Arsenal (0) 0 West Ham United (1) 2

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Thursday, 28th December, 2023. Kick-off time: 8.15pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Ethan Nwaneri.

Yellow Cards: Gabriel Jesus, Reiss Nelson

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 74%

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook

Fourth Official: Rob Jones

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Craig Pawson; AVAR Ian Hussin

Attendance: 60,261

Unfortunately, for tonight’s derby, Kai Havertz is suspended after accumulating five yellow cards, and Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fábio Vieira, Thomas Partey and Jurrien Timber remain unavailable due to injury. We cannot afford to slip up tonight here at the Emirates against West Ham United. If we win one of our next two matches, then we are guaranteed to be top of the Premiership on New Year’s Day, so there is all to play for.

The visitors kicked off proceedings, and right from the start it was extremely lively, with James Ward-Prowse firing a shot at our goal which went flying over the bar. That early attempt woke us up, as we applied constant pressure on the West Ham goal. We were finding lots of space in the visitors’ defence and we were playing with lots of confidence. On the thirteenth minute, the visitors scored through Tomas Soucek but there was a VAR check as it seemed to be that Jarrod Bowen kept the ball out of play; VAR checked it, and the goal stood, sadly, which was completely against the run of play. This controversial goal appeared to shock us briefly, but we managed to get back into the game pushing and hunting earnestly for that elusive equaliser. After a bad foul on Gabriel Jesus in which we were awarded a free-kick that went absolutely nowhere, we recovered the situation very well, but our dominance in possession was not leading to shots on goal. On the half hour, a Bukayo Saka header which was heading for the goal was tipped over the bar by Alphonse Areola which led to our corner that was cleared by the West Ham defence. A lovely ball by Oleksandr Zinchenko found the head of Ben White, which went a couple of feet wide of the mark, and a couple of minutes later, some superb ball work in the visitors’ penalty area found Gabriel Martinelli whose shot went wide. Declan Rice tried to spark an attack but ran straight into a wall of blue shirts, as the visitors were tightly packing their defence. With four minutes of the half remaining, a clever pass by our captain Martin Ødegaard found Bukayo Saka, whose shot hit the inside of the post and rebounded out and into play. In the five minutes of injury time, it was a case of us applying yet more pressure on the West Ham goal but with no luck whatsoever, and so we went into the half-time break unjustly 0-1 down.

We started the second half with only one thought, to start scoring goals and to win this important match. After some clever play by Gabriel Jesus, we won a corner within a couple of minutes of the restart, but a nasty clash between Leandro Trossard and Mohammed Kudus left our man in a crumpled heap on the ground; fortunately he was able to recover quickly and carry on playing. We kept passing the ball around and moving forward, and a superb twenty yard effort from Declan Rice clipped the top of the West Ham crossbar. Nine minutes after the restart we were two goals down when a corner from James Ward-Prowse found the head of ex-Gunner Konstantinos Mavropanos, whose header found the underside of the bar and went into the net. The goal certainly invigorated the visitors, who started to bring the match to us with some urgency. However, we were still on the hunt for goals, with a double substitution being made by Mikel Arteta, with Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah replacing Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Martinelli. A couple of minutes later, a superb Reiss Nelson cross found the head of Gabriel Jesus, whose header went over the bar. We were finding it extremely tough to break down the visitors tonight, despite having the lion’s share of play. Mohammed Kudus fouled Gabriel Jesus, but the Eddie Nketiah free-kick was overhit and went out of play. Reiss Nelson received our first yellow card of the evening for a silly tackle, and still we kept coming forward. A long range left-footed shot by our captain went wide of the goal, and a low Declan Rice shot was blocked by the West Ham defence. Leandro Trossard was replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe with twelve minutes on the clock remaining; Bukayo Saka was brought down in the West Ham penalty area, but a VAR check denied us a penalty. and we carried on regardless, looking for that elusive goal. A shot from Emile Smith-Rowe was easily picked up by the West Ham goalie and with four minutes of the game remaining, our frustrations were there for all to see. Eddie Nketiah tried to score from an overhead kick, but it was easily saved by the goalie, as was a superb Martin Ødegaard shot, which he tipped around the post. In injury time, the visitors created a barrier across the pitch to stop us scoring, and despite more attempts by our team to score it was not to be. Declan Rice tripped Emerson in our penalty area; the penalty was given, and David Raya saved extremely well from Said Benrahma, and seconds later, referee Michael Oliver blew the whistle for full time.

All in all, it was a very disappointing evening for us in every way. How on earth does a team with seventy-four per cent possesion, thirty shots on goal (eight on target) not score, let alone win the match? How can that be? We just could not convert our dominance into goals, quite frankly, and bearing in mind that there are just six points separting the top five in the Premiership table tonight, and there is no margin for error. We have to be more ruthless in front of goal, and if that means that Mikel Arteta is going to have to get someone in the January transfer window, then so be it. However, it is still possible for us to be top of the Premiership on Sunday afternoon, if things go well against Fulham, but we certainly have to do better than we did tonight.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, 31st December at 2.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon