Tired Hammers beaten in dire London derby
By Dave Langton
A clearly fatigued West Ham were beaten 2-1 by Arsenal on Sunday in what could be a crucial blow to the Hammers’ top-six hopes.
The Irons went into the game well aware that a win would see them leapfrog Manchester United ahead of their game against Brentford on Monday evening.
But the Hammers were particularly poor in the second half in a London derby that never really burst into life.
The first 25 minutes were devoid of incident but then Manuel Lanzini had a chance at the back post after a cross was deflected into his path, only to see the shot well blocked.
And Arsenal’s opener came about in the 38th minute. Jarrod Bowen gave the ball away cheaply in midfield and Martin Odegaard found Eddie Nketiah, whose shot was well saved by Lukasz Fabianski. The resulting corner found Rob Holding, and he headed into the bottom corner.
The Hammers nearly had an immediate response, when Declan Rice met another corner, but Aaron Ramsdale made an exceptional save.
Bowen managed to atone for his earlier error on the stroke of half-time, as Vlad Coufal found him with a cross, and he swivelled and shot into the bottom corner, with the aid of a deflection.
It seemed as though the goal came at the perfect time, but the Hammers showed next to nothing in the second half when it came to a goal threat.
Mikey Antonio, Tomas Soucek, and Andriy Yarmolenko were all sent on as substitutes but it did nothing to inspire anything from the Irons in the final third.
The winner actually came on 54 minutes, when defender Gabriel headed home at the back post, after some more lax marking in the box.
Nketiah had a couple of chances to add some shine to the scoreline for Arsenal but he was wasteful when presented with an opportunity.
A desperately disappointing performance from the Irons.
The small matter of Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg looms; we will have to play a lot better than this to win in Germany.