Parma - Fiorentina, Final Score 1-0

Oops, we did it again. Another frustrating, at times sterile performance and a loss to the worst team in the league up to this point. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to January. Parma has beaten Fiorentina 1-0, thanks to the Costa's header after a corner, when he was left pretty much alone by the seemingly sleepy Fiorentina defense.

And it's not like the viola didn't get chances to reply. One man in particular, Mario Gomez, managed to miss couple of sitters, including a penalty. Artist formerly known as SuperMario was unlucky to be in the right place at the right time. But it wasn't just him. Juan Cuadrado was far from the decisive, 40 million player we prayed would stay at Fiorentina this summer. And David Pizarro was particularly slow, stayed on ball for far too long and often lost it and opened up counter attacks for Parma.

In fact, only three players we can say have saved their face - Mati Fernandez, Joaquin, and Jose Basanta. Well, and Ciprian Tatarusanu, but he didn't really have that much to do, seeing as how Parma spent 90% of the game in their own box. The rest of the team wasn't just playing badly, it was much more than that, and it culminated with Gonzalo Rodriguez and Stefan Savic getting red cards. Both justified, even though Gonzalo's first yellow wasn't - but both him and Savic could have easily gotten straight reds instead of second yellows.

Perhaps it's not as surprising, after all the drama of the recent weeks, with Neto's contractual situation being made public. And, not to make excuses for players, refereeing that wasn't really brilliant, even if it didn't decide the game, but it certainly added to nervousness of the viola.

It was a good opportunity to start the new year positively, but it wasn't meant to be. The Neto situation should have been handled differently. Now, we have a mountain to climb - next few games won't be getting any easier, on the contrary. and Montella has to find a way to make his team start scoring goals, otherwise, well, they won't. Gomez is becoming a problem. Even in his best days he was a player that missed a lot of opportunities, but he also scored a lot of goals. Fiorentina obviously has to create more than one or two chances per game to win them. But to say the problems are all down to Gomez would be incredibly unfair.

Not everything is lost, of course, and that third place is still absolutely within the reach. To get it, Fiorentina has to start winning games. First chance will be against an in form Palermo at home, for the weekend. Possibly one of the toughest teams to face now, but we cannot choose.