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Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 1 West Ham

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Arsenal (1) 2 West Ham United (1) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 19th September 2020. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Sead Kolašinac, Hector Bellerin; Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Willian Borges da Silva, Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nicolas Pépé, David Luiz, Mohamed Elneny, Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock, Matt Macey.

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (24 mins), Eddie Nketiah (85 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 63%

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett

Fourth Official: Darren England

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR Neil Davies

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restructions

Our second Premiership match of the new season, and another London derby as well! It is to be noted however, that before we went into the match tonight, that Arsenal have won ten of our past eleven home games against West Ham United across all competitions, and that our opponents have lost thirty-one Premier League matches against us, more than against anyone else. Therefore. one could say that the omens are good for this, our first home game of the season. Let’s go!

The opening stages of the match appeared to be played mostly in our half, as the visitors decided to attempt to try to take the game to us, which came as some surprise to our defenders as they were put under pressure by a lively and creative West Ham United. We struggled to find our rhythm as our midfielders saw their passes go astray and the strikers were forced to come back to win the ball, as opposed to them being in the position to receive it. Bukayo Saka was caught offside when he ran onto a pass that took him into the visitors’ penalty area, and after twenty-four minutes, we took the lead when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran onto a ball from Bukayo Saka and crossed the ball for Alexandre Lacazette to powerfully head the ball into the net, which unbelievably, was our first shot on target in the match. Of course, there was the usual VAR check when it was thought our captain was offside when he collected the ball, but thankfully the goal stood. This goal certainly fired some much-needed confidence in the team, and suddenly we looked in control. Ironically, there was a VAR check for a possible penalty against Gabriel a few minutes after we scored, but thankfully it wasn’t given as the VAR team decided that the ball didn’t hit him below the T-Shirt area, which is a new rule for this season, of course. In the minutes up to the break, we appeared to lose concentration at the wrong times; literally with a minute or so before first-half injury time, Michail Antonio equalised for the vistors with a well-taken goal from point-blank range. As our players went off for the half-time break, one could sense the feeling of disappointment amongst them, with a collctive realisation that they must do better in the second half.

With no half-time changes, we earnestly started the second half in good heart, with Bukayo Saka’s shot being pushed around the post by Lukas Fabianski for our first corner of the new half. Our passing was better, our movement off the ball suddenly became more urgent overall. Bernd Leno made an amazing save at close quarters from the feet of scorer Michail Antonio and this incident made us realise that danger could be upon us in a heartbeat. Somehow, we appeared to fall back into the same sluggish first half habits that got us into so much trouble; on the hour, Willian was substituted for Nicolas Pépé by Mikel Arteta in order to zip things up a bit. Obviously not, as shortly afterwards, chaos reigned when Michail Antonio’s header bounced off the crossbar, and Bernd Leno dropped the ball, falling awkwardly, but composed himself quickly enough to save a snap shot shot from Jarrod Bowen. That was a close run thing. Eddie Nketiah replaced Alexandre Lacazette to add yet more bite to the strike force with fifteen minutes remaining, which it did. Eventually. With five minutes of normal time remaining, Bukayo Saka released Dani Ceballos on the left, who deftly slotted the ball across the visitors’ penalty area for Eddie Nketiah to make no mistake from six yards. David Luiz was brought on for Bukayo Saka with minutes left of the match to shore things up at the back, and with four minutes’ injury time, his experience was desperately needed out there tonight. Thankfully the whistle was blown soon after, and three points was ours. Thankfully.

Let’s not dwell too much on the why’s and wherefore’s of this plodding, pedestrian, and at times, boring match. Let us just be thankful of the three points that we got here at the Emirates tonight. Yes, it could have gone badly wrong, but it didn’t. The visitors could have had a penalty, but they didn’t. At the end of the day, we scored two goals, we attained sixty-three percent possession, we have a one hundred percent record, and tonight Arsenal are second in the Premiership behind Everton. And that’s it.

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: Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Wednesday, 23rd September at 7.45pm (Carabao Cup). 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.

Risky Runar Runarsson

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Arsenal have taken a risk signing unknown Icelandic keeper Runar Alex Runarsson.

Our friends over at Gunners Town have spoken to the Vice President of the official Arsenal Iceland, Hilmar Guðjónsson about his fellow countryman, and the exclusive makes fairy grim reading.

Hilmar reveals that “Iceland are not blessed with good goal keepers”, which is a concern when Runarsson has just 5 caps, and has not played since 2015.

Runarsson joined Dijon in 2018, but last season lost his place as number 1, starting just 9 Ligue 1 games.

Hilmar goes on to say that Runarsson has a poor shot stop ratio and does not dominate his area.

Arsenal goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana has previously coaches Runarsson at FC Nordsjælland, so you have to feel he has been recommend to the club.

So Runarsson does not arrive with a glowing reputation. Arsenal are clearly taking huge risk signing him.

Arsenal received a reported £17m upfront from Aston Villa for Emi Martinez, and a decision has clearly been made to buy the “cheapest option possible” leaving the majority of that fee to be spent elsewhere on the team.

The club could have gone out and signed David Raya from Brentford for £10m.

Spaniard Raya is an experience Championship goalkeeper and, importantly, home grown. Instead Arsenal went for Runarsson for just £1.5m.

