The attack showed some great interplay with Lacazette being the most crucial player imo despite excellent performances from Martinelli and Saka.
We had the usual sloppy errors from Xhaka that fortunately went unpunished but Partey looked a lot more assured.
West Ham only really pressed for about 10 minutes during the game so it's hard to gage how we'd have done against a side less willing to allow us possession but overall it was probably our best performance of the season (obviously the refereeing went our way but the performance merited the result regardless).
Moving forward - the Lacazette contract situation worries me, he might well prove crucial over the next couple of games. However we've been here before offering big money to an aging player in form only for them to go to complete trash once the big bucks kick in.
I think we'd probably be wise to seek a new CF and still let him go regardless of form over the next few weeks/months unless he's willing to sign a shorter contract without a huge bump in pay (unlikely).
We have a few more very winnable games coming up so we could find ourselves in a great place come the new year. It's what follows that will indicate whether Arteta is able to genuinely progress the side, I don't believe he can given what we've seen so far but happy to be proved wrong!
So much better today
posted on 16/12/21
Nice to get a win against a decent top 6 side finally
I know our record is good against weaker teams, the likes of Burnley, Norwich, Spurs, Newcastle etc. Would like to see us push on and improve our results against the better teams.
posted on 16/12/21
comment by Lalalala Lokonga (U3664)
posted 14 minutes ago
Nice to get a win against a decent top 6 side finally
I know our record is good against weaker teams, the likes of Burnley, Norwich, Spurs, Newcastle etc. Would like to see us push on and improve our results against the better teams.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
enjoyed the sneaky mention of Spurs. I'd say West Ham performed similarly today, allowed us way too much time. Think it must have been an off day for them as they looked pretty toothless in general.
It was just good to see some decent football from us, even though we've been getting results against poor sides this season the football has been pretty awful.
I'd be happy even if we remained flat track bullies but did so in an entertaining way even if our form against the likes of Liverpool doesn't change
posted on 16/12/21
Don't let West Ham playing badly con you into believing that we played well. They got a real easy night of it without their Achilles heel being attacked by the opposition, they'll win most any game vs a team that defensively passive. We won because WH's sitting back meant Arteta couldn't force the team to play out all game and wait for West Ham to gift an error for us to get a goal. He was forced to let the team play on the front foot most of the game. Because he can't use his "Artetaball defenders are main playmakers" CRAP against a side that passive in defence.
More aggressive opposition forward defending traps the team playing Artetaball condemned to play out all game and eventually make the errors which cost us the game/win. As has happened with damn near every quality or just form team we've played Artetaball against for the last 18 months. You only need veiw the results with Artetaball vs results with to know this very simple fact. Playing football wins us games and playing Artetaball loses them. Here's hoping nobody presses the ball for the rest of the season. Because if he keeps sending them out to play his stupid way this season as last will be dead in the water by end of Feb-mid march.