It’s two wins out of two now for Arsenal, but if last week’s victory over Fulham was a delicious toasty sandwich, this was a petrol station chicken caesar wrap that had been sitting open on the counter for 17 hours (and someone had already taken a bite out of it and then tried to glue it back on with Pritt Stick).
Arsenal really struggled – Mikel Arteta made no bones about that in his post-game interview – but goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah were enough to see off a resolute and at times dangerous West Ham.
It wasn’t pretty, there wasn’t a lot to like about the performance, but it’s still three points.
Read the Arsenal 2-1 West Ham match report and see the goals here.
Arsenal 2-1 West Ham – Player Ratings
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We won our first two games last season as well, third game was Liverpool away also.
Seems to be a big advantage to teams that have had extra games so far and 2 out of 3 CBs probably wont be starters.
Lets chill the F out and see what happens, we will buy players, Arteta is a smart guy
I’m chilling the F out despite the bad performance.
First time in years I feel that way.
Especially reassuring because I know Arteta identifies what the weaknesses are, and he talks about it with clarity.
New players aren’t getting here soon enough to bed in
The only worrying thing is there is a trend building now. Any side that is willing to sit in and pack out the middle of the park we basically cannot create anything at all. What also worried me a lot was Arteta’s in game management. It was obvious our two centre midfielders were so isolated and struggled against a West Ham midfield that went man for man against them. I know everybody seems to love him now, but listen, Xhaka is not the answer at all. I dont want to be nasty, but he just isn’t good enough to take… Read more »
Completely agree but can we please stop talking about Ozil… It pains me to even think about that situation. Forget him and move on. He is making a mockery of us.
This super pressing game is a reactive approach it will work against teams hungry for possession. But against teams who do not have the need to win and are content at maximum with a draw then our pressing game needs someone who can either pass through the lines with precision or dribble and take on the defenders. Liverpool have really great dribblers to overcome this issue and the front three basically occupy the midfield and defender which opens up the space for the Wingbacks to provide width. In our case our front three have only one good dribbler and that… Read more »
I forgot to mention the off-the-ball movement is getting negligible for Arsenal nowadays. No one is making runs to offer options to the passers. One good off the ball movement provided the assist for the winner. It is these off the ball movements that are killed by the insistence on the pressing because not all the players have the same instincts to attack and counter.
My my!! West Ham were definitely not the team sitting deep and not doing anything!! Man they were the team who were doing most things in the second half….so your analysis is a bit wrong..they were the ones trying to win it and we had no answers for majority of second half As far as Xhaka..well you expect him to do things that Arteta doesn’t want him to do..I think his defensive positioning for majority of game was good. West Ham crowded the midfield and played a high line..narrowed the midfield space..and if Dani did not have any one to… Read more »
Arteta doesnt want Xhaka to recieve the ball on the half turn and play forward?
What xhaka does alot is turn away from any player who presses him and passes it backwards or sheilds the ball and falls over winning a free kick in our own half.
thats why our build up is so painfully slow at times id rather see elneny given a chance with dani in midfield
i’ve always said.. since we have xhaka, we havent been in the CL. and getting worse.
Been itching to give Kola a 0.5 since the final whistle. Oddly satisfying
Gosh he was utter shit.
Other than the goal coming from his side what was so bad? He was part of a back 3 that withstood a desparate, often dangerous West Ham and recycled the ball well enough after barely any minutes under Arteta to this point. Did his part in the W.
The negativity with individuals is astonishing sometimes.
He always seems not to be sure of what to do or where exactly to position himself. He truly fucked the rhythm on the left much as there wasn’t a rhythm to begin with.
When he first came, I was thinking he’d be a great addition. Strong, willing to join the attack, piledriver left foot. But he’s a defender who isn’t really very good at defending, and he’s lost a step, having been none too fast to start with. His crosses are awful. You can see he’s trying hard, but he really can’t contribute the way we need him to. He’d be a regular starter in Turkey, maybe in some Bundesliga teams. He’s on a ridiculous salary (free transfer) and that might be a problem.
