Jarrod Bowen’s header was enough for West Ham to take the spoils at the Emirates as 10-man Arsenal missed their opportunity to turn the heat up on league leaders Liverpool.
On an afternoon to forget for the Gunners, substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly saw a yellow card upgraded to a red by VAR while Mikel Arteta’s makeshift attack repeatedly misfired when presented with half chances by a midfield that struggled to create anything of note.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos made of the action…
Mikel Arteta on a bad performance…
We’re very disappointed with the result and as well the performance for the last period of the game because we really wanted it and showed that we really wanted it, and it becomes really difficult with 10 men. Today, we were not at the levels and standards that we have to hit to be much better than the opposition. We have to go through the pain of defeat and a big part of the performance as well. That’s what we’re going to need on Wednesday, to put in a different performance and win the game. Let’s go through the pain; let’s analyse, look at ourselves in the mirror and on Monday we go again.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Graham Potter on a big win for the Hammers…
The players gave everything, and left everything out on the pitch, which is what we’ve been trying to instil and encourage. When you do that, you’ve got a chance to get results. Talent is one thing, but it’s about being a team, and having a collective mentality. I think we showed that today in abundance, so I’m delighted. They’re going to push you back because they’re taking a lot of risks at 1-0 down, throwing men forward to try and get the equaliser. Even though they’re down to ten men, you’re facing bodies and quality, and we had to defend. The subs came on and did their best, and you need a bit of luck, as well.
Source: whufc.com
𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝟎-𝟏 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐦: 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒
That was as much a win for Liverpool as it was West Ham… sort of.
A hammer blow to Arsenal’s title chances?
Look back on a gruelling encounter with the best Opta stats and our match recap ⬇️
theanalyst.com/2025/02/arse…
— Opta Analyst (@optaanalyst.optajoe.com) February 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Martin Odegaard on the defeat…
The performance today wasn’t good enough, and yeah, really disappointed. We let them run too easily on the counter, we weren’t sharp enough on the counter or our final third efficiency. We are missing players, but we have to focus on the players that are available and we have more than enough quality to do more than what we did today. It wasn’t good enough in front of the goal. With the red card it’s tough but we tried until the end. I haven’t seen [the red card], I don’t know. We have to keep going, it’s still a long way to go, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.
Source: premierleague.com
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Matchwinner Jarrod Bowen on his side’s performance…
Everyone to a man, everyone involved that came off the bench [was outstanding], and it was just a whole collective effort. That was one thing I said before in the huddle before kick-off, that we knew we could come here and win as we’ve done it before. They [Arsenal] are a top side, but we knew that if we came here and did a really good job, we’d come away with three points, and we’ve done that. I think you’ve seen that [commitment and desire] out there today.
Source: whufc.com
Aged 18 years, 121 days old, Myles Lewis-Skelly becomes the youngest player in Premier League history to be sent off more than once.
His red against Wolves was rescinded; this one probably won’t be…
— Opta Analyst (@optaanalyst.optajoe.com) February 22, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Odegaard on Ben White’s return from injury…
It’s great to have him back. He’s been out for a while and you could see straight away the quality he brings. That was the good news today but at the moment we’re disappointed, but it’s good to have him back.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Arteta on VAR recommending a red card for Lewis-Skelly…
I don’t know, I haven’t seen it back. The decision has been made, it’s done. Let’s move on.
Source: Sky Sports
All four of West Ham’s Premier League wins at the Emirates Stadium have been Arsenal’s first home league defeat in that particular campaign (2006-07, 2015-16, 2023-24 and 2024-25).
#ARSWHU
— Orbinho (@orbinho.bsky.social) February 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Arteta on whether Nwaneri picked up an injury…
It was just fatigue, I think
Source: Post-game press conference
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Ian Wright on where it went wrong for Arsenal…
It was always going to be a tough one with the forwards missing. You need something to happen with set-pieces, or someone like Ethan Nwaneri. Not enough creativity, you have to give West Ham credit for the defending they did. I think you probably have to look at the summer and January. Arteta needed help. He has coached the team to this level, but they just don’t have the ammunition or energy to break West Ham down. You could see that the fans in the stadium could sense it too.
Source: premierleague.com
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Ex-West Ham keeper Rob Green on the damage inflicted…
A hammer blow for Arsenal’s season. You wondered at the start of the game where were the goals going to come from? A lack of real thrust and cutting edge up front. West Ham were rigid in their defensive shape and had that all game. Brilliant performance from them but a disastrous afternoon for Arsenal.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
Premier League red cards since Arteta was appointed:
20 Arsenal
15 Wolves
14 Everton
12 Brighton, West Ham, Chelsea— Orbinho (@orbinho.bsky.social) February 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Arteta on where Arsenal go from here…
Tomorrow is another day. What’s going to happen in the future will very much happen on what we are able to do, how we react to this type of scenarios. It tells you a lot about who you are as a team.
Source: beIN Sports
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Odegaard on Arsenal’s attacking injuries…
We have players missing but we have players here who are good enough and available so we have to focus on that. It wasn’t good enough in front of the goal. With the red card, it was tricky as well.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
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Arteta on the title race…
It’s not in our hands. For me, I’m really, really annoyed with the things that were in our hands that we didn’t do as well as we possibly could and that’s the performance.
