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

Positive #2 – Everything About Eddie

Even the most ardent supporter of Nketiah won’t have seen this coming. Surely not.

While he’s shown dashes of his talent throughout his bit-part career at Arsenal, never has he looked this well rounded before. It’s genuinely taken us by surprise.

Whether he’s coming short to link play and show off his very adept first touch, or holding his man off to shield the ball, these aspects of his game have improved exponentially over the past year. He was asking for a solid run in the team and, having been given it, he’s producing.

Granted, in the first half he was a bit loose in the technical side of the game. It wasn’t the cleanest display, but then again nobody could lay claim to having one. Yet it was his turn and driving run that forced Fabianksi into the low save that resulted in the opening goal.

After the break he embarked on a shoot-on-sight mentality, being denied by Fabianksi on another two notable occasions with strikes from miles out of goal (by his standards) that required strong hands from the Polish keeper. His movement was clever, his work rate was magnificent, and he added threat either side of the West Ham defence that allowed Arsenal to open up inviting scoring opportunities he created near enough all on his own.

Arsenal need this Eddie for the remainder of the Premier League season. The gradual improvements in his performances suggest they’ll get that. But with him unwilling to be a #2 anymore, for good reason, it still looks like being the end.