Arsenal looked fantastic last season and were tipped to win the EPL, however fragility and inexperience saw Arsenal falter during the season’s end run in.

As this year closes, history is repeating itself with Fulham coming back to beat Arsenal 2-1 at Craven Cottage today (December 31).

Arsenal has now lost three of its last five games.

Last season Mikel Arteta’s team lost just six EPL matches and came in second. It has already lost four this season.

To win the EPL, Arsenal will need to put away teams like Fulham comfortably. Arteta has some thinking to do over the New Year.

Bukayo Sara has been magnificent again this season but Arsenal need a proven striker to bang in goals regularly if it is going to win the EPL.

On their day, Arsenal play beautiful football and are fantastic to watch. But now it finds itself in a slump. The Gunners cannot afford to have the reputation of being “ bottlers”. A reset is needed and the team has to get back on track.

It can be done. Arsenal are only two points off from Liverpool at the top.

Commenting on the Fulham game, Arteta said: “We weren’t good enough, simple as that. We lost a game a few days ago (West Ham ) that we deserved to win but today we were nowhere near the level.

“You have to play 100 minutes in this league, it is a really sad day because we didn’t deserve to win the game. To try to change the dynamic of the game for sure, to have more threat but we didn’t get going because we gave every ball away. It was difficult to create any momentum. The way we conceded the goals today, this is football and credit to Fulham as well.

“We had a great performance against Liverpool and West Ham but we didn’t win. Today is the one you have to isolate as it was the worst of the season.”

The Gunners cannot be outgunned again and again in 2024 if it has aspirations of lifting the EPL trophy come Spring.

Happy New Year.