Well that was sh*t 
So the mighty Arsenal fell to the Hammers yesterday in what was just one of those annoying games. Goals from Kouyate and Zarate (they rhyme no?) were enough to render us useless.
We started with Giroud upfront and Cazorla on the left, a decision a lot of people were unhappy with; “Why would you play Cazorla as a winger?” They said quite angrily. I have no idea, but I have sympathy for the coach as people would similarly have complained if he’d played Ramsey on the wings or if Cazorla or Ramsey had been dropped altogether…or Coquelin.
We threatened early on, but by the 30th minute I was getting nervous when all our play hadn’t resulted in a goal. I was relaxed, maybe too relaxes as West Ham offered little going forward. Asides from Payet who was hazily dribbling everything in boots, no one in the West Ham team scared me so much.
Then deep into the first half we concede.
Arsene said afterwards that it was a soft goal to concede among other things and while I’m no analyst, I could see what he meant. The second goal was one I felt the goalkeeper should have gotten to. It also came from a ball that wasn’t cleared properly. Chamberlain (one of the better players on the day) was caught in possession. I find this slightly worrying as I remember in pre-season he was also caught in possession against Everton which in turn led to Everton’s only goal of the game.
Going forward we offered way too little.
I understand people clamouring for Benzema and I’m sure their cases have been boosted by a toothless display by Olivier. He wasn’t abject, he was just limited. Theo wasn’t much better when he came on, the fact that our best chance of the game fell to Ozil primarily a creator was a little worrying for me.
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I don’t know what Arsene will do in the transfer window. I feel we still have a splendid team, not perfect as yesterday showed, but definitely enough to compete. Should we improve? Why not. But even if we don’t I still back this team to come good.
Petr Cech had a debut to forget and many have already turned against him after just one game, he is human you know. He is going to have bad games, we are actually going to concede goals this season and we have to accept that. It was unfortunate that we had to force Alexis into the fray when he clearly wasn’t ready and it showed sometimes.
What next now?
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We have to respond of course and this is not a new scenario, we have always come out okay, it is even arguable that if there’s a time to lose a game and get the damn thing out of your system, then it’s now and we have to bounce back with a vengeance. We have Crystal Palace next who won their first game and played well.
In the premier league, there’s no room for error and the money in the league means that even so called smaller teams can afford pretty good players, I mean West Ham got Payet and Ogbonna, Stoke have Afellay! That should tell you all you need to know. So we need to bounce back and I hope we have it in us to do so. So back to the drawing board it is
Till later
P.s. If it’s any consolation, last time we lost the first game of the season at home we were top of the table till way past Christmas
