Arsenal vs West Ham match report
Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal squad welcomed West Ham to the Emirates in the hope of going back top of the table before the new year, in what was an eventful game filled with plenty of chances.
Arsenal although having a dominant performance, couldn’t get the job done and lost their first home game of the season. With every point becoming so important in our journey to try win silverware this season, the loss comes as a big blow for Arteta and his squad. Here’s a run-down of everything that happened in the match.
The first 10 minutes of the match were all Arsenal’s, coming close to opening the scoring after just 5 minutes, keeping West Ham in their own half and looked like they were raring to go, but in the 13th minute, Emerson was seen making a run down the left wing and whipped a ball into the box, narrowly missing the foot of Bowen and leaving Gabriel and Zinchenko to try clear the ball.
From there it seemed like a miscommunication, and ended up knocking the ball towards the goal line where Bowen managed to knock the ball into the box to Soucek who blasted the ball into the net to make it 1-0.
IMO, the ball had gone out of play before Bowen was able to put the ball into the box, but after a lengthy VAR check and the officials not being 100% sure if the ball had gone out of play, awarded the goal, putting Arsenal on the back foot and with a lot of work to do.
In the 30th minute Jesus chipped a ball onto the head of Saka who headed the ball towards the goal but was somehow stopped by the Hammers keepers fingertips. Jesus shortly after was brought down in the box but after a VAR check, was ruled to be too soft. Saka again coming close in the dying second of the first half but hit the post. Arsenal had all the chances and possession but weren’t clinical enough.
The second half started a lot like the first and Arsenal looked to be the better team and were creating a lot of chances. They looked like they were likely to get one back, but after West Ham were awarded a set piece corner that Ward-Prowse whipped into the box onto the head of ex-Arsenal player Mavropanos’ who headed the ball onto the crossbar and then into the goal to made it 2-0, getting in front of Gabriel and putting West Ham in the driving seat.
Arsenal continued to push forward and create chances, but it just felt like luck wasn’t on our side, the West Ham keeper making some important saves to keep them in control of the game. Saka was taken down in the box but again VAR ruled against a penalty.
In the dying minutes of extra time, Rice was seen making a late challenge that ultimately resulted in a penalty to his old side and Benrahma stepped up to the spot to try put the Hammers 3-0 up, but David Raya chose the right way to dive and saved the penalty.
A tough result to swallow and a hard loss at home.
What’s your thoughts on the game Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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VAR is corrupt. Proved last night. A mixture of incompetence and corruption. They have cheated.
Completely agree you on the Saka challenge, although on the ball over the line, they actually had no choice but to give the goal, (although we all know it was a bad call) because in regards to the rule – if you cannot definitely see it went over the line, then the decision stands.
However, as I said yesterday, that is farcical rule! I do hope they change this rule asap.
To break it down, either way they couldn’t see if the ball was in or out, and either way, they do have to make a decision. So instead on going off guess work, like they did, they should make their decision based on what evidence is available. In this case, all the evidence suggests it was more likely out than in. Similar to what happened to us at Newcastle as well.
Basing the decision making process on evidence rather than guess work makes far more sense.
Frame by frame introduces logic and reasoning. It can logically be asserted that the ball was out. (See Football Terrace frame by frame analysis) 1 + 1 = 2…..not 3.
I completely agree, unfortunately they had to follow the stupid rule of guess work over evidence.
The Newcastle one was shown conclusively to have remained in play a couple of weeks later by footage from bein sports – going by the “evidence” apparently failed there…
🙄
On the replay you could CLEARLY see the backline to goalpost was unobstructed. If the ball was deemed “in play” shouldn’t it be touching that backline? Shouldn’t it be visible on the white line?
99.4% is the biggest lie I have heard in 2023,
Yes I agree VAR has issues .
The big picture is that we didn’t do well in the game. Trossard, Zichenko, Matinelli and Jesus weren’t at their best for no good reasons. VAR errors wouldn’t have mattered if we had taken our many chances to score and not lose the game. Our creativity and finishing has been lacking for a while now but we have been grinding out results. It’s time to go back to basics and produce encouraging performance and win Fulham.
In my opinion, Arteta’s 3-2-4-1 tactic requires a CF who can dominate EPL CBs physically, because it makes the opposing team put most of their players in around their goal to defend against our high-ball-possession system
We rely too much on our small attackers’ skills and don’t have another CF type to make chances
I was surprised when Arsenal decided to stick with Jesus and Nketiah, who have similar stature and abilities. They didn’t seem to have learned from their failure last season, despite our glaring front-line deficiency
@gai
Exactly. A plan B…And until we get one, we’re going to be stuck trying.
