Days like the glorious gunning down of the Gunners don’t come around too often - particularly in this awful season. So we will celebrate it as long and hard as we like.
West Ham can be a basket case at times run by a board and ownership seemingly universally hated, not least after last week by Karren Brady’s much-ridiculed Sky Sports interview which upset just about everybody.But then the football takes over and Graham Potter’s boys go out and produced a victory like that, the first time in 18 years that West Ham have produced back-to-back league wins at Arsenal, and this time all but ending Arsenal’s once-again-fading title challenge.
And if the weekend couldn’t get much worse for an angry Mikel Arteta, Liverpool plunged in the knife ever further with their clinical, efficient humbling of champions Manchester City 24 hours later to take what should be an unassailable 11 point lead at the top of the Premier League.
I’m sure the usually whiny Arsenal fans will spend days searching for something to blame for our 1-0 victory. The ball was probably wrong, the referee hates them oh, and the Piccadilly Line was probably broken. It will be anything and everything.
But let’s forget about delusional Gooners and concentrate on us, a victory that was without doubt Potter’s signature moment. Seven games in, four of which were against Champions League contenders, and the first exceptional victory is on the board.
It's hard to believe that last week after the Brentford defeat there were serious questions being asked by some nutjobs on social media and fans groups, questioning the appointment of the former Brighton and Chelsea boss. I think we can forget about that now.
And please, can we forget about the agenda-led comparisons with the first few games for Julen Lopetegui and Moyes, both with us and with Everton. I’ve even seen such nonsense comparing Potter with Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim, who, yes, could have come to us.
My reaction to all that is that such comparisons prove nothing. Different clubs, different players, different opponents, different internal problems, different transfer budgets. It’s a waste of, for some, valuable brain cells. Let’s just concentrate on ourselves and Potter.
Our man has had to cope with a chronic injury list - particularly in the strikers’ department. He has a squad assembled by seven different managers (Moyes twice) as well as owner David Sullivan, who I recall, bought Lukasz Fabianski before Manuel Pellegrini was appointed that summer.
But Saturday’s triumph showed just what Potter can achieve with the players he has inherited. He seems particularly good at making the most of whoever is available, young and old, varying tactics and formations and ideas which players buy into.
And at the Emirates there were a string of outstanding performances. Where do you start? OK, our captain, who must be the best forward in the Premier League outside the top six.
Jarrod Bowen’s diving header, a move he started himself on the edge of our box, continued with a galloping run from Aaron Wan-Bissaka (who gave Riccardo Calafiori a punishing game he’ll never forget) and then the cross for Bowen to put away his 50th league goal, making his overall stats 110 goal involvements, 68 goals and 42 assists.
The look of horror on Declan Rice’s face as Bowen’s header crashed home said it all. Being ‘hooked’ against his old club just gave licence for our fans to serenade him with “you should have signed for a big club”, a ditty that echoed around the stadium.
James Ward-Prowse, back from being banished to Nottingham, produced a performance of intelligence and diligence in front of the defence, dominating Arsenal’s midfield. The decision to shunt him out on loan last summer looking more ridiculous by the minute.
We’ve had to read at the weekend Lopetegui’s first in-depth interview by Sid Lowe in the Observer, on his departure from the club. He has his views, he was treated poorly by our leaders, you can read it yourself if you like, but there was no explanation for the treatment of Ward-Prowse.
Elsewhere, Aaron Cresswell is relishing his new lease of life in a three-man central defence suggests he may warrant a contract extension, rather than the expected free transfer. Potter has given him a role that means he does not have to run very much, but his football brain is working overtime, talking Ollie Scarles through his full debut.
But it was still Scales who stole the show, a performance at left wing-back that defied is age. His stats were through the roof, almost everything he did was the best on the pitch. Seven interceptions was the best for a Premier League defender in an away match this season.
The kid is quick of mind and feet, his tackling is precise and effective, he uses the ball at speed with good technique and accuracy. At 19 he’s got a long career ahead of him.
Potter, we are told, does in-depth analysis of opponents and their weaknesses. He certainly looked to have countered Arsenal’s “swarm” attack at corners, where players storm, en bloc, across the box to produce chaos in front of goalkeepers.
Potter had half his resources zonal marking, and the rest out blocking the Arsenal surge. It worked a treat.
Elsewhere he is getting the best out of Edson Alvarez and Tomas Soucek. The Mexican attack dog has been a red card waiting to happen. Under Potter he’s been cautioned only twice and has suppressed his desire to kick lumps out of everything in a different shirt.
Soucek does what Soucek does. The dirty work, the challenging, pressing, breaking up of moves. Still many of our fans don’t rate him - but Potter certainly does.
And then we have Mo Kudus, who had one of his best games for the club. Given a ’sort of’ Lucas Paqueta role, his high level technical ability, dribbling and maintaining possession under constant pressure gave West Ham the ‘out’ ball all game.
His job is to engage defenders, keep the ball, win free kicks and give his colleagues time to recover and regroup. I do hope it wasn’t just a cameo performance to impress potential new employers.
Potter produced a more intelligent, skilled version of a David Moyes low block, counter attack. The same system our former manager utilised, to the considerably disgust from our ideological online critics, when West Ham won 2-0 at the Emirates last season.
We have quicker, more skilled defenders now, the side does not have to sit as deep. And Kudus in that role is more effective than Michail Antonio, who will fight and run through a brick wall, but does not hold onto possession as well as Kudus does.
OK, it’s just one massive victory and we now have Leicester at the London Stadium on Thursday, who will come with the same deep defence, low block and hope for Jamie Vardy’s pace to catch out our defenders. He normally does.
So let’s not get over excited about one fine performance. Potter now has to find a solution to our failings at home, where teams sit off us and counter attack.
I believe we are now safe from relegation, but another three points on Thursday will clinch that. Just for now, cherish the moment, enjoy the victory and hope that what we are now seeing from Potter will be the norm in months to come.
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