Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Trossard
Subs: Ramsdale, Cedric, Walters, Bandeira, Elneny, Jorginho, Nelson, Nwaneri, Nketiah
Arsenal ensured they kept pace with their title rivals after demolishing West Ham 6-0 at the London Stadium, thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka (2), William Saliba, Gabriel, Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice.
Mikel Arteta made two changes to the side that beat Liverpool last time out, with Jakub Kiwior and Trossard coming in for Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jorginho. Gabriel Jesus (knee), Emile Smith Rowe (ankle) and Takehiro Tomiyasu also missed out on the matchday squad.
Unsurprisingly, Arsenal dominated possession early on with West Ham setting into a deep block and looking to break on the counter through Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen.
There were some nervous moments with Jakub Kiwior and Gabriel Martinelli both getting caught on the ball in dangerous areas, but the hosts couldn’t create anything of note and from that point forward – it was all Arsenal.
Trossard fashioned two chances in quick succession, one header that glanced over and another cleanly struck volley which drew an excellent stop from Alphonse Areola as it bolted towards goal.
Martin Odegaard saw another shot deflected wide as pressure began to mount, before William Saliba rose highest from the resulting corner – taken by Declan Rice – to head home unopposed. 1-0.
The Gunners were feeling themselves and continued to push for a second, with Bukayo Saka guilty of missing two presentable chances after heading Kiwior’s cross wide from six yards before dinking just wide having been found by Odegaard.
But he would eventually make the difference after his run in behind was found by Trossard, before being taken out by an onrushing Areola and earning a penalty which he slotted away impressively – with added emphasis having missed in this stadium last season. 2-0.
Gabriel made it three moments later, heading home from close range after another pinpoint Rice delivery with Areola stranded again. 3-0.
As a result of that goal, no Premier League side has scored more from set pieces, excluding penalties, than Arsenal this season (15).
With West Ham totally shellshocked, Trossard – the game’s standout performer at that point – cut inside Kurt Zouma and curled beyond Areola to make it four before half time. 4-0.
Arsenal were untouchable throughout the first 45 minutes and West Ham fans were already pictured by Sky cameras leaving in their thousands.
Less than a minute into the second half, Trossard could have doubled his tally but skied an effort from the edge of the box having been found by Gabriel Martinelli from the byline.
With the hosts utterly demoralised, Saka drew another save from Areola after lovely play between Odegaard and Kai Havertz, before eventually making it five with a well-taken individual goal.
After finding himself between full back and centre back, the Englishman skipped inside Dinos Mavropanos with ease and buried a shot into the bottom corner. 5-0.
Naturally, Declan Rice found himself at the centre of things heading back to his former club, and already with two assists to his name he made it SIX(!) for Arsenal with a 30-yard screamer which was curled in perfectly. 6-0.
Stop, stop, they’re already dead.
Arteta rang the changes at this point, with Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah all introduced for Rice, Martinelli and Saka ahead of an important few weeks.
There was even time for a Cedric appearance who replaced Ben White, with 16-year-old Ethan Nwaneri also rewarded with his second Premier League outing after replacing Trossard.
The remaining minutes almost felt second-hand embarrassment from Arsenal who clearly took their foot off the gas, with the damage already done on a miserable day for the hosts.
Conversely, it couldn’t have been any better for Arteta’s men who matched their biggest away win in Premier League history, pulled level with Manchester City and avenged their disappointing home defeat against the same opposition in December.
Onto the next one. Rice, Rice, baby.
Wow! Great win against a bogey side!!!!!!
10 out of 10
We made 685 passes at 93% accuracy vs 280 passes for them. At their ground…
Just hope we didn’t celebrate at all afterwards…
Just go down the tunnel!
“I’m serious, honestly.”
Did anyone notice how MO seemed to be guiding and encouraging Nathan? Loved to see it!
I was really impressed with Nwaneri today. He doesn’t look one bit out of place in this side. I hope we get to see more of him in the coming months.
More 6 goal leads so we can bring him on, sounds great!
Yep was shouting at Arteta to get Ethan on. He must have heard all the way from Northern Ireland.
Keeping it simple. Pass and move.
He also looked quite impressive physically. When he came on with Cedric, I was surprised how much bigger he looked!
Well spotted, I thought the same.
One thing about this Arsenal side is they’ve not got anyone to put the ball in the back of the net…
Generic Pundit comment, January 2024
What do you expect from “pundits” who would rather focus on mundane things post game, than offer insights into how a team has played.
Saw Xabi Alonso and his staff celebrating yesterday with the Leverkusen faithful. Everyone just applauded. If that had been Arteta, people like Carragher and Neville would focus on that than on the game itself. Just pathetic
Finished six nil we got away with it and I don’t agree with the players celebrating any of the goals let alone winning
Right before Trossard’s goal, the commentators were seemingly complaining that all their goals had to come from set pieces (as did those are worth less). There’s always something to drag Arsenal about.
