CHAMPION CONNIVERY
West Ham United 2 Arsenal 2
The only time West Ham have ever beaten Arsenal at London Stadium was under the tutelage of Manuel Pellegrini in January 2019. The only goal in that game was scored by nineteen year old Declan Rice, a few days short of his twentieth birthday. Since then, just a surrendered three nil lead behind closed doors, which Arsenal fashioned their way out of with their usual combination of luck, bluster and occasional touches of genius. We will need a strong referee this afternoon to command respect through well-disciplined decisions and thought through strategies.. And for those demands, the Premier League have provided us the towering commander of discipline that is David Coote. No, me neither.
West Ham have the unenviable record of spending the first fifteen minutes of all Premier League matches chasing their tails, in addition to chasing those of their opponents. As Arsenal need three points this afternoon to keep themselves ahead of the pack (that’s just Manchester City, of course), we can expect them to be the busier of the two sides during the aforementioned quarter of an hour.
Not unacquainted with this concept, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side throw pretty much everything in their armoury at the flailing Hammers in those first fifteen, and are not disappointed with their ensuing spoils. First, with only seven minutes on the watch, Gabriel Jesus puts his side into an early lead with a tap in on the line after clever approach work from Arsenal captain Ødegaard and a firm defence-splitting cross from Ben White. Then just three minutes later a second, part fashioned and fully executed by Ødegaard, gently stroking Gabriel Martinelli’s ball in at the far post with his left foot. Eleven minutes gone, and West Ham are two goals behind.
I start to look up into the sky, because I don’t believe this. West Ham cannot be this bad, and contrarily to popular belief, all of us in the stadium know that Arsenal are not actually that good. I’ve never thought they were at any time in this strange season. So I am living in an odd place as I watch Arteta’s team knock the ball around the place with an arrogance that is misplaced. Or is it?
The half hour passes and Arsenal play the ball out of defence with a short pass from Partey that Declan Rice telegraphs and, taking the ball in his stride, lays it left to Paquetá, nimbly passing Gabriel Jesus, who scythes him down, setting an unlikely and unexpected way back into the game for the Hammers.
Saïd Benrahma, team shooter and maligned malingerer, steps up to take the chance, sidefooting it confidently past Ramsdale. I have stopped looking into the sky, and finally return my gaze to the pitch to see Tomas Souček just a whisker away from heading an equaliser just before half time.
Like the Newcastle home game earlier this month, Hammers are 2-1 down at half time, after being completely blown off their perch in the first fifteen minutes. Those minutes that they have yet to violate in the Premier League in 2022-23. But after the break against Newcastle, we remember, they fell apart. How will that turn out this afternoon, facing the current champions of the division?
My hopeful sky combing unwittingly invokes the second strike of lightning, and when Michail Antonio handles in the area five minutes into the second half, I realise suddenly that the competitive element still surviving in this game may be about to depart. Bukayo Saka steps up and sends his spot kick… woefully wide of Fabianski’s right hand post. Two minutes later and Jarrod Bowen volleys Kehrer’s hopeful lofted through ball past Ramsdale, deliciously revenging his yellow card from last season, when it was Ramsdale who should have been sent off for his two-footed lunge.
Finally a drifting ball to the far post hovers, for a moment, above Antonio, who connects but sees his header fly away to safety off the top of the crossbar.
It is an unexpected but welcome point that keeps West Ham firmly in the hunt for a route out of all this bottom three nonsense. As for Arsenal, they can ill afford the lapse, as they will see it, with Manchester City breathing down their necks. The Sky Blues face West Ham themselves in just over a fortnight. Can’t wait.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 23 Thilo Kehrer, 41 Declan Rice (captain), 11 Lucas Paquetá, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 12 Flynn Downes, 14 Maxwel Cornet, 8 Pablo Fornals
Goalscorers: 22 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen
