Arsenal Vs West Ham United: 5 things we learned – Worst performance of the season

Arsenal travelled to West Ham United for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, hoping to keep pace in the top-four race. Here are five things we learned from the 1-0 defeat.

Well, that was the worst performance of the season. Slow. Lethargic. Lacking in almost every way possible. Utterly dominated by West Ham United. Arsenal lost their second successive match away from home, failing to score in a Premier League match for the first time since the opening day loss to Manchester City. And, in all reality, they deserved to lose by more.

Find the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here – The 2018 Review

Here are five things we learned from the thoroughly depressing 1-0 loss.

5. Don’t be too harsh on Ainsley Maitland-Niles

Ainsley Maitland-Niles had a shocker. Let’s not beat around the bush here. He was horrifically wayward in his passing, misplacing three successive balls in the space of about two first-half minutes, his positioning was very poor, outran by Felipe Anderson and Samir Nasri on several occasions, and when he did have the chance to drive forwards, he was hesitant and indecisive.

But let’s not be too harsh on the 21-year-old. Young players are inherently inconsistent. They are inexperienced, they are not usually prepared for the physical rigours of weekly matches, their form tends to fluctuate from game to game. The same is true with Maitland-Niles.

He was very poor here. Very poor. But that does not mean that he is a very poor player. It just means he had a bad game. Even the best players in the world have a bad game every now and then. Hopefully, he can put this behind and move forward. He still has the talent that makes Unai Emery believe that he can be a first-team regular.