Soliloquy

Arsenal won a tight game against West Ham United in a London derby at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday after much of it proclaimed that it was destined to be drawn. Bukayako Saka’s late run on the left-wing gave the Gunners acres of space and after he passed the ball to Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, who was stationed right at the edge of the box, it was game on.

The Gabon international found space to give the ball to Mesut Ozil in a lob, and the former Germany international was typically unselfish to head it to a running Alexandre Lacazette who finished it off in style past the lunging West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. The goal could not be celebrated at the moment as Ozil was deemed to be offside, but minutes later, the Video Assistant Referee signalled it to be allowed. The entire Emirates Stadium erupted as Mikel Arteta’s men pocketed three points from a game where it seemed they would only take one.

West Ham were excellent throughout the match except for that one moment of lack of concentration, most of the blame of which has to go to left-back Aaron Creswell. Issa Diop, Mark Noble and Declan Rice displayed their high standards as usual and the Hammers had the game under tight control. Manager David Moyes may rue the fact that his side will have to go back across London with nothing to show for their efforts, but pundits will say that it was them who deserved to win on Saturday and not Arsenal.

Statistics may show the fact that Arsenal had more possession than West Ham (69 per cent to their rivals’ 31) but the Hammers were more clinical when in front of goal. They took fourteen shots in all of which six were on target whereas the Gunners had only two shots on target. The problem with West Ham’s efforts on Saturday was that they did not have a quality striker who could convert those half-chances into goals.

Moyes brought on Felipe Anderson in the 87th minute but by then it was too late. Attackers Sebastian Haller and Michail Antonio just could not break into Arsenal’s solid defence.

West Ham are sixteenth in the Premier League table, just two points away from relegation-afflicted side Norwich and they will have to pull in results if they are to progress towards the top half of the table. Manager Moyes knows only too well that playing attractive football counts for nothing if it doesn’t result in a win.

This article was first published here.