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Arsenal purring as we dispatch West Ham

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo I tell you what, this Arsenal team is cooking at the moment, isn’t it?

I mean yes, there was a moment in the first half when it went to 4-2 that I had PTSD from my trip up to Newcastle all those year’s ago to watch the 4-4 draw, but as I said on the Same Old Arsenal podcast this morning, this Arsenal team is built differently and now that the 5-2 result is done with and we can talk with hindsight in mind, this Arsenal side is built to withstand wobbles like that.

They are also built with strengths that – even when the opponent knows what is coming – they can do little about. So when Bukayo Saka sauntered over to take the corner on ten minutes, you knew we had a chance to nab ourselves the lead and of course it was going to be Gabriel that delivered the blow to West Ham. The Sky Sports commentary even picked up on the fact that Gabriel had a word with his teammates about what he wanted the play to look like and it was executed to perfection.

We had dominated the nine minutes before that and we also then proceeded to dominate the entire half. West Ham were reduced to long ball clearances that Arsenal just recycled, reset and went again in attack. It didn’t matter that we were missing Partey and Merino through injury, because Jorginho stepped in and kept us ticking over throughout, his metronomic passing exactly what this type of game needed. And within half an hour we were two up with a superbly worked goal that we thoroughly deserved. Trossard gets his name on the score sheet and the glory of the goal to his tally, but it was Odegaard and Saka who did all the heavy lifting. Odegaard’s flick over the defence was sublime and Saka’s ball across the goal meant that all Trossard had to do was tap it in to an empty net.

Arsenal were purring and it was a delight to see. I had worried the adage ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ could be true if we didn’t put in a performance yesterday, but this team showed once again that it is not a flash in the pan. We’ve challenged for the league in the last two season’s and this time around we’re up there again, but the media have been telling us otherwise at times, without realising the challenges we’ve had that have stopped us from being closer to league leaders Liverpool right now. But yesterday was an Arsenal team laying down a marker; this was a performance that said “we will not be silenced” and at 3-0 and 4-0 in quick succession by 36 minutes, that voice was loud enough to be heard in Liverpool and Manchester. The third goal was clever from Saka to get the penalty, the fourth goal was a superbly weighted ball from Trossard and a superb finish by Kai to basically seal the game. I don’t think West Ham had mustered a shot on our goal by then.

The two West Ham goals were something out of nothing, annoyingly, because it was a superb assist from Soler and then a perfectly precise free kick from Emerson. Of course that got the crowd up and excited, but that second penalty right on halftime was absolutely perfect in terms of quietening the stadium. It was a penalty. At first I wasn’t sure and I think Anthony Taylor was a little hesitant too, but you can punch a player in the head and not expect it to be a penalty, so I’m glad it didn’t even have to go to VAR. We all saw it last season with Onana at Old Trafford and we all agreed that it was one missed by the VAR and the refs on the pitch, so it was good to see that they got this one right yesterday. Saka dispatching the penalty basically meant all we had to focus on in the second half was shutting the game down and that’s exactly what we did.

It was also pleasing to see that we took no chances with some of the players and the subs. Big Gabi had done his job in the first half and so bringing on Kiwior was the right move. Likewise with Calafiori for Zinchenko, who Arteta admitted that we have to manage his minutes because of his knee injury. So it sounds like they’re both fine and that’s good news ahead of a big game on Wednesday at home to Man United. The cushion of a three goal lead has ensured Arteta has felt comfortable enough to rotate and hopefully that bodes well for the next few matches.

The stand out players from yesterday were, however, the attacking players and once again Bukayo Saka proved he is worth his weight in gold with yet more end product and influence on another one of our games. Him and Odegaard simply ran the show; it was great to watch them link up and West Ham had absolutely no answers to what they were both offering. Saka is strong, he’s powerful, he makes the right decision again and again. Yesterday for our second goal he was put in and he could have easily have tried to take on the shot himself, but he knew exactly what to do with his perfectly weighted pass and Trossard was the beneficiary. Likewise with the penalty he won; he gave it to Odegaard because he hasn’t scored this season and so when the second penalty was awarded, he was also the beneficiary of having a chance to further add to his goal tally. That’s five goals and ten assists this season. He’s on course to hit 40 goals and assists at this run rate and I wouldn’t bet against him.

The pressure was on us yesterday to keep pace with those above and with City and Liverpool duking it out later today we had to make ground on at least one of them. We did just that, added to the goal difference tally and put on a display that has all of us Gooners purring right now.

Bring on United on Wednesday.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.