Arsenal Vs West Ham: Top-four hopes now gone?

Arsenal lost to West Ham United 1-0 on Saturday. The defeat leaves them six points off the top four. Does that mean their hopes of a top-four finish at the end of the season are now dead?

When Unai Emery arrived at Arsenal, there were two clear goals for his first season: Progress, which was a vague word to try and ease the pressure if the early results were not positive, and to challenge for a top-four finish. That was what Ivan Gazidis said, and I still believe that is what the club expected.

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Now, six months into the new season, those targets are still at the forefront of the club’s aims for Emery’s first campaign in north London. But they are not all that attainable, taking a quick glance at the table after Saturday’s results.

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Arsenal lost 1-0 to West Ham United while Liverpool and Chelsea both won. As of writing, that leaves the Gunners six points behind the Blues, who currently sit in fourth, and a massive 16 points off league-leaders Liverpool. Perhaps even more concerningly, Manchester United are three points behind with a game-in-hand and Spurs are seven clear with a game-in-hand.

The defeat to West Ham was a major blow, as Emery admitted in his post-match press conference:

"“I think the result is a bad one. We lost a great opportunity to take three points and get closer to Chelsea and the other top-four teams. But we lost. We wanted to do a better match but we couldn’t control the match like we wanted to.”"

Similarly, Laurent Koscielny admitted that he and his teammates lost a chance to fight for the top four:

"“…we had some chances and we didn’t score so it is difficult to come back with no points but we need two continue to fight to make the top four.”"

Whether that leaves Arsenal too far behind their rivals to overhaul the deficit, I do not know. If they beat Chelsea next weekend, which will be played at the Emirates, they will suddenly only be three points behind their London rivals and back in with a shout of squeezing into Champions League qualification by the end of the season.

But the loss here, the loss to Southampton, the draw with Brighton are hugely damaging results when chasing for a top-four finish. Those three matches, along with a 5-1 hammering at Anfield, are the last four away results in the Premier League. Dropping 11 points out of 12 is not the kind of record that will see a team finish in the top four.

Are Arsenal’s top-four hopes finished? No. Not yet. But they sure as hell need to improve because lose next week against Chelsea and they might well be.