Happy Against the Hammers

A London derby to close off the Premier League for the upcoming international break. Arsenal enter this fixture off the back of a great week of football. Newcastle away, completed. Olympiacos at home, completed. Four goals scored and one conceded. While Arsenal were soaring, Liverpool were faltering and the Gunners needed to capitalise on this moment. West Ham have had a disastorous start the season and languish down in 19th. They even sacked Graham Potter after game five. However, Nuno Espirito Santo would take confidence from the fact that the Hammers have beaten Arsenal at the Emirates for two seasons in a row. So, no matter how good Mikel Arteta's men have been, this is an obstacle that needed overcoming.

The first chance of the game actually fell to West Ham who found themselves in Arsenal's six yard box within a few minutes of kick off. A corner swung in and found the head of Niklas Fullkrug. David Raya missed his claim, so it was left to William Saliba to try and put off the German striker. Thankfully he couldn't get the direction on his header and it sailed harmlessly over the bar. Arsenal regained composure and began their assault on the West Ham goal. It took all of five minutes for Alphonse Areola to be called into action after Jurrien Timber was slipped in and rifled a shot against his legs. West Ham did go down the other end and have another attempt of their own, but Lucas Paqueta couldn't keep his shot down.

In the 13th minute Arsenal came the closest to scoring after a goal mouth scrap propped the ball up for Eberechi Eze to guide it in from close range. However, the Englishman couldn't keep his shot down and the stadium sighed in anguish as they couldn't believe he'd missed. Arsenal did get a goal ruled out not long after, Bukayo Saka found space in the box from a ball over the top from Declan Rice. But, he was adjudged to be offside. In the moments following that offside call, Martin Odegaard sat down and called for medical attention again. The clash of knees against a West Ham player prompted medical staff to rush on and treat the Norwegian, initially he was able to carry on, but not for much longer. Martin Zubimendi replaced him.

Arsenal were still on the hunt for a goal to break the deadlock, but just couldn't break down a resilient Hammers defence. However, Zubimendi was the orchestrater of our first goal. A delicate ball slipped through to Eze who crashed a shot on target that was saved by Areola. Rice was on hand to smack in the rebound. A muted celebration against his former club. Arteta's men were on the hunt for a 2nd goal late on in the first half and it was almost Riccardo Calafiori that provided the comfort. The Italian picked up the ball on the edge of the box and fired in a shot that rifled against the post and then the back of Areola. Luckily, his back took all the power out of the ball and it landed within an inch of his body, it could so easily have deflected in.

The 2nd half rolled around and Arsenal were in a similar position to how they were against Olympiacos. A goal up, but really needed a second to relax the situation. However, the game leading up to the second goal was full of almosts'. Saka not quite connecting with a shot properly, as well as Leandro Trossard. An excellently worked move resulted in a deviously crossed ball that Victor Gyokeres just couldn't reach with all his might. Arsenal never looked in any danger of conceding a goal, but they desperately needed that second. Hearts were beating a little faster throughout the stadium. But, Saka was on hand again to lend a comforting arm around the shoulders of Arsenal fans across the world. Timber was played in by Zubimendi, but a West Ham defender halted the Dutchman in an illegal manor that resulted in a penalty. Saka made no mistake from the spot and smashed it home. 2-0 and any thoughts of an upset were out the window. Both teams seemed content with a 2-0 result and not much occured after Saka's goal. A couple of half chances fell to Mikel Merino and Ethan Nwaneri as well as Callum Marshall for West Ham. That was essentially it though. 3rd time lucky for Arsenal in terms of beating West Ham at the Emirates, but I think Nuno Espirito Santo will be relatively happy that it wasn't 4 or 5-0.

Arsenal dominated the game and the statistics back it up. 21 shots in total with seven on target and five off. This resulted in an xG of 2.77. There was four big chances within that. West Ham, for comparison, only generated an xG of 0.49. They had no shots on target and only three off target. They did, however, create two big chances.

