⚽ Arsenal 3-1 West Ham Utd (26/12/22)

Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.

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ironside58
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by ironside58 »

e20too wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:32 pm That one game just as every previous game for the most part tells me the players either don’t understand or are totally dissolutioned with whatever coaching is taking place. The defenders seem to have little idea what their position is as demonstrated by your full back deciding to players despite looking across the line 5 yards further back than everyone else. Sure is good to see the month off has led to no greater defensive understanding whatsoever has been instilled. Worse still is the post match delusion, I can understand to a degree Rice at least trying to be positive (if unconvincing) but seriously listening to Moyes go on about only fractionally being below par, the defence playing generally well and having to get back to their best displays this season (have we had any) is just beyond comprehension. Has he had long term memory loss by any chance and thinks he’s been managing the opposition this season?

Simple fact is the manager and club has sat still under the superficial illusion that all was well when serious rot had actually been setting in for 18mths with the warning signs repeatedly ignored and then belatedly panic buy to try to solve matters, ironically with players who just might have done well when we were actually performing above our ability, but now are totally unsuited and I’ll prepared for turning this mess around. Good teams spend money at least by choice, when doing well, not when you are falling down a hole and when it is left that late the players you need are very different, yet not for the first time this club has totally failed to learn that simple lesson.
Spot on. For me the rot started when we failed to qualify for the champions League an half decent run in would have seen us over the line. That season, showed hard working commited team with a striker in form can produce results. However it hid the fact that we don't have enough pace, movement off the ball , strength or technical ability to fully flourish in this league. We look lost at the back when pressed, not by one player but by a team. We struggle to maintain pressure anywhere on the park. Big teams can bully us. Quality teams pass us to death. Haller may not have been the answer but selling and failing to replace him at the same time was a big mistake, that we still suffer from. Transfers have looked ok on paper, but we get carried away too soon and then get on their backs far too quickly. However, the biggest issue is that If Moyes preference is to be solid and hope odd chances create goals then we are not buying players that for into the mould. If that isn't what h wants , I honestly have no idea what style of football he wants to play.

Due to underlying mass hatred of The Gang of 3 and the London Stadium the chance of the rest of this season going pear-shaped if things don't improve very soon is a real possibility.

I stopped watching them live a while ago, however, apart from Soton, I can't think of another premier league team, currently, who are less attractive to watch.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Denbighammer »

I thought we were lucky to lead at halftime but unlucky to concede the goal we did straight after. Odegaard was magnificent all night but his shot could have gone anywhere.

We had some worryingly poor performers last night. Soucek looked utterly outclassed. His ability on the ball, or lack of, is clearly being targeted by opponents. Cresswell was murdered by Saka. I felt that he either needed some help, or needed subbing. Kehrer was adequate for most of it but his decision making is ***** and he's even crap at cheating. He had Nketiahs shirt with the wrong hand which allowed him to get turned easier.

I would say that Dawson was our best player. Rice was OK but not Europe's Best Midfielder by a long shot. Bowen had good energy and was out best attacking threat. Antonio played well with zero support. The attack where he controlled it out the air and went to volley it but had three defenders touch tight probably told the story of his night. Benny played OK but still makes brain farts and he seems to have lost the confidence to run at full backs. Coufal was OK and pacqueta still shows little signs but needs to do more. Fabianski did OK except the 2nd goal obviously, you can't be beaten there and he will know that.

Arsenal are a good team, packed with snides, managed by a good manager, who is a massive snide himself. One day, I hope a referee will grow the ****ing balls to yellow care him for entering the field of play, or waving imaginary cards.

Despite giving us a penno, I thought Oliver was weak. How he never booked Xhaka for that blatant foul on Antonio I'll never know? Arsenal should have had at least two more yellows, Aeteta definitely went to the Klopp & Pep school of tactical fouls. Not that it would have made any difference but still...
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by steps »

Sarfend Hammer wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 12:28 am

I can only say Dawson, Bowen and Antonio come out with any credit. Fabianski was at fault for at least one of the goals. Coufal was asleep as he played Saka onside for his goal.
Agree with a lot of your post but I think it’s a a bit harsh on Coufal considering it was a mis-hit shot from Odegaard that fortunately found it’s way to Saka’s feet.

The other two goals though can definitely be marked up as our errors I think. Poor from Fabianski to get beaten on his near post like that, and Kehrer got rolled easier than a Rick Astley meme by Nketiah for the third.

