Irons Put To The Sword By Young Guns

There are enough cliches in the title of this piece to last a little while, woudn't you say? But anyway... 

Arsenal moved into (a somewhat remote) fourth spot in the table with comfortable victory over a West Ham side who are perhaps already finding it difficult to cope with the number of games they have had to play this season; one of the downsides of qualifying for European competition with perhaps not quite the depth of squad required. Still... diddums; I've got no sympathy at the end of the day.

Arsenal really needed to show their mettle in this game against serious contenders for that fourth Champions League spot, and this they did. Of course, they now need to back this up with a serious away result or two - their only win north of Watford Gap this season having come at a seriously out of form Leicester. Despite injuries in the West Ham squad, superiority had to be earned, but by the end it was pretty comfortable.

Team news; and there was none - same starting XI as against Southampton, and still no place in the 18 for the exiled Aubameyang (I'd assume that he will be back on the bench on Saturday evening). Lacazette, 'next in line', wore the armband once more. And whilst the start of the game was cagey - there was a lot to play for, after all - Arsenal looked the better side as they were backed by a raucous and hopeful support from within the ground - it was certainly one of the better atmospheres of recent months.

There was an early optimistic call for a red card for Coufal for an apparent elbow on Tierney (the West Ham man got his comeuppance by the end), and apart from that there was little early incident as the teams felt each other out. Bukayo Saka - excellent throughout - continually caused trouble on the right; and Gabriel Martinelli - or Captain Chaos as I've nicknamed him - was a continual thorn in the right hand side of the Hammers' defence. Lacazette had one of his better games, continually linking up with Odegaard and the two wingers, and the full backs were not afraid to push on in support. If there was an area that wasn't performing to its optimum it was possibly central midfield, where Partey is still some way short of his best and Xhaka is... well, Xhaka. The letter seems to slow the tempo a little too much for my liking.

West Ham's best (only) chance of the first half came as late as the 34th minute, when Fornals' shot from the left hand corner of the box whistled wide of Ramsdale's far post; he had it covered. Arsenal created far more, whilst keeping West Ham at bay, and were perhaps unlucky not to go into the break in front when Tierney's vicious 20 yard volley was tipped onto the bar by Fabianski. There were also chances for Laca and Martinelli as Arsenal went in ahead on points.

But we'd hardly taken our seats again when Arsenal took the lead, as Laca's beautifully threaded and weighted through ball was slotted home in Henry-esque style by Martinelli. A thing of beauty.

And, based on recent, performance, I immediately started looking at my watch! I was hoping that Arsenal wouldn't revert to type and start to back off, and although they did for a while as West Ham looked to force them back it wasn't anything close to the Goodison Park horror show. I suppose that's got something to do with being at home and not in a hostile away venue.

Just after the hour Smith Rowe was introduced at the expense of Odegaard, who'd had a tidy enough game but did give the ball away deep in the Arsenal half early in the game - the subsequent shot was dealt with by Ramsdale. Not the Norwegian's best game, and there's competition in that number 10 role at a time when it's looking extremely difficult to rest Martinelli on the left.

Almost immediately after, Lacazette won a penalty following Coufal's challenge - he got the ball as well as an awful lot of the Frenchman, and picked up his second yellow for his trouble. 

Whilst Laca was being treated for the knock, Martinelli picked the ball up (hopefully, perhaps?), but the skipper reclaimed it; only to see his tentative spot kick saved comfortably by Fabianski. Thierry Henry always made it a rule that if he was fouled for a penalty somebody else would take over penalty-taking duties. Perhaps Laca should have done the same. But on the other hand that's the first one he's missed in an Arsenal shirt.

And at that moment, of course, the crowd started to get nervous; despite West Ham being down a man. Even with numerical superiority, Arsenal dropped off, and unnecessary pressure started to build. And I wasn't pleased to see Benrahma take the field for the ineffectual Lanzini. But, on the break, Saka and ESR combined - sweeping almost the length of the pitch as Saka's perfectly times through ball set ESR away; and he nutmegged Diop in burying the ball beyond the reach of the despairing keeper for 2-0. It was great to have him back.

And so, as we all know, it's up to fourth spot. Of course, both United and Sp*rs now have games in hand - so wouldn't it be easier to simply cancel Sp*rs than merely cancel their matches? But fourth it is. And next up are an injury-ravaged Leeds, who are coming off a 7-0 mauling at Citeh. Surely this is Arsenal's chance to win a game 'oop North'?

And so to conclusions:

1.    Aubameyang's path back to the starting line-up looks blocked at the moment. Although we can expect rotation over the Christmas period. It would be helpful if he could come back in at a suitable time and hit form. But if Laca continues in current form then all well and good

2.    Does ESR come back in for Odegaard? I wouldn't like to be making that decision. Ditto on whether to shake up the midfield

3.    I'm still not 100% convinced about the whole 'process' thing. We've got some really exciting young players - now let's see the team go get the results we need at difficult venues. Then I'll really start to believe.

I'll be back on Sunday or Monday. Until then, stay safe. COYG!