I have a feeling that the upcoming, tricky, midweek game against Leicester may have influenced Arteta’s decision to not include AMN and Elneny in the starting lineup.
He might be planning to field them from the starting whistle come Wednesday.
Also, it takes two to tango. We didn’t play great but Moyes sets his side up so negatively in my opinion.
The fact that in a moment the team can produce the magic that got those two goals is extremely positive.
I am dumbfounded as to how Kolasinac even gets on the bench.
Can anyone explain to me why Saka is not their MOTM? He unlocked the defense twice and constantly demanded the ball from Xhaka and Ceballos all game but they chose to pass sideways 90% of the time.
Seriously, watch the match again and look how hard Saka had to work to make up for Kola being useless and the whole right side of our attack doing nothing.
Saka was good just not perfect. I watched the game too & there were two moments in the 1st half where Saka could have played a square-ball to Auba and Lacazette but chose to shoot from difficult angles.
I can also recollect there were also some misplaced touches and passes that he made that completely killed our attack. He’s still at the age where he still needs open space to be effective, something he probably got a lot of at U18 level.
There was also a moment at the beginning of the match where he set Laca up perfect in the box but Laca passed to Willian who passed it back and probably shouted “what are you doing man SHOOT” … then Laca took 22 touches and never got a shot off.
What did Bellerin, Willian and Pepe do on the right? Saka carried the creativity and yes that meant he made some mistakes
I thought Pepe was pretty nightmare-ish for West Ham during his brief cameo. Wouldn’t blame him for how quiet we were from the right throughout the most of the game.
Laca despite the odd touch here and there (how quickly we forget there was barely a preseason #athleterobots) also very active defensively and as a connector, not to mention the goal… Some people can’t be pleased.
They miss Elneny who can relieve the pressure and giving passing option
Elneny positional awareness off the ball was his main strong points, not to mention his one touch pass
I saw that as well. I would argue a few of those times he was more covered then he knew and that the lanes closed down fast. Xhaka and ceballos were indeed pretty stale I thought though. His “pre assists” were such that in my opinion they were more important then the final pass.
0/10 for Graeme Souness being a moist eyed, camera-hogging gherkin
I would like to ideally give you two thumbs up for calling him a Gherkin. Really made me laugh.
You’re too kind
Give that man some pearls to clutch.
A gherkin pickled in vinegar. What a sourpuss. And he loves the Spuds
Souness and Evra are probably the worst pair on the Sky punditry team to “analyse” an Arsenal game. Can’t stand hearing the excrement coming from their mouths.
Granted this Arsenal side was very uninspiring but they made it seem like West Ham played like Pep’s Barca. Happy to praise West Ham’s challenges but made no mention of the studded boot Saka took to the stomach.
Here in the U.S., Robbie Mustoe and Tim Howard were going on at halftime about how impressed they were by us in the first half (despite what still felt like a bit of a sloppy performance to me). Sounds like quite the difference. And we had Lee Dixon doing in-game analysis. He didn’t seem too bothered by most of what we saw, and of course I value his opinion. Of course, I don’t know what anyone said post-match because NBC cut away immediately to show cars driving in a circle, so, yeah, I guess we all have some crap to… Read more »
‘Narative’…
Lee Dixon is great as the “color commentator”. You’re right that the US crew’s remarks were overly generous to us. Some of the individual skills our guys showed were more impressive than the team performance. Gotta admit, Antonio was awesome. If that guy gets hurt, the Hammers are in trouble.
Interesting to hear a different perspective. I’m guessing Tim Howard has replaced the second Robbie?
I hope not.
No, Kyle Martino. Not an improvement.
How about him trying to suggest the ball hit Gabriel closer to his elbow than his shoulder? I mean sure, disagree with the rules change by all means but don’t lie to suit your old school football man agenda, it’s intellectually dishonest.
