London: Fulham stunned Arsenal with two late goals to win 2-1 and ensure their London rivals lasted just two days in the Premier League's top four.
Arsenal had led through Laurent Koscielny's rare goal in the first half, but the derby turned in Fulham's favor after Johan Djourou was sent off in the 78th minute. Steve Sidwell headed Fulham level in the 85th and Bobby Zamora stabbed home the winner in the second minute of stoppage time.
The loss led to Arsenal being dislodged from fourth place by Chelsea, who won 2-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"It was a massive missed opportunity," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "It is very difficult to square the defeat today because we deserved to win."
As well insisting Djourou should not have been initially booked for catching Sidwell in the 63rd, Wenger felt Fulham tried to get him booked again and that Gervinho should have been awarded a penalty before Arsenal's opener.
"The referee influenced the game in completely the wrong way in my opinion," Wenger said.
Going into the match, two days after beating Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal were without any fit fullbacks, with midfielder Francis Coquelin drafted in on the left after Thomas Vermaelen joined the casualty list on Saturday.
"We are short," Wenger said. "We have lost three leftbacks and two rightbacks."
It was Fulham's defence, though, that initially was more vulnerable. Aaron Ramsey's cross deflected off Stephen Kelly before falling for Koscielny to head in his first goal since February 2010 in the 21st minute.
It took David Stockdale's fine saves to deny Arsenal a second a minute later. Robin van Persie came close again for Arsenal in the 32nd, slipping in a shot from Coquelin's cross, but Stockdale kept hold of the ball.
Fulham gradually began to assert themselves after preventing Arsenal from extending the lead, with John Arne Riise causing the visitors the most trouble down the left flank and Clint Dempsey looking dangerous.
Philippe Senderos headed wide at the end of the first half and missed the target again in the 63rd after Wojciech Szczesny misjudged Danny Murphy's cross. Dempsey was the next to miss from Bryan Ruiz's cross, rising above Per Mertesacker before nodding wide from six yards.
Fulham's threat only intensified, with Ruiz denied from point-blank range in the 75th by Szczesny's legs as he was diving.
And the hosts had the numerical advantage after Djourou was shown a second yellow card for pulling back Zamora on the edge of the penalty area.
The equalizer finally did arrive when former Arsenal players combined.
Szczesny pushed a corner out to Senderos, who nodded the ball back to Sidwell to head home. And in stoppage time Zamora found the space to squeeze home the winner from Kelly's cross.
In other matches on Monday, Peter Crouch scored twice in the first half to give Stoke a 2-1 victory at Blackburn and halt the hosts' momentum following a stunning win at Manchester United.
Substitute David Goodwillie pulled one back in the second half, but couldn't prevent Blackburn's third successive home defeat.
Aston Villa were overtaken by Swansea in 11th place after the Welsh club's 2-0 win in the Midlands ended their search for an away success this season.
Nathan Dyer scored after just four minutes and Wayne Routledge added his first goal for Swansea within two minutes of the restart.
The result brought Alex McLeish's Villa back down to earth after a shock 3-1 win at Chelsea on New Year's Eve, while Swansea built on Saturday's 1-1 draw with Tottenham with another impressive performance.
Norwich won a battle of promoted sides, coming from behind to beat 10-man QPR 2-1 at Loftus Road.
Captain Joey Barton put QPR in front but later in the first half lost his cool and his place on the pitch with an apparent headbutt on Norwich midfielder Bradley Johnson.
"Hopefully referee sees it retrospectively and sees he's been conned," Barton said on Twitter.
Norwich made their numerical advantage count as Anthony Pilkington equalized with a long-range shot before half-time and Steve Morison netted the winner after the break, leaving QPR without a win in eight league matches.
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