Roy Keane congratulating us through the most gritted of gritted teeth
All pundits are actually ignorant cunts.
Generic everyone else comment from sometime in the last 30 years or so.
Hilarious moment when our first big chance of the game came along with a Trossard header that was missed, and Alan Smith was straight in there like “oooh you see, if Arsenal had a natural striker in the box then they’d be one nil up!” (as if our problem there was a gap in the squad, and not Trossard missing a chance he scores 9 times out of 10), and the main commentator then jumps straight into the ‘Arsenal need a striker’ script for a good minute. Off the back of our first chance of the game! Do they seriously… Read more »
The thing about Arsenal is they always try to walk it in.
Phew, just about edged that one 😉
Sixy Beasts
You know, I used to watch City and Liverpool just a few years ago, how they pressed, be all in your face, attack relentlessly, and defend as a team, and wondered if my beloved team would ever get to those standards.
Thank you so much Mikel Arteta (I know you read Arseblog).
Hahahaha he doesn’t. But truth be told he is Peps disciple hence following on his footsteps. Enjoy the win mate.
He’s gonna leave Pep behind in the next four or five seasons.
The difference being that out dynasty will be far more organic.
So true, feels great to be competitive again. Arteta has somehow managed to reconnect most of us the fan base, that I really wouldn’t be surprised if he read Arseblog daily 😀
The fact that we’re just a serious club again. This man will always have my gratitude. No matter what happens.
If we win nothing for the next two seasons and Mikel leaves, he’s still been a resounding success in my book. He literally dragged us back to relevance through sheer force of personality.
Not much different from our last performance against West Ham (just look at the stats). It’s amazing the difference scoring the first goal makes. COYG!!!
We scored the first 2 in the corresponding game last season and drew.
True, so the key must therefore be to always score the first six goals
We could have done with 3 or 4 of those goals being scored at the Emirates, leaving 2 for today!
As well as being squeaky clean at the back.
The quality of football at home mostly wasn’t like that – however the first 15 minutes at home were excellent so I take your point about scoring the 1st goal
now it was rice taking corners instead of trossard. what a difference that has made these last few matches. he’s not only a complete beast but also has the most privileged accuracy. thank god as i couldn’t stand another corner falling short by leo.
Fantastic performance and will do us the world of good. Arteta now starting with havertz of trossard up front when Jesus is out and you can see the difference. If we can get 15/20 million for nketia in the summer and move on a few others off wage bill, bring in another striker and we are flying.
We would be doing very well to get that much for Nketiah. It would be as good a bit of business as getting £20m for Walcott.
Bore off Joker, ain’t the day dude
I was thinking we could get £30/35 million for him. He’s got more experience than Balogun and Iwobi and we got that for those 2. Young English striker with 38 goals for Arsenal will be a big hit with mid table premier league teams!
Such a dearth of strikers i couldn’t really think of 10 strikers better than Eddie.outside the obvious.
Brilliant game and comprehensive win, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nketiah is a big bag of shit.
Bang out of order!
He’s like the batman Joker, sinister, not funny
You must be a miserable fucker mate haha
Fuck, yeah!!!
6-0, and it could have been 10!
Title-winning performance!!
10 out of 10 for everyone!!!
What an afternoon!!!
I could get used to the new FG 😉
FG’s account has been hacked
Where’s the real Fats? What did you do to him?
Allright..hustle hold up, who are you and what have you done with our fats…
Mediocre performance!!! It took us two lucky corners and a penalty to get the rhythm going against a west ham side that had not won in their last 4 games. We should have scored much more but we didn’t. Why didn’t havertz score? And don’t get me started on Nketiah. Another cameo in which he produced nothing. We’re too short on every front to compete for the title, but oh well. That’s what you get if you’re coached by a beginner! Another trophyless season.
there, fixed it for you fatgooner
Lol!
I’m allowed to enjoy a nice 6-0 away win in a London derby, aren’t I?
I’ll be back to my worst next game – unless we win big again!
Welcome home mate.
They have FG tied up in their basement. “Let FG go, we know you’re hiding him in the house.” Fats has never been this positive.
Kiwior what a player. Absolute brick wall, shut down West Hams entire right side. Kudos to him for delivering on every opportunity he gets.
Kudus to him was a no brainer..
See ya
love his willingness to get forward too. He’s obviously not Zinchenko, no one is, but I can see him getting to a point of being able to do a passable impression of Zinny going forward while offering much more solidity at the back
White inverted in this game, so Kiwior can focus on defensive aspect of his game. Great we have that option now.
makes a lot of sense to do that with a more experienced (and also very technically talented) player and let Kiwior learn to do one job really well first, then once he’s shown he can do it for a period and developed more confidence, I think he has the ball skills to do some inverting too
Kudos to him for shutting down Kudus.
