If you’d told West Ham fans before these three games that they’d come to within seven minutes of beating Man City at the Etihad, see off defending champions Chelsea and hold Arsenal to a goalless stalemate, they’d have bitten your hands off. As it is, things look far brighter for the Hammers after a draw against Arsenal, while for the Gunners, it looks set to be another disappointing league season.
David Moyes opted to keep faith with the same side that had done the business against Chelsea. James Collins returned to the bench after an injury layoff, but Moyes persisted with the troika of Reid, Ogbonna and Cresswell that had fared very well as a partnership against Antonio Conte’s side.
While Moyes kept 3 at the back, Arsene Wenger opted for four at the back for the first time since April. That meant pairing Nacho Monreal with Koscielny in a two man central defensive pairing and a first ever Premier League start for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who normally plays in midfield or on the wing.
There was also a recall for Jack Wilshere, who has been linked with a move to West Ham in the winter window. The England international started in an Arsenal shirt for the first time since May 2016. Olivier Giroud’s reward for scoring the equaliser over the weekend against Southampton was a maiden league start in 17/18 ahead of fellow Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal were very, very disappointing in the first half. West Ham have been well organised defensively under Moyes so far, and continued to be so against the Gunners, who managed only one shot on target in the first half despite making twice as many passes (326 to 159) and having 70% of the ball. The Hammers actually managed to get the ball into the back of the net through Marko Arnautovic- another player who seems to have been rejuvenated by the arrival of Moyes, in the 14th minute, but it was disallowed for offside. For Arsenal, Alex Iwobi hit the post, but there was precious little to trouble Adrian, who again started ahead of Joe Hart.
As you’d expect, Arsenal stepped up a gear in the second half, but again struggled to break West Ham down. Their wingers chose to dribble inward, and West Ham had numbers in plenty through the middle to defuse all their attacking plays.
In the 70th minute, Arsenal probably had their best chance of the game, and it fell to Wilshere, who smashed his effort too high- a Wilshere with more game time would’ve probably buried the chance. Two minutes later, Noble fouled him, and from the resulting Alexis free kick, Adrian had to be alert to parry the ball away.
Arsenal had won 5-1 in their last away league game at West Ham, but there was to be no repeat, despite Wenger sending on Welbeck and Lacazette to turn things around. West Ham made only one sub- the exhausted Antonio to be replaced by Javier Hernandez, and the little Pea almost snatched three points at the end, but his effort rattled the woodwork. West Ham had to wait for the 88th minute for their first corner- Arsenal had seven in the game. There was no shot on target for the home side- Arsenal had 22 overall attempts, from which three were on target.
Unfortunately at the end, Reid picked up an unnecessary yellow that rules him out of the weekend clash against Stoke. That was probably the only downer in what was otherwise a very satisfactory evening for David Moyes’ charges.
West Ham 0-0 Arsenal (Adrian, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Obiang, Noble, Zabaleta, Lanzini, Arnautovic, Antonio)
The official Man of the Match was Adrian, but we’d give the award to Angelo Ogbonna.
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