Source: Post-game press conference
20 red cards since Arteta has been in charge, and about 3 or 4 of them justified.
This has nothing to with red cards. We could have played with 11 toddlers for another 90 minutes and we still wouldn’t score.
You’re probably right. I was simply responding to the Orbinho stat put up above. I think if people have the impression that Arsenal are an especially dirty team, they need only look at the context for many of those cards. Though, to be fair, my responsibilities as Mayor of McDonaldland mean I’m a little too busy to analyze each card in great detail, much to the disappointment of my friend Limpar2. Perhaps when I retire? I’ll put it on my bucket list!
So you have analysed every one in great detail then?
No strikers, wingers injured, yet Arteta plays the same exact formation. Why not try something different? West Ham are missing key players too. We knew they were going to sit back and counter and we played comfortably into their hands.
Oh, ffs. “We knew they were going to sit back and counter and we played comfortably into their hands.” What should Arsenal have done instead? Play more conservatively, tell Thomas and Rice not to come too far forward to help Saliba and Gabriel? And what would we have done for goals? Rely on the blistering pace of Trossard and Merino? I can think of ways that would have made a nil-nil draw more likely. But we needed to win this game.
We needed a miracle last game to win a team in the very bottom. And now we cant win a team in the bottom five.
Best we can do in PL is to make top 4, and in CL to go to next stage. Name one team winning something special without a proper goalscorer.
It was fun to imagine on for a title race this week. But it was a mirage as all really knew.
Nevertheless every game counts till the end of the season onwards and.. onwards
It was a tall order made more difficult by a manager who couldn’t even see the need to provide loan cover for a heavily depleted squad now even more depleted.
We should forget about the league. Can this team beat Real Madrid, a team with Mbappe, Bellingham and Vini.
By the way, let’s just get a top top striker. People were saying that Mbappe was a failure at Real. The guy is around 30 goals already.
everytime liverpool has dropped points this season, we have done so too. i don’t think i’ve believed we could be champions ever since matchday two. and perhaps a couple days this week, but it wasn’t because of arsenal’s strength but for liverpool’s bottling potential. i fell asleep at the 75th minute and i don’t think we’d be any more exciting offensively even if all of our forwards were available. martinelli is useless at this point, jesus can’t play more than a month consecutively, and havertz is the human shape of boredom. this is the first time in arteta’s managerial career… Read more »
The Arsenal Board is treating Mikel Arteta like they treated Arsène Wenger, expecting him to work miracles and keep the club competitive despite a very thin squad..
And it’s likely that in the summer, we’ll see either Saliba or Gabriel sold off to turn a profit and cut costs.
Mikel is picking the players, I think it’s around 700 million on players since he got the job. He spent the money on the parts of the pitch that don’t matter. The two big money forwards he wanted are more functional than exciting. Nothing to do with the board. He inherited our 3 best attacking players.
Here we go down the blame everyone except the players and manager road. Arsenal lost because they were rubbish. Unless there is someone out there making transfer decisions and tactical plays then Arteta is responsible – why can’t people accept that?
I completely agree. The reluctance to hold Arteta accountable is baffling.
They won’t except it because they have built him up as the best manager in the world. Eddie Howe steals his lunch money every time we play them, but Mikel perseveres with the same tactics every time. We’ve got better players than Newcastle that’s why we finish above them not because of the great tactics and systems we play.
Arteta has gone backwards and where has Odegaard been? As Captain he should driving us on but only shows up when the team are fully firing!
Its very worrying that anytime a title is “in our hands” we fail to rise to the pressure. There’s a pattern brewing with this team of losing games that mean something, the cup ties against Newcastle, the league titles in the last couple seasons, even the UCL and Europa leagues we bowed out pretty quickly until this year. Lack of rotation? Bad tactics? Mentality issue? All of the above? Who knows but it’s starting to really become evident that MA, with all due respect, is not ~quite~ there to be a winning manager.
I wouldn’t say it was in our hands tbf. Last 3 seasons we have done excellent. This season we pay the price cos of what went in to last 2 seasons. Eg #Overplayed players off form or injured #Underplayed players left us #Sometimes funds spent on right-now players rather than players to move us up long term Ie, all the margins squeezed to get us over the line title challenges Last season we did not fail to rise to the challenge we raced hard over many long months and got a record haul. Idk why we couldn’t get at least… Read more »
Honestly if I hear one more person blame the injury crisis!!! It’s the literal equivalent of a man walking into the hospital with a self inflicted gun shot and blaming the NHS for lack of help……our injury crisis is a crisis because we made it a crisis……..1 striker signed in artetas 5 years
Off the hopscotch already, eh Daveo?! I don’t blame you. It’s a young man’s game, after all.
We aren’t a great team, nobody wants to say it, but we aren’t enjoyable to watch anymore, we get red cards so often because we are never in control
I will say it .. we are a shit team going backwards .. with a manager that is out of his depth
Thought West Ham worked incredibly hard to stop Nwaneri getting in crosses. That left space for Martin. But he was too interested in playing delicate through balls. Merino got almost no service. I hope this experiment continues. He’s one of the best headers in world football. Give him a chance.