Unhappy Christmas
Arsenal played three games between 23 and 31 December and did not win any. At the time a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield seemed a decent result: Mo Salah cancelled out Gabriel Magalhães’s early goal, but the Gunners weathered the storm in an intense game and the result meant they were top for Christmas. Five days later Arsenal enjoyed 74% of possession against West Ham at the Emirates and had 30 shots to the visitors’ five, including Bukayo Saka’s strike against a post – but the Hammers won 2-0. Some suggested the ball went out of play before Tomas Soucek opened the scoring but there was no conclusive VAR evidence. Konstantinos Mavropanos’s goal meant Hammers had scored from two of only three shots on target. Three days later Arsenal were defeated 2-1 by a Fulham side who had lost their previous three league games by an aggregate score of 8-0. Saka gave Arsenal the lead but Raúl Jiménez and Bobby De Cordova-Reid got the goals that prompted Arteta to call it “the worst performance we’ve had this season, that’s for sure”. Eight points dropped in a week.
