Move along. Nothing to see here. Just a routine joint record home defeat. The Overground and Elizabeth lines being down suggests it's going to be a bad day. Matt has left his bag at the Best Meze cafe but unfortunately manages to retrieve it and make the kick-off.
We're joined by Lisa and Michael plus a ticket exchange punter replacing Nigel, who is returning from a scouting mission in Cuba checking out Havana Clue FC, according to Matt.
West Ham keep it goalless for 32 minutes, though Areola makes a brilliant save to keep out Trossard's volley. Ben Johnson is playing alongside Emerson on the left but neither player is getting really close to the flying Arsenal winger.
Declan Rice swings over a corner and Saliba outmuscles Alvarez and Emerson at the back post to head in. Nine minutes later a simple ball over the top sees Saka free and Areola brings him down for a penalty. Saka looks offside, but VAR deems him onside and he duly scores,
The West Ham defence appears to be having Joe Biden-style memory lapses. Next Rice's free kick sees Ben Johnson drift back and play a line of attackers onside. West Ham's line is too deep, Areola is stuck on his line, and Gabriel heads home. In the second minute of added time Arsenal ping some passes around and Trossard in front of a minimal challenge from Zouma, curls home a great shot into the top corner.
Four-nil down at the break and thousands of West Ham fans leave. "There's nobody here!" chant the gleeful Arsenal fans. The lack of fight and leadership has been deeply worrying. While we're not getting anything forward to the isolated Bowen and Kudus.
Zouma is hooked at the break, which suggests he has been playing while not fully fit, while Phillips comes in for Alvarez and at least gets 45 minutes of football to aid his match fitness.
Mavropanos improves things slightly at the back though Areola is soon saving from Saka. The home fans who haven't flounced out sing some defiant choruses of "We are West Ham's claret and blue army!".
Saka then cuts inside Emerson and Areola far too easily and fires home the fifth. On 65 minutes Declan Rice fires home a long range screamer. At least he doesn't celebrate and then gets applause from the home fans after he's subbed.
HOME ALONE
Thankfully the Gunners ease up and it stays at six. Kudus even has a shot saved by Raya's legs. Arsenal have played like prospective champions and West Ham have been terrible. For the Hammers it's the sort of bad day at the office where the photo-copier catches on fire, you get made redundant, the Inland Revenue presents a huge tax demand and there's a heavily-armed ex-employee with a grudge at reception.
Declan Rice comes over to applaud the diehard West Ham fans at the end and gets a good reception. We trudge like shell-shocked WW1 veterans to the Eagle. Nigel is soon to be home re-enacting Michael Palin's Ripping Yarns' "Eight bloody one!" sketch. At least he's been paid £61 not to go to the game, which is the best result of the day.
Matt suggests we've moved from a low block to a no block. He's on the whisky, though it's tempting to ask for absinthe. Michael muses on his Tainted Love for West Ham over a pint of Guinness. Our collective line is that we have won the series of three games against Arsenal and this was a dead rubber.
Hard to believe the same side beat Arsenal six weeks ago. The sales of Fornals and Benrahma look even stranger with the squad so stretched. It's been a good season up to January, but now is the time to show some character. We need a massive reaction at Nottingham Forest.
PLAYER RATINGS: Areola 6: Coufal 5, Zouma 3 (Mavropanos 5), Aguerd 4, Emerson 3 (Cresswell 4); Johnson 3, Soucek 3, Alvarez 3 (Phillips 4), Ward-Prowse 3; Bowen 4, Kudus 4.
3 comments:
Sharing the points with Arsenal over the season (3-3) and knocking them out the Cup, would usually be a great outcome.
The manner of the loss at home was just abject in the extreme.
If I didn't know better(?), I'd be thinking the manager has lost the dressing room.
It was a total debacle, the substitutions made very bizarre and a manager who didn't have a clue and a team that is being handicapped by the managers awful approach to every game. The sooner he is gone the better.
Hard to find any good points,but did the Moyes detractors say the same things after we beat Arsenal away and at home in the Carabao? Yes it was awful but I've seen plenty of awful over the last 50 years. I say it all depends on the response to this, the next couple of games are massive....
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