Arsenal 2 West Ham 1
By Hugh Southon
Quite simply the best team lost.
After the disastrous opener to the season against Newcastle West Ham battled throughout and were so unfortunate to be beaten by a goal from Nketiah five minutes from time.
Top display from Masuaku
It was a disaster because on the balance of play the Irons had been the better team throughout with Antonio equalising Lacazette’s 25th-minute goal on the stroke of half time.
They hit the crossbar via Antonio in the second half which saw them have eight shots on goal to Arsenal’s two, playing some really controlled and attacking football along the way.
After the week the club has suffered off the pitch the squad showed they had the character to shrug off all that had gone on and battle to the very end.
They all showed tremendous character!
A point looked assured but in the end, a very fortunate Arsenal side found a way to win when all looked lost but any Hammers fan’s heart will go out to the team on a seriously unfortunate night.
Among the success stories were Ryan Fredericks who laid the goal on for Antonio from fine Jarrod Bowen work, Declan Rice back to his best, Tomas Soucek who was always causing problems and Arthur Masuaku caused loads of problems.
But it’s probably unfair to start naming names as this was a fine performance from the entire team who really didn’t deserve to be on the wrong end of the result.
Ok still on zero points but with the heart, the squad are showing we can surely look forward to better times.
Shame playing well doesn’t mean points …would prefer playing bad and winning…..means nothing to me ..but that’s just me ..
Sorry but how many times have we said about West Ham that the best team lost? It is a problem, we find it hard to close out games where we dominate and although I celebrate a much improved performance all that matters at the end of the season is how many points you have not how well you did or didn’t play.
I agree Hugh, that was a very good performance and incredibly unlucky to come away with nothing.
Fredericks and Masuaku looked good in the wing back roles.
A manager that realises he’s got subs sooner would help. Also one that doesn’t leave a tall expensive striker on the bench when you put crosses in. Deluded or what. That’s what the board get for going cheap cheap cheap
Yes, I agree with you, Hugh. Spirited &, at times, classy performance. After Newcastle, very promising. But, the fact is, we have no points & will have to reproduce this performance in each of the next five or six games . Do you think that we are going to do it ? My instinct is that we won’t – but you never know. Special mention for Masuaku tonight. I do not rate him, but he didn’t put a foot wrong tonight. Well done.
With that spirit we will pick up three or four points I think from difficult games.Agree om Masuaku – far better bet than Anderson out there
Well done Moyes, it was you that let the team down. It was so predictable after we drew
level that no changes would be made at half time. Fornals did absolutely nothing in the
2nd half apart from giving the ball away and chasing shadows. I said to my partner, Moyes
will wait until Arsenal go 2-1 up and then he will take Fornals off when it’s all to late.
Well surprise surprise.
The same happened against Newcastle, I was screaming for Fornals to come off at half time
but no and it was Fornals deflection that led to Newcastle going 1-0 up.
Agree 100 percent, lost again against a poor Arsenal team that have forwards that will score, we had all our forwards on the bench until injury time, Moyes is a loser doesn’t know how to win…..
Much better than Arsenal tonight.Would have beaten many teams on that performance.Feel we can beat wolves at last and get going next week.lets hope it continues now in this vain.
It was a carbon copy of March when we should have won but up top they have 150 million of talent! We have Antonio and no matter how hard he works he is not a natural forward
Have to agree with you sully.
Although we dominated the second half in possession we just don’t have the quality up front to make it pay.
Even though arsenal were poor,when you have players like Aubameyang and Lacazette they will punish you.