Classy Hammers so unlucky in defeat

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.