Arsenal 4 Irons 1
It was a brave performance for a long time before the Hammers simply fell apart in the face of some great football – helped by defensive blunders form the north Londoners.
And at the end of it all the reality is that we remain six points clear of the bottom three having a game in hand on Stoke who drew with Burnley whilst Southampton were otherwise involved in the FA Cup.
It looked for a very long time – 82 minutes in fact -as though we would escape with a point but so sadly it was the teenager Declan Rice, in attempting to leave the ball for Joe Hart – who will shoulder the blame for the Gooners getting their noses in front at 2-1.
But for a string of fine saves from Hart it might have been worse but sadly teh four goals will be seen another condemnation of the man – on this occasion they shouldn’t.
Earlier Monreal had seen his goal cancelled out by a wondrous Arnie strike before Ramsey’s effort, after the defensive mix up, and a couple from Lacazette put paid to everything we’d fought so hard to achieve.
Arthur Masuaku has to take some blame for the first goal when he was on the post but backed off from Monreal’s drive.
In fact Arthur had an often diappointing game with errors at the back and no serious penetration when moving forward where Arni was again the main man, getting in behind and causing real issues.
We still look okay in terms of the relegation scrap with Stoke needing to win two games from their last three and Southampton the same from their final four.
Remaining games: HAMMERS; Man City (h), Leicester City (a), Manchester United (h), Everton (h).
Southampton: Bournemouth (h), Everton (a), Swansea (a), Manchester City (h)
Stoke City: Liverpool (a), {Palace (h), Swansea (a)
Very harsh today.Certainly 4-1 flatters Arsenal.Cheered up by the fact that unless Stoke beat Liverpool at Anfield next week they are as good as down with West Brom too.We have just got enough on the board to survive without relying on other teams too.1 more win will surely be enough to remove all doubt and then its a huge job of rebuilding a large part of this squad in the Summer.Right in the game with 8 minutes to go and then poor Declan had a mad second which ultimately killed us.
Agree 100% shame it was young Rice that cost us the second goal but in fairness I can only recall one other massive blunder from him this season (Newcastle) other more senior players have been found wanting far more often.I honestly believe this young man could reach the very top and hopefully he sticks with us for years to come
He is the future no doubt.Today is a lesson he will have learnt from.Arnoutovic up top,Lanzini in midfield and Rice at the back is what we have to build round in the Summer hopefully.As you say far too many experienced players have had nightmare seasons (we all know who they are) and they will surely be replaced.
Southampton still could fight back, but it is worth noting huddersfield have city,chelsea and everton left, so as long as we match huddersfields result against everton and try not to let too many in against the top teams we have left (I’m not holding my breath) it should be ok and they could fall instead…
It could be all sorted before we play City next Sunday Stoke away to Liverpool and Saints need to beat Bournemouth which I dont think they will Saints last games is City.I fancy ustoget something off Leicester and Everton
Just love the positivity, perhaps it’s me, Moyes given a contract? Please let me have a decent nights kip