That leaves Arsenal with £15.5m spare from the Martinez deal, rather than £7m.

Arsenal are taking a risk on Bernd Leno staying fit.

Leno is undisputed number 1. He will be between the sticks for every game. Runarsson is being signed to take a seat on the bench.

Arsenal would have looked at Leno and realised he is a fit young man.

Leno has missed just 19 League games in 9 seasons, playing out of 296 out of 315 league games for Arsenal and Leverkusen.

According to Transfermarkt, he has had 2 spells in his career when he missed games.

Back in 2012/13, he missed a handful of games with an elbow injury. More recently he missed games for Arsenal following a dangerous challenge by Neal Mupay against Brighton.

By signing Runarsson, Arsenal are banking on Leno maintaining his excellent injury record.

But what if he gets injured again?

My feeling is Arsenal would request the Premier League to authorise an emergency loan to cover Leno rather than promote Runarsson to number 1.

Premier League rules state that “teams are allowed to sign goalkeepers on emergency loan cover, but this is generally if no senior goalkeepers are available”.

Arsenal would then have to make the case that, despite being 25, Runarsson is not a “senior goal keeper”.

In their favour, they could argue that he has yet to start a Premier League game, and only made 9 starts in France last year.

If the league agree to the loan deal, Arsenal could then scour England for the “best available number 2” to come in on a temporary basis.

If Emi Martinez is playing week in, week out for Aston Villa, there is a high chance that could be Tom Heaton.

Arsenal might have to write off the “additional fees” to secure the England international, whom Villa signed for £8m just last summer.

Fraser Forster from Southampton and Marek Rodak of Fulham would also be options if the time came to it – the later will probably be usurped as number one by Alphonse Areola this season.

The emergency loan would then come into the first team with Runarsson remaining on the bench.

By going cheap to Runarsson, Arsenal are freeing money up to be spent elsewhere, but it is a risk.

Note: Since writing this blog, news has broken that Arsenal might also sign David Raya, with the deal being completed this summer, by Raya allowed to stay on loan at Brentford for the season.

This would only make sense if Arsenal only made a down payment this summer, with the rest of the transfer fee being paid next summer. And Arsenal had a clause in the loan deal allowing Raya to be recalled at any time if Bernd Leno picked up an injury (with the remaining transfer fee payable immediately).

An interesting development.

Keenos

Aubameyang contract kicks off new era for Arsenal

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After what seemed like an eternal wait for Arsenal fans, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finally confirmed his future with the club by signing a three-year contract, which will keep him at Emirates Stadium until 2024. 

Rumours swirled surrounding the future of Aubameyang following his FA Cup Final winning brace in August. The player posted a number of cryptic tweets that featured an hourglass, sending Arsenal supporters into a frenzy when his new deal was announced on Tuesday. 

With his new contract signed, read on below for how Aubameyang’s decision to commit to Arsenal could help the Gunners’ pursuit of players in the transfer market.

Having wrapped up a deal for their talismanic captain, Arsenal’s attention must turn to their top transfer targets before the window closes on 5 October. Manager Mikel Arteta has maintained his interest in midfield duo Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar, who have been the Spaniard’s preferred options for much of the summer. 

After impressing in Lyon’s run to the Champions League semi-finals last season, Aouar could be persuaded to join Arsenal because of the presence of a world-class finisher in Aubameyang. Although the Gunners are playing in the Europa League, this could be an attraction for Aouar. Lyon missed out on European football altogether when Ligue 1 was terminated in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The presence of Aubameyang, who leads by example with an excellent goal-scoring record, could help Aouar integrate quickly into the side should he choose to join. Thanks to their French-speaking connection, Aouar would have the chance to settle seamlessly into an Arsenal side that is crying out for creative talent. 

Arsenal are also finding it tricky to negotiate for Partey with Atletico Madrid insistent that, unless his £50 million release clause is met, he will not be allowed to leave. The player is said to prefer a move to the Premier League but is yet to force his way through the exit door. 

The message sent by the Arsenal skipper in rejecting Barcelona is that he has complete faith in Arteta and the Spaniard’s ambitious rebuilding process. After all, Arteta has won the FA Cup and had his job title changed from head coach to manager in the space of nine months as Arsenal boss. These are on and off pitch examples respectively that Arteta is prepared to take full responsibility for the club’s fortunes on the road to success. 

This is a factor that must not be underestimated in north London. After the acrimonious events of last winter that dangerously divided the Arsenal fanbase, Arteta has instilled a sense of hope and optimism amongst supporters barely a year into the job. Moreover, he has drilled accountability and discipline into his players that has led to a healthy competitionfor places amongst the squad. 

Although he is the first name on the team-sheet, Aubameyangis at the forefront of this. 

Asked by Arteta to move out to the left wing to accommodateAlexandre Lacazette or Eddie Nketiah, he did not once complain about being shifted out of position. Instead, the Gabon international remained focused on scoring goals, for he knew this is how he would contribute to the team most effectively. 

Arsenal have already beaten off Napoli and Manchester United in the transfer market this summer by signing Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille. Already, signs are showing of Arsenal’s ability to attract top players.

The news that Arsenal’s star striker will remain at the club, having been convinced by his manager’s project, is evidence that the Gunners are embarking on a mission to achieve success. Having Aubameyang along for the ride will only accelerate the process.

Zac Campbell