I hope Toney or Sesko will be affordable in January
Gai, Not about Toney or Sesko availabity. It’s about Arteta realising that he needs another towering CF. The Gafar should take a clue from teams he is competing with. ie City,-Halaand, Liverpool-Nunez & Gapko.
@gotanidea,,,, l take it my friend,, for Christmas, you got the latest MANAGER on Play Station. You maybe wondering to yourself,,,,,”What’s that got to do with the price of eggs 🥚 in your local supermarket”. I’ll let you ponder on that. “What comes first,,, the chicken or the egg?” And the egg is not “INVERTED,, It’s not “tall”, and it is certainly not, ” PIVOTAL “, and it’s not DIAGONAL. Just think about it
I don’t blame VAR at all.
If Arsenal had defended properly they would never have scored, it is as simple as that.
Arsenal are not in the title race in my opinion. It has always been between Liverpool and City and we all know how that will turn out.
For me there are several key issues at Arsenal.
Firstly the change of tactics has effectively blunted our attacking ability – fourteen goals between Odegaard, Jesus, Martinelli and Saka is simply not good enough.
Secondly for a forward player Gabriel Jesus is simply not good enough. he really is not good enough. Three goals all season matches Declan Rice who is a defensive midfielder.
I have also seen a marked reduction in the output of Martinelli – two goals all season he has been exceptionally poor since he got his lucrative new contract. Kai Havertz has bagged four goals this season in the league and yet somehow he is a laughing stock and Martinelli is the dogs dangly bits.
This is what happens when you tinker with things all the time.
If Arsenal fail to win anything this season which is possible, you would have to question whether Arteta is the man considering what he has spent so far…
@Me2
RealTalk 👍🏾
Ex ref Clattenburg made the best point re VAR when he said that the Premier League needs to get up to date with available tech currently in use in international games.
Or scrap VAR altogether so that we have less controversy, and a more enjoyable game.
Because of VAR it’s impossible to naturally celebrate a goal anymore!
The good (better) news is the Havertz will be back for the Fulham game (never thought I’d say that), but I thought Smith Rowe looked pretty sharp for his cameo. If he’d been on at that start of the second half I think it would have made a big difference.
We will never know Jax.
Maybe Arteta is reintroducing ESR slowly due to previous issues with injuries but he did more than ok last night.
Not managing to get the ball in the net is going to have serious consequences for our title challenge.
ESR must be craving a proper run out at craven cottage. Let’s give it to him. He has shown in the past how he can be a real difference maker over the course of a match.
“IMO, the ball had gone out of play”, so you couldn’t see it any more than anyone else could but you KNOW it was out of play. Just about sums up Arsenal supporters. A winning team doesn’t look for excuses, it faces up to its own failures and tries to improve. The simple fact is West Ham may not have the talent Arsenal have but they have a much better attitude. To me that’s down to Arteta who seems to have an excuse for everything, sadly that is inevitably going to affect the players and seems to be getting to the supporters to. Oh yes, no VAR ? the ref has given a goal, either way it stands.
“IMO” means it is an opinion and the person admits to not necessarily “KNOW”ing something.
If you don’t know then what has your “opinion” added to the debate ? What useful information have you given us ?
Everything you said was also opinion – I happen to agree with much of it (specifically your main point about looking for excuses), but it adds no more or less than anything else.
We resorted to Jesus and Saka diving. Against West Ham!!!!!!!
Sad wasn’t it!!!
For Reggie
I just felt we were toothless and frantic in our attacks rather than controlled. Whilst there were chances I never felt we were going to score.
Arteta is still making the same mistake of last year (i.e lack of rotation). The players looked jaded.
Oh no, don’t start something. We were lucky in ’15-’16 to finish 2nd because all the “big” clubs had off seasons right? Just gotta hear the narrative again.
Haha! 14 years straight, no title challenge. No manager at a top club will beat AW record!
Our players most times seem to drop quick reflexes. They allow opponents into the 18-yard box too often. Many time when they lost the ball all take the race backwards than stopping or causing problem for the opponent. We must stop being jittery and falling over the whole pitch.. our players must be goal-oriented than toothless ball possession. We must also try scoring better from outside the 18-yard box like Foden, Rodri, Party and Kane, and sometimes, Trossard.