Arsenal vs West Ham Review

West Ham United 1-0 Arsenal 

A dismal day out at the London Stadium for Arsenal.

Arsenal’s Champions League hopes have certainly been hindered, after suffering defeat against West Ham at London Stadium. Declan Rice scored the only goal of the game in the second half to give the Hammers a well-deserved victory.

Rice picked a good time to grab his first West Ham goal, powering the ball beyond Bernd Leno from 12 yards three minutes after half-time.

However, the main talking point came when Arnautovic seemed to wave goodbye to the home fans when he was substituted after 71 minutes played, days after West Ham rejected a £35m bid for the Austrian from an unnamed Chinese club. Teammate Michail Antonio has suggested that Arnautovic does in fact want to leave the East London club, and start a “new chapter”, news which will certainly leave West Ham fans concerned, and eager to see who could replace the Austrian striker. 

Arsenal managed just two shots on target across the whole 90 minutes as their torrid away form continued, leaving them with one win out of in their last seven Premier League games, and manager Unai Emery suffered back-to-back away defeats for the first time as Arsenal boss

Emery's side had shown promise before half-time but lacked the quality to find the key pass in the final third, with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang playing the roles of onlookers for long spells of the first half.

Both sides had ‘half chances’ early on but it was Arsenal who did carve out the first real opportunity of the game. Alex Lacazette held off Pablo Zabaleta and forced his way into the box, but former Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski saved his first effort from 12 yards, and Lacazette smashed the rebound over.

Arnautovic seemed untroubled by the transfer rumours, and at the top of West Ham's attack, the hosts always had a focal point they could play off. 

West Ham also had a few notable chances in the first half, Felipe Anderson with the best one, as he came close after some good play by Samir Nasri, who waited for his run and laid the ball into his path 25 yards out, the ball only just whizzing the wrong side of the post.

The second half sprang into life within five minutes of the restart. Nasri, teeing up Rice after a terrible Granit Xhaka header to blast the ball beyond Leno from 12 yards.

The arrival of Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira and even the pace of Hector Bellerin off the bench failed to ignite the Gunners' usual second-half charge, which has seen them pick up eight points in the last 10 minutes of games alone, as the hosts saw out a first victory over Arsenal on home soil since 2006.

For Arsenal, it seems to be a recurring pattern, and yet again left questioning Emery’s tactics. Aubameyang looked lost on the wing and Arsenal lacked that creative spark that Mesut Ozil often provides. This is the fourth game in a row that the German international hasn’t been part of, and its telling. 

Aside from the FA Cup victory over Blackpool, Arsenal have won just one Premier League game in their last 5, and Ozil has been part of just one squad, the 1-1 draw with Brighton. 

Overall Arsenal Rating – 4/10

There is clearly an issue between Ozil and Emery, which is something that needs to be resolved and fast. Ozil has missed games every month since the start of the season, and there has been a different excuse/reason as to why every time. If Ozil doesn’t want to play for the club or manager, he should be sold. The German currently earns £350,000 a week, not including bonuses, or sponsorship deals, which means from Arsenal Football Club, his standard annual wage is £18,200,000. By selling Mesut Ozil, Arsenal would be able to out some of their wage structure issue, and also be able to compete again with the other big clubs. The departure of Aaron Ramsey, whilst has received enormous backlash from Arsenal fans and pundits alike, will also take a big earner off the wage bill. Ramsey earns a standard wage of £110,000 each week, which is £5,720,000 per year.