West Ham 1-2 Arsenal: 4 positives and negatives from key win

Positive #1 – Strength Defending a Lead

Note: from the 70th minute onwards, that is.

It was lackadaisical play that led to Jarrod Bowen’s goal, with Martinelli and Nuno not getting their distances right and Gabriel not being tight enough on his marker, but when it comes to defending a lead late on where possession is mostly an afterthought, Arsenal almost always stand up to the task.

West Ham didn’t really have a sniff when Arsenal shut up shop. Yes, it was nervy as hell, but the hosts rarely threatened despite having 63 final third entries and the majority of possession.

Arsenal made a whopping 27 clearances in this game, seven of which were Holding alone, as whenever the ball made its way into the box it was cleared efficiently. Limiting the Hammers to three shots on target is fair work at their own stadium.

There were also encouraging moments when it came to running the clock down. Across this season one of the notable improvements across the team has been the mightily impressive sh*thousery. Nketiah managed to get under Rice’s skin so much that he acted like a total moron (despite Eddie constantly providing him with jollof rice during their Chelsea days), while the clock got run down expertly when it needed to.

As Arteta said, it’s winning ugly. Arsenal are getting good at that.

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