Arsenal entertained West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium earlier today hoping to pick up their first points of the season. Unai Emery opted to start with Aaron Ramsey, and his side began the match brightly but were getting caught by the Hammers counter attacks time and again early on. The away team, to the surprise of many, took the lead courtesy of Marko Arnautovic’s long-range strike. However, the Gunners responded just five minutes later through Nacho Monreal’s goal.
Emery’s players had more control of the game in the second half and narrowly edged out West Ham when Issa Diop deflected Alexandre Lacazette’s shot into his own net. Danny Welbeck came on to put the icing on the cake for the North London outfit. The final score ended 3-1 in favour of the Gunners as they came out on top in the London derby.
Let’s shed some light on how each Arsenal player performed during the contest against the Hammers.
GK: Petr Cech – 7/10
He made a few good stops when called upon but was primarily left untested by the Hammers attack. The Arsenal goalie couldn’t do much about Arnautovic’s perfect finish in the first half.
RB: Hector Bellerin – 8/10
The Spaniard used his pace to neutralise Michail Antonio’s threat. He also got a confidence-building assist when his low cross found Welbeck who scored with a smart turn.
CB: Shkodran Mustafi – 6/10
He could have scored with his well-placed header but was denied by the West Ham goalie. The German was at fault for allowing Arnautovic space to get his shot on target during West Ham’s opener but otherwise, it was a resolute defensive showing from him.
CB: Sokratis Papastathopoulos – 6/10
The Arsenal summer recruit made some excellent clearances with his head and commanded his box well to deny West Ham a sniff at goal in the second half. However, Arnautovic found a lot of joy exploiting his weaknesses in the first half.
LB: Nacho Monreal – 7/10
He looked assured down the left flank and scored the all-important equaliser which gave his teammates enough belief to go on and snatch the victory. However, the pace of Snodgrass was causing him a lot of problems, especially in the first half.
CM: Matteo Guendouzi – 5/10
He looked a bit all over the place in the first half. The French youngster lacked experience, and his enthusiasm to do more for his team helped the Hammers midfield boss the game early on.
CM: Granit Xhaka – 6/10
The Swiss midfielder is slowly improving at the centre of the park, but his passing was below par once again.
RAM: Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 6/10
The Armenian lacked creativity and the cutting edge while operating in and around the opposition box.
CAM: Aaron Ramsey – 7/10
He was a constant goal threat and created some great opportunities for his teammates.
LAM: Alex Iwobi – 6/10
He worked hard for the home team but was unable to be productive in the final third.
ST: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 7/10
The Gabon international was a bright spark and was always looking to be decisive in the opposition half. He was unlucky not to score with his shot just before being replaced by Danny Welbeck.
Substitutes:
ST: Alexandre Lacazette – 8/10
He looked energetic after coming off the bench at half-time, and his performance galvanised the Arsenal attack and gave them the impetus to go on and claim the victory.
CM: Lucas Torreira – 7/10
The South American midfielder put on a nice little cameo after coming on.
ST: Danny Welbeck – 7.5/10
He scored a sitter after coming on when he was left unchallenged inside the West Ham penalty area.