You mean ‘Kudus’?
😄😄
I like gooooooals.
Should have gone for the record (9-0) haha. But otherwise, thanks for giving us the image of thousands of fans leaving at half time.
Pundits: “Who will get the goals for Arsenal? They need a striker.”
Arsenal: 16 goals in 4 games!
I love Big Willy ! Wait…..
Me too. And Saliba, what a player!
A few months ago i suggested Rice should take our corners and set pieces and was laughed at. “but he’s one of our strongest and tallest players!” well we’re seeing now his ability to strike and put a spin on the ball might be even more significant that his physique. Dare I say even Beckham-esque at times? What a player
Rice taking the mick not celebrating, chefs kiss haha
can’t wait for the pundits to tear him down for undercelebrating
Never saw that coming but I am delighted 🙂
Large single malt and a celebratory cigar!
A single malt AND a cigar!??!
I’m tempted to shop you to the celebration Stasi and claim my extra ration of gruel.
lmfao
Cheers! 😎🥃
What problems did we have in this game Fatgooner? Didn’t get 10?
Come on mate.
Fats does come out with some funnies, but the dude cares passionately about this club, as much as the rest of us.
Let’s leave the negativity to Carragher and Neville and the rest of Salt Crèche outside the Emirates.
Now is the time for all Arsenal fans to stand proud and tall together, because this team is special.
We are picking up form at the right time! Everyone expects City or Liverpool to win the league and this will work in our favor! COYG!
Good win, could’ve, should’ve, been 8!!! Punch pipline punch worked out for the Gunners today 🛠️🔫
Fucking 6 ooooosssshhhhhh!!!!
I hope they celebrated the fuck out of that. That was magnificent. Yes!
Sixy football.
Oh, and, ermm, WE’VE GOT SUPER MIK ARTETA!!!! X
Happy flowers!
I saw a picture of Odegaard, from high above the stadium, taking photos of the crowd leaving at halftime. Pretty funny. Actually, I think opponents should insist that Odegaard carry a camera around his neck while he’s playing to give them a fair chance.
Hilarious. You should do a couple memes off it.
The Captain was everywhere and never stopped pressing. True Captain’s performance.
Whu played like a team wanting a new manager.
even so asenal were brilliant defensively. Whu had zero touches in the penalty area in the first half.
Why is nobody talking about E. Nwanieri, MA has been absolutely fantastic in many areas but has is lagging in terms of showing academy players a way to the first team. Confidence is everything in football and I think MA should trust the academy players a bit more.
This is not to spoil the fun is beating those ‘c**ts’ today. I absolutely loved it!
Nwaneri was bright in his 15 minute or so. Confident and active, slid right into the interplay with Martin, wandered centrally instinctively. I’d rather invest minutes in him than Nelson at this point when the game is in hand. Arteta has basically signaled that the lack of academy player time is down to not having that level of talent knocking at the door. Nwaneri looks like a real exception to that assessment.
Which is why the manager gave him game time.
Because criticising a manager for not including more youth players when he has turned you from 8th place also rans to title challengers is a bit ludicrous?
Because you don’t beat teams 6-0 with academy players?
This “discussion” is boring as shit when we’re trying to win the league.
Federer was really good at tennis. But he never beat anyone left handed. Boo!
Was hoping arsenal would rack up a 7-0 scoreline to set a new away record win, or for Saka to get his (first?) treble. Both were well within sight
And we would have gone second in the PL.
That new guy Elneny looked like he fitted right in…
I was listening to the game on 5 live and watching Arseblog Live, which was about a minute ahead of the commentary. So I knew we had scored before 5 live gave it. A good day for the men, not so for the Women, desperately unlucky.
Incredible game. So proud of the boys, they gave everything and worked hard for each other. And when you have a team of talented players who work their socks off for each other, things like League Titles happen. If anyone is in any further doubt about the Declan Rice price tag – I refer specifically to those who were mocking my insistence during last summer that we moved heaven and hell to sign him, no matter the million plus price – then I rest my case. Whether they like it or not, City and Liverpool have a big problem on… Read more »
“This team has only just started.” Think of the enormity of this statement, we have beaten Citeh and Pool this season and we aren’t even the finished article according to Arteta, there are still levels to go in our development. What a time to be alive and a Gooner. 8th place, to a surprising 2nd place finish to wherever we end up this year but Arteta has made us competitive again and it feels good. There was a lot of swagger about how we attacked them and it’s real nice to see the swagger back. Up the Arsenal!