The league is surely gone now. The club are now forced back into a top for finish as the end goal. The first 40 minutes were fantastic, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez both took their goals well and West Ham looked like they hadn’t turned up. Arsenal fans were finally starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, they could do the impossible. Instead, an Andy Carroll brace just before the break changed everything. While the first 40 minutes of the match were commendable, the remainder of it was an absolutely horrific display.
First, the few positives of the day, Alex Iwobi looked good bagging two more assists and at least for the first half, Alexis seemed to show flashes of last season’s amazing form. Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny actually played quite well until they were forced off in order to bring more attacking power into the team. Then it went all downhill. Nacho Monreal had his worst performance of the year, he was turned inside and out by Michail Antonio, most obviously for the third West Ham goal. Hector Bellerin looked promising going forward but too many times left his position unnecessarily allowing room for West Ham attackers to run into. David Ospina, who in all fairness had played well in Petr Cech’s absence, was awful. It reminded fans why he had been dropped after that fateful UEFA Champions League outing. The Columbian failed to claim anything in the air, show any dominance of his box, and failed completely to communicated with his defenders. The latter, saw West Ham put the ball in the back of the net only to be ruled out for a foul on Laurent Koscielny. This brings us to the center back pairing. Absolutely shocking. For a pair that dealt with Romelu Lukaku so well, they just could not deal with Carroll’s aerial threat. They were consistently beaten in the air, made poor aggressive attempts to intercept entry passes and looked all around confused in the back. Iwobi, Ozil and Alexis all played well for the first 40, but then all of a sudden they were being caught on the ball and misplacing passes inviting more and more West Ham counterattacks. Danny Welbeck’s movement was a nice sight but with the creative three behind him holding on to the ball for too long, it went to waste.
This dismal performance is much more than an individual’s outing on the day. This performance has become far too indicative of Arsenal. It was weak, uninspired, and a frankly lazy last 50 minutes. The fans deserve better than this. The worst part is that it has become a trend lately for the club, whether it was the 4-4 against Newcastle all those years ago or the 3-3 against Liverpool, the 3-3 on Saturday, it’s a clear sign that something is missing. It’s in a sense unprofessional that this can keep happening to a club of this stature. Yes, Stan Kroenke needs to leave the club, yes Wenger should have improved the squad further, but someone needs to look at these players. They are professionals at the top of their sport, they should be able to see out a half when up 2-0. Instead, they conceded three in eight total minutes. Disgusting. The title is gone and it’s back to the usual top four struggle for same old Arsenal.