Player Ratings:

Raya - 6 - As I just stated, West Ham had no shots on target so you can imagine it was a very easy afternoon for our Spaniard. But, he did flap at the corner for Fullkrug's chance which could so easily have been a goal.

Timber - 8 - What a player he really is. Much like Calafiori, in a game like this you just can't contain him and shackle him to just one zone. He pops up everywhere and is devastating everywhere. He had a task of quashing the threat of Malick Diouf who was proving to be a danger at left back in previous games, but we didn't see a peep out of him thanks to Timber. He also won a penalty.

Saliba - 7 - Our defence wasn't tested much at all, but he did do enough to put off Fullkrug with his headed chance. Always available as an option to pass to and defended very well.

Gabriel - 7 - Very similar to Saliba, just did what he had to do and nothing much else.

Calafiori - 8 - He's just such an enigma of a player. It seems like he wants to play everywhere but left back, however, he'll defend like he owns that position. Almost grabbed himself a goal too.

Rice - 8 - He's had mixed games against his former club since leaving. He'll score at the London stadium and Arsenal will go onto win, but struggle at the Emirates in which the Hammers will win. Today was different, he scored the opening goal and just bossed the midfield battle. The opponents couldn't get near him and he was very close to grabbing himself an assist too.

Odegaard - 7 - He only played about 20 minutes of the match without an injury, but he looked very sleek. Much like his game against Olympiacos, he patrolled the midfield zone in front of Rice and picked his passes well. He set up Timber's early chance.

Eze - 7 - We look much more fluid when Eze plays. He finds pockets of space between a low block defence which is crucial to us breaking them down. But, he missed an absolute sitter that reduces his overall from 8 to 7.

Saka - 8 - We're blessed to have this guy back from injury and at a time when Noni Madueke got his injury. He looks sharp and seems more switched on to offensive moves. He's not getting ganged up on like he has been all these years and we're seeing a much more expressive player because of it. Took his penalty very well.

Trossard - 6 - While he wasn't missing a roster of chances like he was doing midweek, I do feel like when he starts he isn't as effective. He's perhaps the more tactically astute player out of him and Gabriel Martinelli, but sometimes the latter's raw pace is a great asset to have.

Gyokeres - 6 - There's so much debate going on with Gyokeres right now. Half the fanbase feels like he's a waste of money as he can't score goals, but the other half are appreciating what he does off the ball. He undeniably battles hard and his work rate is off the charts, but could something be said for him calming down and allowing his team to just get him the ball to feet instead of making every touch a battle. However, he certainly captivates the defenders as they do stick two or three men on him which is giving more freedom to Saka, Eze, Trossard, Rice and Odegaard.

Substitutes:

Zubimendi - 9 (MOTM) - What this guy adds to our team is nothing short of perfection. He completely stabilises the midfield by himself and allows all others ahead of him to crash the box and influence the attacking zone. We look better when he's on the pitch and he's the reason why we scored our two goals. A delightful through ball for Eze which was eventually finished by Rice and then another clipped through ball to Timber who was fouled in the box and resulted in a penalty.

Lewis-Skelly - 6 - From here on out it's kind of the same. Arsenal controlled proceedings and each player just slotted into the system. The young English defender did what he needed to.

Nwaneri - 6 - I want to see more of Nwaneri, but he's been limited to cameo's in recent games. He's always up to something and that's an underrated asset.

Merino - 6 - Missed a couple of half chances, but still put himself about and caused trouble for the opposition.

Martinelli - 6 - Once again it was all about sustaining the system and the Brazilian did just that. Nothing more.

That's it for this review. We're top of the league going into an international break and we've got quite a nice little run of fixtures until the next international break. Fulham away when we return is a bit of bogey ground for us, but we should be winning. Then it's home fixtures to Atletico Madrid, Crystal Palace in the league and Brighton in the Carabao Cup. We then travel to Burnley, Slavia Prague and Sunderland. Of course they all present tricky fixtures, but they're fixtures you'd expect us to win on current form.

I won't do a predicted line up for the Fulham game because a lot can happen over an internation break! See you in the next one