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FIVE things we learnt about the Hammers against Arsenal

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Soccer - Barclays Premier League - West Ham United v Arsenal - Upton ParkWe just threw away a decent lead against a team and lost a game. It’s the team currently topping the Premier League table, so the result shouldn’t be a huge shock, but wins for Crystal Palace, Fulham, and Sunderland have delivered West Ham a terrible late Christmas present—a place in the relegation zone.

Considering the first half, and the time we spent leading the game, being on the wrong end of a 3-1 defeat at home is a terribly bitter pill to swallow. With that said, here are five things I learned about West Ham from our game against Arsenal.

1. Timing is everything

Football matches tend to last for around 90 minutes. Our team, however, do not last that long. We played some great football in the first half. The ball was moved around exceptionally well, Matt Jarvis did some great work on the wing, and we looked lively. However, in the second half we began to fade and die. Arsenal moved out of first gear as we moved into it. We looked lifeless towards the 70-minute mark and simply opened the floodgates for Arsenal. If we had played for a full 90 the way we played in the first half, we’d have been looking at a different result.

2. Kevin Nolan’s still on my naughty list.

At the beginning of the game Nolan wasn’t that bad. He stayed onside, and I almost- almost- started feeling a little bad about crossing off his face on the West Ham calendar that I gave my Dad for Christmas. But then I saw something odd- twenty minutes or so into the game a chance to move forward came, and Kevin Nolan signaled for the players involved to carry on without him – even though he was the next furthest player forward. He still does not look match fit, and considering his recent ‘rest,’ he should be ready to run all day.

3. Are you Jussi Jaaskelainen in disguise?

I don’t think there’s a big difference in quality in our two keepers. Adrian was certainly at fault for the appallingly painful first goal, but he was also fantastic in the first half. He delivered outstanding saves, but fell apart after the first goal he let in. I think he’s got a lot of potential, but at the moment, I think he and Jussi are pretty evenly matched in terms of skill and ability and it doesn’t make too much difference as to who is out there.

4. Don’t stop believing

When we were actually playing attacking football, we were winning against a team at the top of the league. As soon as we switched to a solely defensive stance, the game was Arsenal’s to win.  In this game, as we showed shortly after half time, our best shot of keeping the scoreline in our favour was an attacking approach. Sadly, we didn’t keep the faith in our ability to score, and instead set ourselves up for failure. Arsenal are prolific; no matter how big a wall we could build, a team like that will always find a way in—and they did. We ended up being lucky it wasn’t more.

5. Man of the Match

Last time we sang “we want you to stay” to a player it ended up costing us dearly (partially in money, mainly in points) but I really want Carlton Cole to stay after his limited run. He scored against Manchester United, scored against Arsenal and, strangely, defended very well against Arsenal. The amount of times he stopped crucial balls into the area was outstanding, and I’d argue he contributed more strongly to our defense than James Collins did. Sure, we’d like to see Cole score more often, but scoring against Manchester United and Arsenal is no easy feat, and I think he has more to offer us.

It was a frustrating day made so mainly because we played well for a large portion of the day and that we were even winning for a time, yet threw it all away. It’s incredibly depressing to be in the bottom three and now, moving forward, every game is a must-win.  Hopefully against West Bromwich Albion we can keep an attacking stance and our energy up for the majority of the game, and Carlton can continue his goal-scoring run.

What did you think of the game? Let us know below.

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7 comments

  • Max Stirner says:

    I’ve been an Arsenal fan since 1968. I remember when West Ham played great football when players were being kicked, and we played functional football, now when its so easy to play good football you guys play functional football and we’re playing the quality stuff, ironic. With FatSam in charge Ron Greenwood must turning in his grave.

  • James Robertson says:

    Sam needs to be fired in my opinion.

    We simply do not know how to finish out games by playing to win, instead of switching to ‘shields-up’ mode and inevitably losing the game as a result.

    Why does Allardyce steadfastly refuse to play our young players instead of the usual donkeys? It’s hard to see the Hammers staying up unless there is a radical change in approach to the game.

  • Dave says:

    We have let other teams beat us to the players that we should have signed last window, Jay Rodriguez, Jack Butland, Robert Snodgrass, Jordan Rhodes, Victor Wanyama. With these players added in THE LAST WINDOW we would have re-saleable assets and quality.

  • Dunlopilo says:

    Not to mention Hooper, who scored again today. That makes five…

  • John says:

    3 wins in 17 games is not bloody good enough!! FatSam needs to go and we the the Porno Twins need to get someone who can score goals!!

  • wolfie says:

    Put Arsenal under pressure,as Chelsea did,you have a decent chance of at least a draw.Try to
    just defend against them ,as we did,and they will tear you apart.We can see that Y can’t BFS
    and his assistants see that as well ? Also HTF did Walcott score from a header? he only measures about 5ft 6ins !!
    Trying to stay positive but the situation looks bleaker every game,bit of a dilemma for the 2 Daves,get rid of BFS but who would be willing to take us on in our current position ?

  • beckton Geoff says:

    Gandalf and the hobbit need to get their act together and sack BFS we are running out of time to turn this around, i missed the game but listened to it on BBC even Mr dicks could not believe what he was seeing and he’s West ham thought and thought.

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