Souness is nothing more than hired noise, a talking head wheeled out to pad the #content – trite, superficial, worthless garbage served up to provide soundbites in lieu of insight.
Not sure why I watched it tbh.
Great to grab all 3 points but there’s something not right with our midfield. I’m not quite sure what it is but there’s something wrong in midfield
It’s Xhaka giving the ball away multiple times in the starting 20 minutes in our half under no pressure at all.
The words your looking for are pace and creativity.
And an extra player.
West Ham did a job on us in the middle of the park. Instead of trying to put our back line under pressure like Fulham, they let our defenders have it and cut off our passing lanes in midfield. With Saka drifting wide we didn’t have the numbers in the middle to pop it around them. And Kolasinic on the left deprived us of the out-ball to Aubameyang. Notably, both our goals came from Saka coming infield and providing that extra bit of drive and creativity we lacked for most of the game. Our formation and style works well against… Read more »
there is no such thing as passing lanes in midfield. good midfields find space and pass the ball into space
If you can’t use your weak foot, because it’s soo hard, at least learn to use your outside foot, even just to drill it.
Bonus rating rating: 10/10
Bonus rating rating rating: 9/10
Neither of those goals happen without Saka’s inventiveness. We would have lost the game without him, MOTM for me.
Ugly win against West Ham. Beautiful.
Not entirely sure the changes from last week’s team helped us today. At least with Elneny, you know you are getting a player who keeps things simple but moves the ball quickly. And I think there’s an unfair narrative about him. Too many sideways passing today from all our players bar those 2 moments of incisive passing from Saka. It’s pretty clear we need upgrades in midfield. There’s no point talking about Kolasinac. I was hoping he would have a good game so clubs can come for him. Leno has a bit of convincing to do now that Arsenal fans… Read more »
I don’t think Elneny would have been in position to get the assist Ceballos made, but I agree with you that he makes things feel more stable defensively. Might be interesting to see them in a midfield three with Xhaka, Ceballos playing the more forward/#10 role that we’re all hoping Aouar comes in to play.
This is spot-on. Ceballos for Elneny is not a clear upgrade, but a trade-off. Ceballos is less consistently tidy on the ball but (sometimes) gives us more forward momentum. I like both players quite a bit, but I think the gap between them may be smaller than some on here seem to think, at least at this point in Dani’s career. It’s not a surprise that we looked more disheveled in midfield without Elneny today; on the other hand, I agree that Elneny doesn’t make that assist, and Dani settled into the game in the second half. Good to have… Read more »
To me the type of midfielder we need is something in the mold of santi, wilshere, diaby. Basically someone who can receive the ball in tight spaces and ghost past their marker with skill or power and help the transition from the back line to the forwards. Xhaka doesn’t do this unless he’s in alot of space to play his over the top pass and ceballos doesn’t do it often enough even though it looks like it is in his locker to do so. Guendouzi does ghost past his marker but dwells too long on the ball after that and… Read more »
Yeah, have definitely got used to Martinez rising above everyone in the box to clutch those balls and absolutely dominate his area. Still, Leno is class and has plenty of experience so not griping.
I thought Leno looked a liability every time a cross came in, Emi was so much more commanding
At this point I’d rather Leno just not attempt to claim crosses in a crowded penalty area. When he misses, the goal is unguarded and the defence starts panicking. That’s how we lost against Chelsea.
It’s never been his strong point.
Pretty poor game but the 3 points are what matters! Really pleased for Eddie! Wasn’t impressed with Gabriel today though. Missed some headers that should have been bread and butter for him. Luckily not to have given a penalty away for that potential hand ball. Should have been better positioned for their goal. Backed away from another dangerous ball in our box that could easily have been very costly. Early days but a lot of mistakes from him today and really didn’t look confident.
I agree he wasn’t as imperious as last week and there were a couple of dodgy moments, but he won loads of crucial headers and looked great on the ball and played some more incisive passes than last week. And he didn’t have Tierney to work with.
