Mikel Arteta may have endured some nervy moments during a breathless first half at the London Stadium, but he ended the evening full of praise for his Arsenal side after their 5-2 win over West Ham.
The Gunners stormed to a four-goal lead inside 36 minutes with a mix of set-piece precision and slick attacking play. Gabriel’s header broke the deadlock, Leandro Trossard finished a flowing move, Martin Odegaard slotted home a penalty, and Kai Havertz beat the offside trap to score after a brilliant pass from Trossard.
West Ham hit back quickly, though. Aaron Wan-Bissaka fired past David Raya at the near post, and Emerson curled a superb free-kick in off the bar just minutes later.
Arsenal restored their control before the break when Bukayo Saka converted a second penalty after Fabiański caught Gabriel in the head while attempting to clear a corner.
The second half was a quieter affair. West Ham looked to avoid further damage, while Arsenal were content to manage their three-goal cushion. Arteta’s side had chances on the counter but lacked a clinical final touch, and Danny Ings squandered a golden opportunity for the hosts in stoppage time.
“I was more happy with the first 30 minutes than the last 15, that’s for sure,” Arteta told Sky Sports.
“We started so positive, [with] so much energy, a lot of quality, we scored different goals. We were a real threat.
“When we scored the fourth one, we immediately conceded one, I think a very sloppy one, we take the kick-off backwards, lose it and then an unbelievable free-kick and it’s game on.
“I’m glad we scored the fifth and that allowed us in the second half to play a different game, to manage it much more, to manage the tempo much better. They were more aggressive but overall, 10 goals in two games away from home [in four days], that’s credit to the boys.”
Asked how Arsenal might have better managed the game at 4-0, he continued: “Sometimes you can manage [things] but sometimes it’s the quality of the opponent as well.
“You have to respect that they have tremendous players up front, they can create from any situation. They do that and then the momentum shifts, you can sense the energy in the stadium changing as well, we were really good to score the fifth one.”
Arsenal’s performance had a bit of everything today, including textbook movement in both dead-ball and open-play situations. While the manager wouldn’t give anything away regarding his side’s corner routines, he enjoyed the belief the players his players displayed in their playing philosophy.
“No, I can’t [say anything about corners], I’m sorry,” replied Arteta. “They [the players] take a lot of ownership on that and they really believe.
“Not only on corners but the way we scored in open play, the combinations that we had, the real threat when it [the ball] is thread in behind, when we’re doing short combinations, it’s really, really impressive.”
Arteta also enjoyed Bukayo Saka’s performance after the England international scored, registered two assists and won a penalty. He now has 15 goal involvements in 12 Premier League matches so far this season.
“He’s a player that every game has to make something happen,” said Arteta. “That’s something that’s reflected in the scoreline. He’s been really consistent scoring, assisting, being always available for us, so really good us.”
The three points mean Arsenal have temporarily climbed to second place ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Manchester City. Having said pre-game he wanted the win so he could enjoy Sunday’s clash at Anfield, Arteta admitted he was now looking forward to catching the action.
“Yes, [we wanted] to do our job and we’ve done it in a really convincing way. Every three days now, we’ve been really strong,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll enjoy the match – a beautiful game of football.”
It feels like we’ve really put the negative mentality towards this fixture totally to bed.
For a while this was such a tricky game for us. I remember sneaking a 1-0 win during our first title push. And of course the 3-3 too.
It always felt like a ground we got a bit bullied on. So it really speaks to our progress that now we turn up, swat WHU away in the first half and sub off our best players.
Really looking forward to United. I think we’ll have them on toast.
COYG!!
We won 6 nil last time….
Miki has a point, everytime we smash an away side by 4 goals we get a bit sloppy to concede so have to score a 5th, superb from our boys again, a 0-0 tomorrow with the humbling harland straight red carded would top the weekend for me
That’s an incredible photo of Mikel with the bubbles. You know what ground that is just from those.