Arsenal v West Ham review – Welbeck books semi-final spot

For most of the first half there was very little to speak about when it comes to goalmouth action. Despite the fact that both teams were keen to avoid extra time and a penalty shootout making for a fast start, there was not much penetration although Arsenal soon began to dominate the ball.

The likes of Walcott, Elneny, Debuchy and Willock were looking sharp and trying hard, the attacks did not quire come off so chances were few and far between. Like London buses, though, one was quickly followed by another and just after Theo planted his header from a great Kolasinac cross wide, Welbeck bundled his chance home to give Arsenal a halftime lead.

The Gunners then pushed for a second in the last few minutes of the half without luck. After the restart the visitors knew they could not just sit back although you would hardly know it as they continued to defend deep and with numbers. I suppose they did press a bit higher but it was still Arsenal that looked to go forward more.

Apart from one occasion when Holding may have handled there was no real danger for us and we could have had a penalty ourselves but the referee judged that Hart’s foul on Welbeck was just outside the area. Walcott just lost control when running in on goal and Willock’s shot after a great run was blocked and the rebound cleared.

Nelson replaced Giroud after his hamstring went and then Sheaf got his debut replacing Willock before Coquelin also went off with what is hopefully a minor injury as he played well. Arsenal had four minutes of injury time to see out after that and we managed to do so without any scares.

Job done Arsenal.

Bob.

15 Comments

  1. Only caught the last 15 mins, and absolutely nothing happened! Haha. Great result, clean sheet, and Lacazette might actually be allowed to play a full game for once what with Giroud’s injury.

    1. Lol small insignificant trophy some say if we win it. Not if you look at the last 4 winners city, utd and Chelsea. A cup only looks average when yoi dont beat at least one top team to win it since it it feels like we lucked through.

  2. Arsenal second team beat West Ham second team. We had one shot on target, and that went in and West Ham had none.
    It was great we won but you have to feel sorry for the poor saps who paid to sit in the cold and watch that dross.

  3. Arsenal are boring to watch. Im glad I did not waste my £10 and time to go watch that. There were so many times we could have popped a shot and shook the game up. We need to start just shooting and forcing the opposition to close us and not just sit back. We can no longer walk the ball into the box.

  4. So much negativity….what if it had gone into extra time and then penalties….like that of LEI-MCIRY? We are 8n the semi and we did not hs e to borrow p,Ayers from City to achieve that. Stop the negativity and stupors your team. Or feel free to go Support Spurs who are no where near the top of EPL or in the last 4 of the Carabao cup. COYG!

    1. Another AKB telling everybody who cares about the club to either blindly ignore all the failings or support another club. How dare you! I get fed up with the attitude of you casual fans.
      I have better idea as you clearly don’t care about the future why don’t you set up a new club called Arsene FC and take that old dinosaur with you.

  5. I think Arsenal did well over all they bossed the match it was a strong defensive display west ham could not keep the ball we closed them down very quickly it would have been more relaxing had we scored another goal . Elnany and the back four +ospina did very well welbeck took his chance walcott needs goals he needs to up his game willock did very good too and so did coquelin so.
    I am happy we march on to another day

    1. Thanks, someone that actually watched the match with his mind and eyes opened. I don’t understand what is all the cries about the match being boring all about. Would those that are complaining accept the same situation in man u game.

      1. It was a crap game. Come on one shot on target between both teams in the whole of the game. And you think that is good?

    2. Back did well? Had nothing to do really but I did enjoy Chambers commanding performance!

      Debuchy and El Nent were poor with passing and did nothing to improve their chances to play for first team?

      Willock was to my view the only one trying to go past players out of our midfielders?

      1. Elneny was everywhere he was the boss of the midfield he ran after the ball he closed down players very well I dont know what match you were watching but I suggest you watch it again and keep an eye on elneny and what he is doing debuchy was commanding and even took a yelow for the team have a look at the stats and how many balls we intercepted and how many fowls the game was pure tactics west ham had no chance this is the level of football for me it is top level because you go out there you control the game you boss it you win it for me the team effort was 100% the work rate was 100% and if you want to learn football this match is a text book match to observe learn and execute

        1. I assume this is the first match you have watched. Once you have watched some more you will see it does get better; much better.

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