West Ham United threw away a first half lead against Premier League leaders Arsenal on Boxing Day, suffering a 3-1 defeat to the Emirates Stadium.
The Hammers missed the chance to push clear of the relegation zone despite Said Benrahma’s first half penalty. Second half goals from Buakyo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah sealed three points for the Gunners.
It leaves West Ham 16th and just a point clear of the bottom three heading into their final league match of 2022 against Brentford on Friday night. Here are some of the major talking points from the London derby.
READ MORE: Every word West Ham’s David Moyes said on Arsenal defeat, Mikel Arteta, errors and Divin Mubama
A glimmer of hope that ends in despair
After an early scare that saw Saka score within minutes of kick-off, Arsenal absolutely dominated the match, so to anyone watching on, it was probably a huge shock that West Ham took a 1-0 lead into half-time.
In fairness, they had fought for it, defending solidly despite missing main centre-back Kurt Zouma through injury, limiting the dynamism of Arsenal’s fierce front four and making the most of the only clear chance they got, with Jarrod Bowen drawing a foul of William Saliba after good work from him and Michail Antonio on the break. Benrahma smashed his penalty straight down the middle, becoming the club’s sole top scorer in the league this season, with three.
Arsenal thought they had a spot-kick of their own on the stroke of half-time when Martin Odegaard’s shot was blocked by Aaron Cresswell, with referee Michael Oliver initially awarding a penalty for handball, only to be rightfully overturned with replays showing the ball hit his face.
West Ham’s aims of keeping the league leaders at bay for another 45 minutes, away from home, quickly diminished early in the second half. First, Saka pounced and beat West Ham’s back line when latching onto a poor Odegaard shot before coolly slotting past Lukasz Fabianski. Minutes later, Arsenal pressed high, broke and scored, with Gabriel Martinelli giving the hosts the lead with a finish across Fabianski. Eddie Nketiah dealt the final blow with a sublime turn and finish, highlighting why Arsenal have been so tough to beat all season.
For manager David Moyes, it’s now 71 league matches as an away manager against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United without victory, a record that will break the 21-year record by the time he next faces a trip to one of them. A result could not have been expected, but with less than half the game remaining, one could have been achieved.
The £60m dilemma
For only the second time in the Premier League this season, West Ham found themselves without both of their big money centre-backs Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd, who the club signed for £29.8m and £30m respectively in the last two summer windows.
While Aguerd is yet to make a full league debut due to injury, Zouma had started 14 of the 15 Premier League matches this season prior to the World Cup break.
With both missing and Moyes not handing a first league start of the season to Angelo Ogbonna, Moyes opted to use Craig Dawson and Thilo Kehrer as a partnership for the first time in a back four this season.
With Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell starting either of side them, they looked okay in the first half and kept the league leaders’ attack shackled, something they could not continue to do after the break.
Dawson, in fairness, could not really be blamed for any of the goals, but the same could not be said of Kehrer, who allowed Nkeitah to spin past him too easily before finishing to ensure West Ham conceded three goals in a game for the first time in all competitions this season.
With Aguerd losing a few kilos in weight due to a recent virus and Zouma set to be absent for some time still, Moyes will have to find a solution to his issues at centre-back, especially given the run of crucial fixtures to come between now and the end of January.
Rare individual errors
Despite West Ham’s poor 2022/23 season in the Premier League to date, at the back, they have largely been pretty reliable.
West Ham have not boasted too many clean sheets this season, but only six sides have conceded fewer goals than them this season in the top-flight, with not too many of the 20 conceded being from individual errors.
The first goal started after a Declan Rice pass was intercepted and Arsenal broke on the counter and scored. The second saw Saka outmuscle Rice twice before starting the move that quickly led to a break and Fabianski getting beaten by Martinelli at an angle that he really should not be, despite being warned earlier in the game by Saka.
The third goal saw Kehrer get turned far too comfortably by Nketiah, with Arsenal’s back-up striker turning and converting past Fabianski.
The absence of Zouma may not be the sole reason, perhaps it is just a sign of being rusty after a first league game since November 12, but it is a concern going into a run of fixtures where West Ham really need to turn their form around..
Lack of options from the bench
Looking at the team sheet when it was released one hour before kick-off, a glaring concern would have come from looking at the bench.
Despite being outplayed, West Ham were ahead for 26 minutes but knew that their chances of improving that and or keeping their head above water would have come from having attacking substitutes.
With Gianluca Scamacca (ankle) and Maxwel Cornet (calf) both absent, Pablo Fornals was the closest thing West Ham had to a senior forward on the bench, despite the Spaniard not really known for his goals.
One positive was that there was a place for 18-year-old starlet Divin Mubama on the bench, but it did only further highlight the lack of options to change the game from the bench.
Divin Mubama’s chance
With Michail Antonio starting and Scamacca missing with an ankle injury, teenage striker Divin Mubama was named in a Premier League squad for the first time.
Mubama went one further than that with less than five minutes to go and got his league debut in place of Antonio with minutes to go, a reward for his stunning form that has seen him score 11 goals in eight games at youth level since making his senior debut against FCSB in the Europa Conference League in Romania at the start of November, including a brace in the FA Youth Cup against Sheffield United six days ago.
Moyes felt that while it was frustrating to have a lack of attacking depth on his bench due to injuries to both Scamacca and Maxwel Cornet, he added that Mubama thoroughly deserved his chance at the Emirates Stadium.
“We like the boy Divin because he does the running and does the work for the team and he puts himself out there,” Moyes told football.london . “I’m glad we got him some minutes.”
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