West Ham 2-5 Arsenal
Fabianski:2 Sometimes I wish Fabianski would distribute the ball immediately as he missed two excellent opportunities to counter when West Ham had been under pressure. Conceded the second penalty of the game for accidentally punching Gabriel in the face from a corner. Made a complete hash of saving a weak penalty by Saka as Arsenal went in 5-2 ahead at half time.
Wan Bissaka:7 Not allowed to get forward as much as in previous games but popped up in the Arsenal box to score and made it 4-1.
Wan Bissaka scored again
Todibo:4 Must surely be exploring the fine detail of that obligation to buy agreement.
Kilman:4 Made a couple of errors early on and must have been wondering what the hell was going on.
Emerson:5 Possibly his worst performance of the season until he scored a brilliant free kick to make it 4-2 in the first half. Forced a good save with another freekick.
Soler:4 Looked to have been replaced with a doppelganger for this game, until he played a delicious through ball for Wan Bissaka to score. Picked up in the second half as did most of the team but it’s important to remember that Arsenal were playing in 3rd gear and cruising through the game.
Paqueta:2 Worked his socks off for the team but like most of his teammates spent the game defending. pressure eventually told when he conceded a penalty against Saka for Arsenal’s 3rd on 33 mins. I’m not entirely sure there was contact but really, we deserved to be 4-0 down by that point so no complaint. Gave the ball away for the Gunners 4th 2 mins later.
Soucek:3 Chasing shadows as quicker more agile players swarmed around him.
Bowen:4 Not hugely involved but ran around and helped AWB in defence.
Summerville:3 Beautiful chopped finish but the Dutchman was well offside. Outmuscled.
Antonio:3 Lost his man as Arsenal scored a predictable opener from set-piece specialist Gabriel. Will be disappointed to have been outmuscled by his old mate Declan Rice on several occasions.
West Ham 2-5 Arsenal: Rice bullied Antonio
Substitutes:
Alvarez:6 Replaced Summerville at half-time
Ings: 64th min sub for Antonio
Coufal: replaced Emerson as part of a double substitution
Irving: Replaced Paqueta on 77 mins
Rodriguez: On for Soler
Arsenal better team but 4 bookings for us and one for them? They dived all over the place. Ref fell for it and we lost out on decisions 10 to 1. I saw Blacburn beat us 8-2 at our home and 3 days later we won 3-1 at Ewood Pk. C’mon yew Irons!
Until the 2 bob imbecile that calls himself chairman sees sense . And sells up there’s no hope. Lopetegui interviewed well apparently which says it all .
Set pieces have been poor since Stuart Pearce left
I agree with Frank Reed. Pathetic defence of the corner but its not the players´ fault. The set piece specialist if there is one should coach defending as well as attacking set pieces. When a manager comes in a brings all of his assistant coach team with him, the blame has to be left at his door.
Disagree that it’s entirely down to coaching. Yes, certainly a major concern as with all coaching aspects currently.
However these are experienced professionals who must adapt to the circumstances. If they’ve been caught out with a set piece situation once…..don’t let the same thing happen again. You don’t need a coach to tell you that.
Sad thing is, that’s our best home performance of the season! Some encouragement that we looked a little like a team working for each other compared to previous games at OS but the bar is so low nothing to get excited about!
First 30 minutes was pitiful to watch, for all their corners we “ face up” at the back of our area , with our backs to the on coming ball, allow whoever we were supposed to be taking care of to move forward on to the corner pass. Who sets up this kind of defending, rubbish
Lopetegui.
Poor performance, looks like Newcastle win was a fluke. Back to square one for me, need new manager, mid and 2 strikers to progress otherwise playing with relegation.
We need a few more players capable of playing 120 minutes. Half of the West Ham team can only manage 60, and that right there is part of the problem. The biggest part is of course unchanged since June. Steidten cannot be too pleased with himself either.
The game was lost in the first half hour so not a performance. 2-5 is nowhere near a result. This does not follow on from Newcastle for me so not a corner turned.
On balance I would not be upset if he was sacked as he probably would have been if the Newcastle game had gone other than as it did.
Well that was tragic. Its hard to believe we spent £140M in the window and retained our best players going in to this season.