In a similar vein, I liked that after he had a couple cock-ups, he remained calm and was actually able to recover. Sure, I hope he won’t fall over accidentally too often when a cross is coming through, but to have the poise at this age to recover effectively, I can’t help but be kind of impressed in a backwards way.
His aerial defence was indeed solid today – but defs a few shaky moments… watched the replay of their goal a few times and it looks as though he sticks his foot a few inches out to cut the cross off but then has second thoughts and pulls it back at the last minute. Possibly worried about an o/g but he could – and should – have made that interception!
Not sure why we struggled against them because West Ham made us look a bit average. But a win is a win!
Good to get the win but that surely has to serve as a reality check. There’s no way we do anything this season without at least a couple of midfield signings and probably a replacement for the horrendously immobile and lightweight Lacazette. We probably need a replacement LB for Kola as well if AMN or Saka aren’t going to be played there when Tierney is out.
I agree. I’m going to say this and it’s going to upset people but….. Laca is worse than prime Giroud for Arsenal.
Laca cant trap a ball with his first touch if his life depended on it and goes around the pitch fouling instead of winning the ball.
I actually had that thought about Giroud watching the game today. His hold-up play is much better. He also fell over a lot though, the sexy beast. Laca is definitely a better finisher though, and is perhaps doing a job for the team he didn’t quite expect to be?
Giroud went long ago, why bother comparing? Current options are Laca, Eddie, a new signing.
GraeB— LENS?
Ooh, harsh. The man has two goals. His touch let him down on a couple of occasions today, but he didn’t play that badly, and most games he does contribute. Giroud was excellent, but obviously is a different type of striker. He did so many things that upset and wore out the opposition CBs. Arteta plays Laca because he sees what he does on the field.and likes it.
That’s a bit unfair on Laca, he can be absolutely brilliant at killing the ball with his first touch and smashing it in. Look back at his goal against Chelsea last year or Liverpool. Just doesn’t do it often enough unfortunately
As much as Laca is a popular guy he’d be far better off being a bench option when we need a goal rather than in the starting line up.
The most obvious solution is to let Saka play on the left and shift Auba to the middle. It’s a travesty when our best player by a mile is resorting to creating chances rather than burying them, we need Auba in his best position!
The only reason Laca plays is beca
Use we don’t have a out and out creator. Once we sign Aouar, Laca’s Arsenal career is good as gone
That’s Auba’s best position. We wouldn’t have an FA Cup and a Community Shield if he was not playing on the left.
Pretty much agree with the ratings. Ceballos was mixed but justifies 6.5 for his very strong final 20 minutes.
I didn’t think Leno was great. 5 at best. Mind you he wasn’t helped at all by the defending.
Kola – awful.
Is Tierney really indispensable? After this game it seems so. Maybe Kola needs to sit in the stands or better yet, go back to Schalke? (Looks like they could use some help after their results this weekend.)
Holding at fault for the goal but gets a higher rating than kola the jonny foreigner.
Need saliba in the team asap cant be doing weak ass championship level defending
That flap drop is why selling emi is a mistake leno will cost us points
No creativity from anyone but saka ozil should be on the bench
Screw the establishment corrupt baskets
Valid criticism of Xhaka but thought he mopped things up really well at times in the second half of the game. A part of his game I think has really improved and is often overlooked.
We would have lost this match a year ago
After RBG passing yesterday, I really needed an Arsenal win to up my spirits. The performance wasn’t really there, but three points is a bright spot in an otherwise shitty start to a weekend, and obviously an overwhelmingly shit year.
Nah, speak for yourself bro, lots of us are having a great year.
We got the 3 points but man, that was ugly. Saka and Eddie were above average, everyone else were average to poor.
Full credit to West Ham, particularly Antonio. He is a beast and was MOTM in defeat.
I remember seeing him for Notts Forest years ago and thinking he was class, but I was still a bit surprised when he got a premier league transfer. Last two seasons he’s been immense, respect to him.
