Arsenal continue Premier League win streak, ease past West Ham
LONDON --
Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini fired Arsenal to a 3-0 victory over West Ham on Saturday. For the Gunners the slow march to Europe goes on, the familiar pattern repeating. As so often before, the final days of winter have coincided with an upturn in form at the Emirates and, after five straight league wins, Arsenal lies a comfortable third in the table, with a 16th successive qualification for the UEFA Champions League looking increasingly likely.
How meaningful that is in terms of the club’s progression is debatable; for all the positivity kindled by this upsurge and progress to the FA Cup semifinal, it’s only two and a half weeks since the 3-1 home defeat to Monaco that was widely described as Arsenal’s most disappointing European result in five years.
If the Emirates crowd often seems complacent, it’s because it’s seen so much of this before. This was the thirteenth time Sam Allardyce has brought a team to London to play Arsenal, and he has never won. Arsenal was good enough – very good even for about quarter of an hour immediately before half-time – without ever reaching anything approaching its maximum, while West Ham was largely cowed, struggling under the burden of its recent poor form.
West Ham had won just one of its previous 12 league games, the diamond shape that had served it so well in midfield warped by injuries. Against Arsenal, with the forward Enner Valencia ruled out after stepping on a tea cup, Allardyce deployed a 4-3-3 that more often appeared as a 4-5-1, meaning Stewart Downing moved from a central role to the right. He has become that most paradoxical of creatures, a winger who struggles playing wide and his impact was as minimal as it has been for so much of his career when he has operated on the flank. Nacho Monreal has been looking increasingly confident at left-back for Arsenal, but he will have few quieter afternoons in the Premier League than he did on Saturday.
Such threat as West Ham presented came largely down the other flank where Matt Jarvis occasionally exposed Calum Chambers’s deficiencies as a full-back. He was left in a bewildering amount of space after 24 minutes to pull a cross back to the edge of the box where Kevin Nolan met it with a firm volley that a scrambling David Ospina beat away.
There was a slightly surprising recall for Theo Walcott, whose rehabilitation after his knee injury is being handled with extreme care. He should have scored after five minutes, when Olivier Giroud touched a Mesut Ozil pass into his path, but he dithered, allowing James Collins to make a challenge. Later in the half, he squandered another fine chance, created by Ramsey’s through-ball, clipping a shot tamely into the midriff of Adrian. He was perhaps rather less at fault two minutes before the break as, stretching, he couldn’t guide the rebound on target after Adrian had blocked an Ozil shot.
Those misses were characteristic of a familiar first half for Arsenal. Without ever convincing entirely, if only because of its profligacy in front of goal and the memory of defensive frailties past, it had the better chances. Adrian made fine saves before half-time to push away a header from Alexis Sanchez, to tip over an effort from Aaron Ramsey as the midfielder connected with an awkward Chambers cross with his knee, and then to push a ferocious snapshot from Sanchez round the post.
Eventually, though, in the final minute of the half, the pressure told. A swirl of passes led to Walcott feeding Ramsey as he darted diagonally across the top of the box. Giroud, who had played the pass to Walcott, had continued his run, took the ball off Ramsey and lashed a shot into the top corner.
It was a stunning finish to a more of great quality and added further weight to the theory that Giroud, against opposition of suitable level, is an exceptional forward. The problem is that as soon as he plays truly top-class opposition, or in high-pressure games, his confidence seems to desert him entirely – as it did in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie against Monaco.
At that stage, Arsenal was playing with genuine swagger, but half-time interrupted its rhythm, and it wasn’t until eight minutes from time that Ramsey made the game safe following a one-two with Giroud. Mathieu Flamini, two minutes after coming off the bench, then knocked in a Santi Cazorla cross – Giroud again was involved in the build-up – to make it 3-0.
That probably did reflect Arsenal’s superiority, but there was something very routine about the victory.
