Rice exposes weakness at the heart of Arsenal
Youngster opens his West Ham account as shot-shy Gunners flop
ARSENAL’S head of football Raul Sanllehi made a candid remark last autumn. As his team chalked up a 2 2 - ma t c h u n b e a t e n run, he observed: ‘Performance has probably not been at the level of the results.’ Sanllehi, a football man schooled at Barcelona, could see that Arsenal were winging it.
There were some good moments undoubtedly and the 4-2 win over Tottenham was Unai Emery’s zenith so far in England.
But Sanllehi could see that winter was coming. On a grey, cold day at the London Stadium amid the postChristmas gl oom, i t arri ved. Whether Arsenal have and put away enough reserves to sustain them is highly debateable.
Twenty- two matches unbeaten has turned into three wins in eight, during which there have been four defeats, including this one. With Mesut Ozil not even making the bench — three full backs were deemed a better back-up option — they look a club hamstrung by past decisions.
Such money as there was has been spent. Now they talk about nicking a loan signing. Fourth place is slipping away. Manchester United will likely overhaul them soon for fifth, having been eight points adrift less than a month ago.
Arsenal haven’t won away from home in the Premier League since beating Bournemouth in November. That is another throwback to Arsene Wenger’s last season, when
they won just four games on their travels. Put simply, Emery won’t ever build a solid foundation on a defence of Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis and Laurent Koscielny, who is still recovering his poise after six months out.
And you cannot expect to dominate a midfield with Matteo Guendouzi, understandably waning in his first season at the age of 19, and the erratic Granit Xhaka.
There is a deficit of quality at Arsenal and owner Stan Kroenke won’t be funding a spending spree any time soon. So, unless there are outstanding prospects in the academy, it is going to be a long and slow clamber back to the top four and require some particularly shrewd buying and selling.
‘We couldn’t control the match like we wanted,’ said Emery. ‘We had some chances but not enough for winning. Maybe the first 20 minutes when we created some chances was when we could start thinking about winning this match. But after that it was difficult
because over 90 minutes we didn’t impose all the things we wanted.’
As such, whatever your views are on Ozil, you might think he might have made the bench. Things must be pretty bad for him not even to merit 20 minutes at the end of the game. ‘I think we have enough players to win today and impose our game plan and our tactical plan and quality against them,’ said Emery.
‘ Maybe for this match, some attacking players can help. But I think we had enough with these players. We win with him, we lose with him. I think it’s not one player that is saying we can’t n’t win or lose.’
That Arsenal were poor was clear. What shouldn’t be overlooked was that West Ham were good. Specifically Declan Rice, 19, and one of the players of this season, was very good. Arsenal had started d out with a 3-4-3 formation, n, seemingly a cautious default ault after their mauling at Liverpool verpool — and it looked more like 5-2-3 at times. As such, Guendouzi and Xhaka were utterly outclassed and overwhelmed in midfield by Rice and Mark Noble.
‘He is very strong in aerial duals, he is strong one-versus-one, he has a good technique and he demonstrated that in the goal he scored,’ said manager Manuel Pellegrini of Rice. ‘So I’m sure that we are seeing a top player soon for West Ham
and a also for t he national squad that he decides to play for. Maybe in this position he can score more goals but the second step for him to continue improving is to try to have a good view of all the pitch.’
There was an additional painful reminder of the past for Arsenal in Samir Nasri. He has returned from an 18-month drug ban, before anyone gets too misty-eyed about his first Premier League game since August 2016. But there were some
delightful moments which suggested this may be a risk worth taking. ‘He is a top player and when he has more minutes and he is 100 per cent he will make a difference for us,’ said Pellegrini.
As for the unsettled Marko Arnautovic, he was having the kind of game where he does nothing and then produces one touch to convince you he is irreplaceable. It came in the 33rd minute, where he burst into life, running in behind the Arsenal back three. The ball
looked too far beyond him to be controlled, but with one exquisite touch he brought it down and set up Nasri, who held the ball up for Felipe Anderson to shoot from the edge of the box.
That was almost as exciting as it got in the opening half. Rice went close with a header on the stroke of half- time while Arsenal’s best chances came when Sead Kolasinac drove into the box on 23 minutes but failed to ether shoot or deliver a decent cut back. Guen- douzi then struck a swerving shot which curled just wide.
Arsenal’s slackness cost them when they failed to clear a Felipe Anderson corner on 47 minutes, allowing the Brazilian to drive back to the goal-line again and pull the ball back. Xhaka cushioned a soft header out to Nasri.
Coolly he touched the ball to Rice, who in turn struck it cleanly, curling past Bernd Leno for his first goal for West Ham.
Emery brought on Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira and reverted to a back four, immediately improving. Kolasinac played in Aubameyang and the Frenchman shot just wide. Alex Iwobi also broke free did the same. But that flurry was the best Arsenal could manage.