Just keep marching forward! This team will get better as the season goes on under Arteta. Add in a couple of top quality signings and we have the makings of a top four challenging outfit.
I was hoping several times for one of those long diagonal balls from Gabriel that the scouting reports showed he has in him; maybe the manager doesn’t want that? I also can’t stop thinking we could break through some of these low blocks if someone would try to dribble past a man once or twice. Was hoping Luiz was coming on for Kola (in the center, pushing Gabi to LB). So many tentative passes and a lot of nervous play all around the pitch; sharp as a butter knife for the most part, but a few nice goals means an… Read more »
Gabriel played some long vertical balls into the left half space into Auba, some of which he miscontrolled and some of which he passed backwards.
I I only really recall seeing Gabriel’s vertical balls in the scouting reports
Bonus rating on point. COYG!
Blogs get’s extremely harsh on his ratings when a match goes worse than expected…for me Ceballos and Saka need to be 7 or better…Dani for his hard work defesively and sharp forward passing and match winning assist and Bukayo who provided the moment that turned the tide when it was against us..only special players do that
Thought the rating was a bit harsh on Willian. He seemed to be causing some problems for Wet Ham in the first half. Maybe he should have been subbed sooner. Elneny for Xhaka could have been interesting.
It’s too late now but Martinez was far superior to Leno for dealing with crosses into the box, defenders want assurances that their keeper can deal with high balls but leno although a great shot stopper is hesitant in the box and that manifested itself in the defence. A team that plays with high intensity like liverpool will probably destroy us. Unfortunately xhaka is way too slow and one footed, we really need an upgrade. Pepe is clueless, like his skills but he never takes control of a game as you would expect a 72m signing to do so. Kolasinac… Read more »
leno is doggy on crosses and quite poor on the ball.
Liverpool is a different test from a team that sets out to negate us.
We clearly still have problem with breaking down a tight defence but Scousers won’t do that but are fully aware of our potential on the break.
I’m less pessimistic than others here. Leeds showed what can be done and they don’t have out firepower.
Overall were pretty sloppy with the ball, especially our wayward passing. Nice plays on the two goals, but need to be much more dominant with the ball in possession against teams that sit back like WH did. Nice to get a win in a match so similar to so many matches in which we’ve dropped points the last couple of years.
Boy, I missed K Tierney…
Xhaka is a decent at what he does but today was well off the boil. I would like to see Elneny given a game in place of him. He seems tidier and better positioned. Elneny also has a decent long range shot which can come in use against a parked bus. West Ham were better than anticipated and Antonio is such a threat. Alas it was a bad day at the office but its still a goodly morning.
hes been off the boil for about 4 years
Did anyone else enjoy watching Gabriel wrestle Antonio? It’s nice to know we have a player back there who will bust the narrative around Arsenal being soft. Nothing soft about him!
We could use a creative midfielder and then a switch to a back 4. That seemed obvious today. Holding. He is not up to the standards we need. But 3 points and a Man U loss felt jolly.
What is the latest on Ozil?
He’s shite. For ages. 9 more months and we can finally move on from this giant clusterfuck.
Yep, we could be paying 3 decent players with his wages
I have no personal problem with Kolasinac, and I know he’s doing his best but… we really, really need to move him on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player so far below the technical level required.
To me, he’s only real quality is that he’s a hard chap. He can hold his own when an attacker is close to him. Shadow of his bundesliga self, though. Time to sell!
hard? when have you seen him put in a hard challenge? useless player
I get your point, and I agree… but man Andre Santos was crap.
Shocking performance. Not many high points, at all. The fight/desire to win, despite the players being sooooo below par, was nice to see. This time last year, we’d had been rolled over. We need, the linked/reportededly close, Partey and Aouar! Still, United were worse and should’ve lost 5 or 6-1.
Kola need to be sold, Tierney is better than him. We lacked creativity in middle.we need a creative mildfilder.
He knows the club want to sell him so his mind is probably elsewhere. Especially as a new father.
Extra bonus rating United getting beat by Palace at home.
