Arsenal shined in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang last night, but are we better off without him?
Guest post by Sarah Rohan
Wow! What a performance that was! The only negative was not getting the goal from the penalty spot earlier on, so the game was still on a bit of a knife edge as the Hammers seemed spurred on by their fans, and tried getting back into the game even with ten men. Thankfully ESR partnered with Saka to finish them off. The youngsters once again proved their worth and tormented the opponents defence all night. Saka and Martinelli especially who were on fire!
Even the likes of Thomas Partey who has struggled in recent games held the ball well, shame some of his blasted shots got blocked by the defenders. He deserves one of those in the back of the net.
The team on the whole performed their roles to the best of their ability. The running, the tracking back, their creating, basically the whole shebang!
That’s two wins in a row and no goals conceded. Have we turned a corner? Does the Gabon striker deserve his place back in the team against Leeds?
Well after that performance from the whole team last night I think he’ll be raring to get his place back, but I don’t think he should just yet. It makes me wonder why we can’t get these performances from him anymore?
Originally I was blaming our manager, that he was setting the team out and Aubameyang wasn’t getting the service from the players but now I’m not so sure. Is it he just isn’t in form or is it laziness on his part? Is it more of what’s going on in the background, and that the time is near that he will be leaving us? Whatever it is I think he needs to earn his place back into the side.
Hopefully we can carry on playing the way we did, and it will make Auba more hungry to get back in on the action. He still has an opportunity and is definitely an asset that we need to keep in the top four fight, but I suppose that’s now down to how much he wants it, and the relationship between himself and Arteta.
Lacazette was excellent in place of him last night and showed what a captain and forward in this team should be doing. Did the man ever stop running? He was amongst the thick of it the whole game and his passion was amazing.
I can’t fault any of the players last night and would even say that was our best performance of the season. It was finally a game I enjoyed watching, jumping around my living room, fist pumping and cheering the team on.
I thought West Ham was going to be the biggest test going into the festive season, well apart from Manchester Utd, so was very surprised how much we dominated them last night.
So can we keep it up? Can Pierre Emerick gain his spot back in the team? Will he be relieved that he’s had the captaincy removed? Maybe it was too much pressure for him. Will the coach change formation for the next game? So many questions to be answered. Hopefully more light will be shed come Saturday’s match day. All I know is I want more of last night please!
Happy Gooner Xmas!