Arsenal’s title hopes suffered a major blow as they lost 1-0 at home to West Ham.
The Gunners were bidding to cut Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points, but they were made to play for a blunt display.
Jarrod Bowen scored the only goal a minute before half-time on a hugely disappointing afternoon for Arsenal.
Dom Smith was at Emirates Stadium to rate the Arsenal players’ performances…
David Raya 5
Couldn’t stop Bowen from giving West Ham the lead. But good distribution.
Jurrien Timber 5
Played high and wide for Arsenal for much of the afternoon, but without seeing a huge amount of the ball.
William Saliba 5
Couldn’t deal with the aerial threat of Tomas Soucek in the first half.
Gabriel 4
Stood off Bowen for an early shot and didn’t engage in Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross to Bowen for the opener.
Riccardo Calafiori 4
Didn’t get close enough to Wan-Bissaka to block his cross. Replaced shortly after half-time.
Declan Rice 4
Didn’t display his usual passing range and allowed Wan-Bissaka’s cross over him for the winning goal.
Thomas Partey 5
Tried to find passes forward, but without always having success. Did OK. Booked.
Martin Odegaard 6
One of the Gunners’ better players. Shot wildly over the bar in the first half but found passing angles and carried the ball into the box.
Ethan Nwaneri 6
After misplacing simple passes early on, recovered in order to showcase his excellent first chance and try to get Arsenal moving.
Leandro Trossard 5
Forced a save with one shot and looked for opportunities to cross, but was often snuffed out by the visitors’ defence. Blazed over with a late chance.
On the most part, led the line quite well. But the same goalscoring threat he displayed off the bench against Leicester was just never there.
Subs:
Oleksandr Zinchenko (Rice, 56’) 4
Crossed to absolutely no one in the second half when Arsenal were chasing their equaliser. Not a good cameo.
Myles Lewis-Skelly (Calafiori, 56’) 3
Brought on to help a resurgence, but found himself dismissed. Yes, it was a close call, but he was the last man and did appear to prevent a goalscoring opportunity. Will learn from this experience.
Raheem Sterling (Nwaneri, 82’) N/A
Ben White (Saliba, 86’) N/A
Not used: Neto, Tierney, Jorginho, Butler-Oyedeji
