Arsenal started on the front foot but West Ham nearly found a breakaway goal early on, then after about ten mins Havertz came very close when he got his head to a free kick that was going into the top of the net – but Fabianki brilliantly knocked it over the bar.
The Hammers were finding lots of space on the break and Gabriel had to win a duel to stop them scoring, but from the resulting well taken corner, Ben White somehow headed into the net and suddenly we were 1 0 down. Ramsdale was definitely impeded and had his shirt held but the referee wasn’t interested.
It was another corner halfway through the first period that nearly produced our equalizer, but Nketiah put the ball narrowly over the bar. There was a silly incident just after when playing out from the back was very sloppy and Ramsdale and his new look defence looked very jittery, but luckily we ended up with a goal kick.
The Gunners laid on the pressure for the last 15 mins of the half but but just couldnt get past the packed West Ham defence and crazily at the whistle Arsenal had had 8 shots at goal and the Hammers a big fat zero. That tells a story..
I would think that Arteta will already be thinking about the changes he needs to make to find a breakthrough in the second half and get through Moyes deep defence.
West Ham very nearly scored just 45 seconds after the restart but luckily Bowens chip hit Ramsdales flailing hands and they nearly doubled their lead with their first shot of the game.
Then disater as Kudus collected a long pass on the wing and after a lovely touch steered the ball into the corner of Ramsdale’s net. 2-0 down. Arsenal really need to make some chamges.
Arteta waited ten minutes to bring on Declan Rice and Tomiyasu, but straight away Bowen put the Hammers 3-0 up. To be fair to Rambo the ball took a slight deflection but it looks like Arsenal are now out of this cup ubless there is a miracle. Here comes Saka and Martinelli to try and liven up the game. Im afraid Havertz is having a nightmare and Reiss Nelson has been mostly anonymous. But its Trossard and Nelson that go off.
With 20 minutes to go Arsenal still can’t get passed the block to create any chances and dont look like getting even one goal back. In fact its embarrassing to be honest. To be fair West Ham have looked like tigers and even our subs have had no effect.
With 3 minutes left we finally got a shot from odegaard from long range as we cant get close to goal and dont like we will either.
Theres no urgency no accuracy and i hope the referee puts us out of our misery soon as i cant take much more of this to be honest.
In the dying seconds Odegaard gets us a consolation, but I doubt there were many Arsenal fans left in the stadium to see it!
An embarrasing 3-1 defeat and it seems Arteta’s squad isn’t quite so invincible after all….
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