Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Stats are a great addition to the football experience, but yesterday’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham is a classic example of a game in which only eyes are necessary to make your judgement. The stats might suggest Arsenal dominated, had 20 attempts on goal to West Ham’s 5, and from that you might think we were unlucky in some way.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The stark reality is that West Ham had the best chances. In the first half Thomas Soucek headed over from close range; Jarrod Bowen flashed a shot wide after Aaron Wan Bissaka did well down their right hand side; and in the second half Bowen almost made it 2-0, just failing to make contact with a great cross that came in from the left hand-side as he peeled off the back of Gabriel.
At the other end, there was nothing much to write home about. A Riccardo Calafiori shot in the first half, a Leandro Trossard effort in the second which the keeper saved with his foot, and that was about it. This isn’t a game you can look back on and think ‘If only’ in terms of golden opportunities we missed – because there weren’t any.
This was a dismal performance from start to finish. In the absence of so many key attacking players, we needed those we had to step up, and those around them to provide support. I can’t be too critical of a central midfielder being pressed into action as a centre-forward if he doesn’t play that role brilliantly, and I think there’s good reason why a talented 17 year old can’t shine like he did the week previously – consistency is a difficult thing to achieve in the early part of any career.
But, I think we can look at experienced players and expect better. I thought Declan Rice was very poor for the goal we conceded, tracking the run all the way, and then just letting Bowen go. Gabriel wasn’t great there either, the two seemed to pass off the responsibility to each other with zero communication, and after Calafiori probably could have done more to stop the cross. A free header from close range was a dagger to the heart for this Arsenal team.
You can’t concede a goal like that in our current situation. We have to be defensively solid because goals are hard to come by without our attacking options the way they are. But, I think yesterday went beyond injuries. They didn’t help, clearly, but this is a film we’ve all seen before when we’ve been faced with a team who play with a back five, a compact midfield which we can’t play through or around, and who stay organised to do the basics well.
I think it’s a day where even if we had Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, and Gabriels Martinelli and Jesus, we probably still would have struggled, because these are typically the games we find most difficult under the tenure of this manager. They are Mikel Arteta’s Kryptonite. Maybe that extra quality helps us find a way through in the end, but I’m 99% certain we’d have had to huff and puff without really finding any kind of rhythm.
We were obviously missing those players, but I don’t think that is an excuse for a team performance that was this below par. When the manager himself makes that clear, refusing in any way to blame injuries or absences, I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion in any way:
I never felt that we were at the standards or the levels we needed to have more threat and then don’t allow them to run. I am talking about the standards of the players and the team that we played today, me included 100%, were nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win a Premier League game today. it was nowhere near.
He was having none of the suggestion it was about injuries, and it’s clear this was a performance which really irked him. Which is something I think most people can resonate with this morning. I didn’t really have any issue with the starting XI, Merino up top is not ideal but what else is there? That’s a wider issue, and I don’t think there’s much point in re-litigating January because everything about that has already been said, but between injuries and a lack of transfer activity, the chickens came home to roost yesterday.
I think even with those players absent, we ought to expect more from the players available. Martin Odegaard looks a long, long way from his best right now – whether it’s injury or loss of form or a combination of both of those things, the dynamism and influence is gone from his game at the worst possible time. And again, squad building comes into focus because there is nobody to fill the gap. Last season we could have turned to Emile Smith Rowe or Fabio Vieira, and while your mileage may vary on their ability to make a difference, they were options at least.
I found the Declan Rice substitution an odd one. Was he having a good game? No. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that he and Calafiori, both implicated to some extent for the Bowen goal, were the men hauled off early in the second half, but to take our best corner taker off on a day like this felt strange – because a set-piece seemed our most likely way to make a breakthrough. The fact it was against his former club and in just the 56th minute was even more so, and when you replace him with a left-back who you have never shown any inclination of using as a midfielder before (despite repeated questions about it), it felt quite pointed, rather than just a way to try and change the game. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but it wasn’t a fitness thing, so it got my spider senses tingling a little.
The misery of the day was compounded by the sending off of Myles Lewis-Skelly, when a yellow was upgraded to red for foul on Mohammed Kudus on the halfway line. I think we’ve had some bullshit red cards this season, including one for MLS himself but this was one we can have no complaints about. I see chat about a foul by Kudus, but it’s one where I think we have to accept Lewis-Skelly made the wrong decision on the ball, got caught out, and we paid the price. With David Raya so far out of his goal, I think it’s a clear goalscoring opportunity and we’ll have to do without him for the trip to Forest on Wednesday evening.
Raheem Sterling came on to make zero impact again beyond a poor free kick, and Ben White replaced Saliba late on. I did wonder why we didn’t see Jorginho come on for Thomas Partey, even for 15-20 minutes. If you’re prepared to take Rice off for Zinchenko (who was worse than the man he replaced by some distance in my opinion), I don’t really understand why you wouldn’t do that. A goal might have been useful, depending on what happens today, and if the manager is angry (and to be fair he included himself in that), not doing everything you can to change a game should be part of that.
It was a performance which demands some introspection, but one we can’t allow to fester with a big game coming up this week. The reaction has to be immediate, but the low-level anxiety a display like that produces is going to resonate for a few days at least. There’s not a lot he can do differently with his team selection for Wednesday, but he has to get a lot more from those same players against a team who will invite us to break them down in much the same way West ham did. That’s a problem he has to solve.
All in all, it was a terrible day for Arsenal, and a great one for Liverpool. What slim hope there was of maintaining the title race has all but evaporated now. You might have come to terms with that before now, but it’s still a painful one – particularly as a win yesterday would have closed the gap and applied a bit of pressure. We let ourselves down, and we let them off the hook.
Till tomorrow.
