LONDON – The debate over whether Arsenal can handle the Premier League title challenge is getting louder.
After failing last season despite leading by eight points at the start of April, the main challenge this time around for coach Mikel Arteta is to develop the Gunners into a more aggressive display to continue the pace.
There have been clear signs of progress in that regard this season, but the manner of Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to West Ham will raise familiar questions about whether Arsenal can win in what threatens to be a multi-sided battle to be champion.
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The opening goal will continue to be disputed given that the ball may have drifted out of play as Jarrod Bowen pulled it in for Tomas Soucek to score 13 minutes later. VAR official Craig Pawson took a long look but the camera angle could not conclusively overturn the decision on the pitch and the goal was awarded.
Regardless, Arsenal lacked the composure of serial title winners. Their defending – which led to Gabriel Magalhaes slotting the ball past Oleksandr Zinchenko to give Bowen the chance to pounce – was disastrous for the first goal. Their reaction in possession was even more worrying. Wasting chances on one hand and conceding another easy goal on the other was a recipe for disaster.
There had been talk before the game of the summer signing coming back to haunt his former club but not in the way anyone expected. It ended up being a memorable night for Declan Rice, as former Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos scored his first Premier League goal with an excellent header in the 55th minute.
After excelling for his new club time and time again this season, Rice endured the jeers of West Ham fans for the last 20 minutes or so here as a result of his £105m summer move to the Emirates Stadium. Rice’s form has been a huge factor in Arsenal’s apparent improvement, but in a moment that summed up their decline here perfectly, he missed a penalty kick in stoppage time, prompting the biggest cheer of the night from the far end. Few seemed to care about David Raya’s save from substitute Said Benrahma’s penalty kick as the final whistle blew seconds later.
Arteta has rightly praised the home atmosphere of late, given the turnaround from the toxic break-up that provided the soundtrack to the end of Arsene Wenger’s coaching spell – but there was a tension in the air against the Hammers that did not dissipate throughout the evening.
There was not the maturity in Arsenal’s play that we expected, and this was perhaps most evident in their play in the final third. Gabriel Jesus headed the ball over the bar in the 66th minute and Martin Odegaard forced Alphonse Areola into a fine save at the end, but there was little else of note despite 77 touches being recorded in West Ham’s penalty area – the most ever since 2008-2009 season in one match. One Premier League match for a team that failed to score.
Bukayo Saka (who hit the post in the first half), Emile Smith-Roy and Eddie Nketiah all had shots on target in the final 12 minutes, but none of them required anything other than a simple stop by Areola. But Arteta believes they created enough to win the game.
“When you look at how much we achieved in the game, seeing the result is very disappointing,” Arteta said. “But they were better than us in both boxes. They had two shots, three from the penalty spot. We had 30, I don’t know how many touches in the box, how many situations, how many chances to score and we couldn’t score.” I didn’t do that, in football you have to do it better if you want to win.
“That’s the thing. We have to try to create chances. If we don’t score from 30 shots, we have to make 50 or 60 shots to try to score. That’s the only thing. I can’t imagine a game where we had more touches in the penalty area.” , more control and less opponent movements against a really good West Ham team. But today, it wasn’t enough to win the game.”
Their failure in front of goal will only strengthen the argument for the need for a new striker in January.
“All we have are the players we have, the players I like the most,” Arteta said. “What we have to do is try to improve conditions, more training, raise confidence and that’s it. They did that.” [before]”.
West Ham and manager David Moyes continue to defy expectations. After winning the Europa League last season and selling Rice for a club record fee, they now find themselves in sixth place on 33 points, the highest they have ever collected at this stage of a Premier League season. No wonder Moyes indicated that the club are “preparing to talk” about a new contract with his current contract expiring at the end of the season.
Thursday was West Ham’s first win in this fixture since 2015 and, more importantly, Moyes’ first away league win over Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United in 73 attempts.
“Football is played in many ways, and tonight we played a role that perhaps isn’t talked about much,” Moyes said. “Great defence. We did a good job against Arsenal tonight. They had a lot of possession, which I didn’t like, but we did a great job.”
In response to a question about his team’s ambitions for 2024, Moyes added: “We are not one of the major teams. We are trying to advance and develop the team.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal are in a different place. They believe they can be the better team. But this defeat showed that there is more work to be done.