Big OUCH to Leno’s face when his face hit the ground for that catch…
more flapping from him doesnt know when to catch and when to punch
Very happy for the three points. Nice scrappy win. I’d just like to point out a few things that looked problematic: We’re restricted to wing play, but we do not have any overlapping runs been the winger amc full back, that doesn’t give an option to the man with the ball. The fact that Westham out shot us given that they came with an intention of parking the bus is scary. Similar to the Spu*s game last time. We know Arteta plays the 5-lane while going forward, but I’m not sure Auba on the wide left is quite useful, although… Read more »
letting ramsey leave was a big mistake
A little generous to Leno Blogs, I feel. Really tentative too too often. Having settled comfortably into Emi’s dominance of his immediate surrounds, it really was squeaky bum time with every cross they pinged in! Kola – just sad really… any of the positives he showed early on have disappeared in what is patently a crisis of confidence: none of the power and bull-like forward charges, instead his default pass is 95% backwards (square if we’re lucky!). Midfield defs less solid without Elneny – who I feel is significantly better/more useful than many on this forum think/admit. He has a… Read more »
xhaka is the big problem in midfield turns slower than an oil tanker
Hard win
We actually miss the presence of Elneny in this match dude
He keep it simple and make the other flourish
I thought Willian played too close to the middle and didn’t hug the touchline near as much as against fulham. Instructions from the manager perhaps, but I doubt it. That single factor contributed so much to our poor buildup, especially as KT was missing on the other side. Kola is so poor, my God.
Contrary to what some Gooners said on this site after the Fulham win, we’re clearly not the finished article and there’s certainly work to do as you indicate. Talk from some fans of a top 4 finish, and even the PL itself is way too premature. Arteta will need time to get things sorted and I suspect that the good finish to last season, trophy-wise, has inflated expectations. Let’s see where we are at Christmas.
All our frailties were exposed without dropping any points. Perfect. Over to you Silent Stan.
After several years of inaction, what are you expecting him to do now? Never say never, I guess, but do you really think he’ll suddenly put a load of money into the club? Pure fantasyland stuff in my opinion. Of course it would be great if he did what Comrade A has done at Chelsea, but there’s no evidence at all that he will. Whatever we do this season, and let’s not get too carried away after only a couple of games, it will have to be from our own resources – it was ever thus.
yawn
Always thought we were gonna miss Martinez and we missed him yesterday. That boy did know how to command a penalty box.
Watching the match from my sick bed, I was not 100% moved by our performance but the victory brought relief to some of my pains.
Let’s look forward to our mid week game against Leicester City.
Get well soon. Try to avoid any games we are losing while you’re there. Haha??
Our performance was not 100% but we got the 3 points.
Thanks to our hard working players and coaches.
What we missed was a third midfielder. So many times we would win the first ball but would lose that second ball due to only 2 mids. For some reason always seemed like West Ham had an extra man in the middle even though they played the same formation as us. Also every time Ceballos or xhaka were looking for a forward pass there wasn’t the extra mid to play in between the lines. Also as much as Holding struggled I do think in a two he would be much more solid. At time he was being pushed into a… Read more »
I didn’t watch the game live but I followed the commentary on BBC and Twitter. I watched the game when I got home last night and the game that I saw had no resemblance to the comments on Twitter. Not even close. You would have thought we got played off the park.
Was it a fluid performance? No. We found ourselves in a street fight and we played the game in front of us. There is a lot to say about watching a game without the anxiety of the live game
Yes. My wife will come into the room and say, “oh no Arsenal”. “Not to worry, I already know the score!”. Personally thought we could have done better and we had an air of ” oh shit, this stuff isn’t working” kind of feel to the play in the second half. We were saved by a nice sequence put together by some of our younger players and that is really positive. My take is that we are becoming a defense first team, which probably won’t sit well with most of the fan base.
DEFENCE get it right
we’ve got our fair share of toothy Brazilians if the players’ images above by Blogs are anything to go by