Bowen did look to be getting back to his previous better form and Antonio was causing them problems. Got himself in a couple of good shooting positions and tested their keeper on one occasion, but also blazed over in typical Antonio fashion.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by MB »

Thought we had a decent 20 minute spell in the first half once we got settled into the game. Pressed high and countered with a bit of intent.

Then start of the first half it looked like we were set up to cling on to the lead. We handed over the initiative and never got it back once the first went in.

Struggling to think of any player who comes out with credit from that second half but I do think the instructions for the second half didn't help.

Moyes needs to make some changes if he wants to keep his job.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by ParkersHere »

Arsenal on top for over 90% of that game.
We hardly troubled them and defensively we were dragged all over the place.
It wasn't clear what our game plan was and we were lucky the score was not higher.
Arsenal are a top outfit this year but to roll over like we did is embarrassing.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Marky »

Was sat amongst the Arsenal in a box. Their support was brilliant probably best I have seen first hand for 3 or 4 years for anyone in the Prem. Zinchenko warming up was like a conductor.

Thought second half we were abject with pick of the worst Soucek and his 44% record low pass completion
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by 1895Hammer »

MB wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 8:59 am Thought we had a decent 20 minute spell in the first half once we got settled into the game. Pressed high and countered with a bit of intent.

Then start of the first half it looked like we were set up to cling on to the lead. We handed over the initiative and never got it back once the first went in.

Struggling to think of any player who comes out with credit from that second half but I do think the instructions for the second half didn't help.

Moyes needs to make some changes if he wants to keep his job.
Think we all rather hoped we’d see changes last night, Moyes had 6 weeks to plan them, but apparently being a single point above the drop zone is no cause for concern. Our away support is pretty loyal, but a lot of grumbling in there last night when the same old faces were announced, and lots left on the third goal, hope is receding and Friday night could get nasty if it goes pear shaped again.
Moyes post match interview is just delusional, last year is gone, counts for nothing this season. Reality last night was we had too many too old, too slow players totally unable to cope with a fast pacy young Arsenal, a back line with Coufal, Dawson & Cresswell was guaranteed to be exposed by Saka,Martinelli, Nketiah & co and our only defensive athlete last night, Kehrer, gets moved to fill gaps each week and always seems likely to make a mistake anyway. Soucek and Antonio are just technically way below PL standard, a 42% pass rate is embarrassing.
Football moves on, but apparently we are still enjoying the glory of nights against Seville and Lyon. As I’ve said before Moyes deserves respect for the job he did getting us safe and then into Europe, but much of that was in different times, covid etc, and it’s now a full year of decline. 4 consecutive defeats, 10 lost this season already, out of the league cup to Blackburns reserves, sorry but it’s time to move on, GSB are now under serious threat of losing the one thing their ego driven tenure values, PL survival.
It’s not about losing to the league leaders, it’s the shock that we saw nothing new, no attempt to change a losing formula, and an apparent refusal to see anything’s wrong. Not sure if Rices comment about “ you can’t just sit back for 90 mins” was deliberate, but it tallies with Antonio’s “ keep it tight and try for a goal late on”, are the players getting as frustrated as the fans?
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Kermit »

So very predictable imo. The only plus point was the fact we did manage a goal. Man for man all across the pitch Arsenal were superior and it's easy to see why they are having such a good season. And anyone saying we are too good to go down is, imo, seriously deluded. On the evidence of our form this season it's probably more accurate to say we are too poor to stay up. Our style was sussed out some while back and it's becoming more obvious every game that we have neither the players or the coaching nous to change it.

And that can, in the long term, only mean one thing.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by bubbles1966 »

Aside from being a bit unlucky with their first goal, I thought Coufal was pretty good. Les did okay too.

Fabianski has been done at the near post at critical moments two or three times this year, Kehrer weak for the third and Cresswell looked totally out of his depth all game.

Rice good first half, awful second. Soucek and Pacqueta 5/10 at best. Front three not bad on a pathetic level of supply.

£80m worth of sicknotes missing, and needing to turn to Mubama indicates how wrong things have gone.

How can we have signed so many and achieved so little in terms of success? It's like 2016 and 2018/9 re-run.

What's the common denominator?
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Ilford Paolo »

Hammer Matty wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:26 pm Am I the only one who thought rice was decent tonight? First half multiple times he made great interventions I was in block 23 row 20 with a good view of how often he intervened first half to mop up and compensate for the inadequacies of other players and being alert to danger.Ultimately there's only so much fire fighting you can do.

Worry for me is how even 3-1 down we changed next to nothing. That’s the worry
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Ilford Paolo »

Takeiteasy wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 2:30 am Agreed. Twitter, in particular, is a cesspit.

