Arsenal gave Man City the initiative in the Premier League title race after letting West Ham draw 2-2 in round 31.
Mikel Arteta’s disappointment. Photo: Arsenal Club
Arsenal lost 2 points in 8 days
Once can be considered a problem but twice means Arsenal is in trouble. Played at home and both took the lead by 2 goals but the result was only a draw.
In the first 30 minutes, Arsenal almost completely overwhelmed West Ham in every way. Gabriel Jesus easily scored the opening goal and brought back memories of West Ham’s 1-5 defeat to Newcastle earlier this month.
However, the game changed dramatically. Arsenal have faced nine shots, the most in any of their Premier League games this season.
If the draw against Liverpool can be explained by the quality of The Kop’s personnel, the same with West Ham is difficult to excuse.
The upcoming fixtures of Arsenal and Man City in the Premier League. Photo: Sky Sports
The atmosphere in London is not as hostile as in Merseyside but Arsenal have stopped playing their best football. Mistakes creep into the game and they can even lose at the end.
Arsenal is still 4 points ahead of Man City, but there is no doubt that The Citizens are the team taking the initiative.
The moment the midfield made Arsenal pay again
Against Liverpool, Granit Xhaka made an unnecessary tackle on Trent Alexander-Arnold, enraged the home crowd and breathed life into Liverpool.
In the match against West Ham, Thomas Partey let Declan Rice easily steal the ball in the middle of the field – a moment that could make Arsenal more coveted than the English midfielder.
That moment unexpectedly gave West Ham an equalizer when Rice found Paqueta, who was cut down by Gabriel in the penalty area. Partey’s loss of composure reflected the away team’s loss of control.
Rice has 11 ball recoveries – more than any other player on the field. In contrast, Odegaard – who performed well in the early game and Xhaka, gradually faded. That is a lesson Arsenal will have to learn in the next matches.
Saka again… missed the penalty
Saka overcame the obsession after the penalty shootout defeat with England at EURO 2020 against Italy to become Arsenal’s regular 11m performer.
The 21-year-old has successfully completed the last 4 penalty situations before the match against West Ham. All against top opponents: Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United. During that time, he also became the youngest player to score consecutively in Premier League matches (20 years 230 days).
The fact that West Ham scored almost immediately after Saka missed 11m made the disappointment multiplied. Anyone could miss out under such pressured circumstances but that would reinforce the view that Saka was showing signs of fatigue.
The mental and physical endurance test Arsenal will face in the coming weeks is truly disturbing…
Notable statistics
– Just 2 minutes 20 seconds between Saka’s penalty miss and Bowen’s goal.
– Before the match against Liverpool, Arsenal had won 50 consecutive Premier League games with a two-goal lead, since December 2019.
– According to FiveThirtyEight’s SPI prediction, Man City has a 66% chance of winning the Premier League, Arsenal is 34%.
