the bright side, we likely would have lost this match earlier in the season. Vermaelen recovered from his own goal to put a powerful header into the correct net. This result should not result in a drop of confidence in the team, but it was still a disappointing performance.