I wasn’t at the match today so perhaps it was different in the stands.
I was in block 23 in the lower tier and there didn't seem to be hostility to Rice,just resigned apathy for the most part.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by TommyHammer »

The graph below shows why the fact they were top of the league is irrelevant. This is absolutely shocking and no other side in the league would set out to play like this.


Image
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by il_martello_di_genovesi »

Coufal decent? The Coufal that played Saka onside with absolutely zero awareness of the line. Coufal who defended against Martinelli for their 2nd like their was a force field around him? He’s shocking. Had that been Thilo at RB, there would be pages upon pages.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Ilford Paolo »

WCpete wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 12:08 am In one of his pre match interviews last week Moyes said that squad was very tired, that they had been run down by having to play so many matches second half of last season. Contextually, he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "because we didn't bring anyone in last January the players exhausted themselves last spring." I find that a little bit galling. Obviously it is true and it has had a huge impact on performances this season, but even if behind closed doors the board refused to let him sign some players last January and forced him to tote the company line, don't bring it up now because he was emphatic, over and over again, that doing no window business was his decision and his decision alone. There's a good chance we'd not be having any of these discussions now if we had properly reinforced last January.
I really don't see how Moyes can complain about players being tired from six months ago, especially when most have just had an extra six weeks.Even Rice/Pac have just had over two weeks since their last match at the time of year when they would usually have played twice a week with the ECL going on into the first week of December.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by stammer »

steps wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 8:54 am Agree with a lot of your post but I think it’s a a bit harsh on Coufal considering it was an mis-hit shot from Odegaard that fortunately found it’s way to Saka’s feet.
But should odegaard have decided to pass not shoot coufal would still have been playing him on. Bottom line coufal was nowhere near the line everyone else had.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by il_martello_di_genovesi »

stammer wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 10:26 am But should odegaard have decided to pass not shoot coufal would still have been playing him on. Bottom line coufal was nowhere near the line everyone else had.
Look at his position. He’s miles away from play and the line and miles away from Martinelli on the other side. He was in no man’s land. The goal isn’t directly his fault, but his lack of awareness for anything in that phase of play is why the goal stood. He was pants.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by hammerman11 »

Same old moyes tactics that will see us relegated.once we hit bottom 3 we aren't getting out under him

Long diagonal to bowen from Dawson
Bung it up for Antonio
WHU tactics

These no longer work

Dawson rice bowen benrahma only players who dud anything positive .

Paqueta awful again 50m we have been done

Should have been 5-1
Nothing will change until moyes is out
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by 1895Hammer »

il_martello_di_genovesi wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 10:29 am Look at his position. He’s miles away from play and the line and miles away from Martinelli on the other side. He was in no man’s land. The goal isn’t directly his fault, but his lack of awareness for anything in that phase of play is why the goal stood. He was pants.
Very interesting watching Newcastle at Leicester before setting off to the Emirates. Newcastle have a few players in Schar, Willock,Burn, Wood, Longstaff etc for whom “ ordinary” at PL level would be a compliment, but they are so well drilled, so fit and full of belief in their system that Howe has them sat in the Top Four this morning. We had a lot of that but it’s gone, last nights second half was shambolic ( not that the first half was good) we lack discipline, effort and any sort of effective plan.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by master »

il_martello_di_genovesi wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 10:18 am Coufal decent? The Coufal that played Saka onside with absolutely zero awareness of the line. Coufal who defended against Martinelli for their 2nd like their was a force field around him? He’s shocking. Had that been Thilo at RB, there would be pages upon pages.
Once he was booked, given the tactics we were attempting, he should have been withdrawn. Johnson was available or Kehrer to right back and Ogbonna brought in. On a yellow he wasn't able to get tight at all and Bowen can't do both the covering and the attacking.

But all of that would require a manager who makes tactical switches and reads the game. Which we don't have.
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Re: ⚽ Arsenal vs West Ham United: match thread

Post by Cockneyboy311 »

Even at 0-1 at HT I knew we would not manage to get through the entire game without conceding. That back four gave me the cold sweats and like death & taxes it didn’t take them long to get back into it and then win the game.

There is a real sense of predictability about this team right now and I really don’t know where it is going other than into the bottom 3.

David Moyes has given us 2 fantastic seasons, and made me proud of my team again and I’m hoping he can turn it around. At this moment I just can’t see it though.

I hate to say it but if we are still on 14 points after the next 2-3 games I think he might need to go :-(
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