Well I don’t know why I am so surprised because Arsenal have a habit of doing this sort of thing to us. But the way we tok on a briliant second half of last season all the way through pre-season had given us every reason to expect a strong start against West Ham.
But almost everything that could go wrong for the Gunners did go wrong. Not only did we look nervous and struggle to get our usual passing game going amid some hard work and high pressing from the visitors, but the two goals we conceded were soft and seriously avoidable.
First Petr Cech made an error in running out and getting nowhere near the ball to allow Kouyate a free header from a free kick that probably should not have been. Then some sloppy defending gave Zarate the chance of a shot, which caught Cech out of position and put us in a real bind.
THe fact that they were 2-0 up after two attempts on target shows that it was just not our day but the inability to get even one back ourselves tells you that this was not the Gunners we are used to. Even Alexis Sanchez spurned a couple of good chances late on.
Back to square one Arsenal.