We could talk about this much more, couldn’t we? But we oughtn’t, because Stoke v Liverpool starts soon and it’s time for you to go over and bother Michael Butler. Enjoy that, and we’ll chat again soon. Cheerio for now.
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Tom S, today’s MBM-er of the match by a long distance, writes in with a well-deserved “Told you so”.
A chastened Mike MacKenzie squeals “In fairness I acknowledged the error of my ways at HT!”, but this is not a live blog that suffers inaccuracy.
Give me some old rope and I’ll find you an Arsenal season ticket. That was, as comedowns in north London go, among the most spectacular in a long list and all the more so because Petr Cech, cited by many as the finishing touch to Arsenal’s well oiled machine, did himself absolutely no favour there. Glaringly at fault for the first and complicit in a chain of errors for Zarate’s opportunistic second, his performance was a considerable factor in West Ham’s win although you have to give Slaven Bilic and his men big credit.
Yes, you do. From the first couple of minutes it was clear that they would get on the ball and get men forward when they could and, while they spent a couple of periods under the cosh, they generally played with a sense of authority that you’d have been forgiven for thinking was beyond them. Arsenal, who seemed flustered and hurried in possession, created a number of half-chances but rarely got behind a team superbly marshalled by Winston Reid and bolstered by a remarkably mature display by the 16-year-old Reece Oxford. Most of us underestimated West Ham today but the manner of their performance suggested the win was no accident.
As for Arsenal, they’ll go again at Palace next week. It’s just one defeat, just one blip in what has been a positive year, and there is plenty of time for them to go on the title charge many expect. But there will be alarm bells that, regardless of personnel, the same errors keep repeating themselves at inopportune moments. It seems systemic and needs to be cut out if they’re to get to the next level.
Full-time: Arsenal 0-2 West Ham
The start to the season we could never have expected? The start to the season we really should have expected?
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90+5 min: Sanchez shoots from a similar position to last time and Adrian saves with a foot. That’s probably that.
90+5 min: Not many people inside Emirates now. Tube strike?
90+4 min: It’s worth noting that, shortly after the defeat to Aston Villa I mentioned at the top of the programme, Wenger signed an expensive player from Real Madrid.
An expensive player from Barcelona has a half-chance now, Sanchez scurrying down the left and checking onto his right before measuring his shot rather too carefully into Adrian’s arms.
90+2 min: Payet bursts past Koscielny and for a split second he’s in the clear with Maiga waiting to the left...but the angle disappears and he opts to check back. Arsenal aren’t turning this one around.
90 min: “Wasn’t some bloke early on saying Arsenal were going to score 5 or 6? #Schadenfreude,” notes Jake just as Maiga shoots at Cech from range. His name was Mike MacKenzie, Jake. Luckily nobody who’s paid to peddle this nonsense predicted they’d score three.
90 min: Sakho is now replaced by the Europa League’s Modibo Maiga.
89 min: Noble turns keepball into a wriggle along the byline from that corner, and fizzes in a low ball that only needs a touch...but it’s hammered clear from inside the six-yard box. Up the other end and Oxlade-Chamberlain does well before sliding in Giroud, who scoops high and wide.
88 min: Normally Arsenal have given themselves a glimmer of hope, false or otherwise, by now but it really hasn’t looked like happening. Pallid stuff from them. Now the indefatigable Sakho runs down the right, from one end to the other, in a straight line and wins another corner. That was superb, tireless, unselfish work from the striker.
87 min: West Ham win a corner, Koscielny glancing a free kick out to the right. They aren’t in a huge hurry, but it’s probably too early for corner flag keepball. They do play it short and do keep the ball, but it’s worked back to their centre backs before a long Ogbonna ball is headed out by Monreal. That’ll do.
85 min: Nolan looks to spring Jarvis clear but it’s overhit. Arsenal are entering Running Out Of Time territory now and there are audible sighs every time possession is conceded. Nothing that much is happening, the odd half-chance aside....although Adrian is called upon to parry in fairly regulation fashion from a speculative Cazorla 20-yarder.
82 min: Reid again! Walcott seizes on a ball that sits up 10 yards out and his volley is goalbound before the defender throws himself in front of it. Then Oxlade-Chamberlain, on the right corner of the box, thuds one high into the side netting.
81 min: Ooooh, Sakho gets away down the inside right but Koscielny is across and the striker can’t get enough on his shot, which Cech dives right to smother with ease.
Astonishing performance from Reece Oxford
— Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) August 9, 2015
Truth.
80 min: Monreal’s cross is well read by the excellent Reid. Now Nolan comes on and it is indeed for Oxford, who has fitted into this game like a glove. Brilliant, intelligent stuff from the 16-year-old today, both tactically and technically.
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78 min: Both players do indeed return. Kevin Nolan will shortly come on for West Ham, presumably for someone else – possibly Oxford or, more conservatively Payet.
77 min: Giroud is up first, and Tomkins rises rather more gingerly. Can’t be too careful with this kind of thing and we’ll see if both reappear.
75 min: Now Arsenal are applying some consistent pressure but any degree of momentum is quelled when Giroud and Tomkins, both attacking a Ramsey cross from the right, clash heads – Tomkins basically heading Giroud. Not nice and both men are down.
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74 min: Sanchez tries to take matters into his own hands and attempts a low curler from an angle on the left. Reid sticks out a foot to block but the ball is still loose until Tomkins thrashes it away.
West Ham fans: "Are you watching Allardyce?"
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) August 9, 2015
Hmmmmmm.
72 min: It is very quiet inside Emirates Stadium, a place of giddying highs, abysmal lows and barely much of a mood inbetween. Walcott livens one or two with a driving run and shot deflected wide, and after a couple of awkward ricochets from the resulting corner West Ham escape.
70 min: Noble has some treatment, limps off and I daresay will run back on shortly.
69 min: The impressive thing here is that West Ham still look very composed. They’re not exactly clinging on, and a bit of Arsenal frustration is evidenced in a yellow for Montreal, who fouls Noble after the midfielder had seized onto his heavy touch.
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67 min: Wenger was only going to give Alexis Sanchez 20 minutes if necessary and, well, this is rather necessary. On he comes for Debuchy. All-out attack now.
67 min: Kouyate tries to play Sakho in but, after taking the ball on his chest, he slips. May be more West Ham chances on the counter here although you still sense this isn’t over. Their game at Spurs last season should be warning enough.
64 min: “We’ve all spent the summer wondering why Chelsea let Cech go. Turns out he had agreed to deliberately play badly. New levels of cynicism even by Mourinho standards,” says Graham Fulcher.
Disgusting, isn’t it?
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63 min: That’s that for the unlikely possible-game-settler Zarate, who is replaced by the more workaday gifts of Matt Jarvis.
62 min: “Did Terry mean Cech was worth fifteen points to Chelsea?” asks Zia Faruqui.
61 min: Hands up who saw this coming? Stop lying, unless your name is Tom S. Arsenal just haven’t been at the races here yet – they’re clearly going for something of the more speedy approach that characterised much of their play last season but it’s just been a bit loose and they’ve been picked off after two of the elementary defensive errors that were supposed to have been cut out.
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59 min: That is the end of Francis Coquelin, who missed a tackle in the move to that goal. He is hooked for Walcott.
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58 min: It’s an Oxlade-Chamberlain error outside the Arsenal box first of all, failing to clear and overrunning the ball into Zarate’s path. Zarate, 25 yards out and a shade to the left, thinks very quickly – swivelling and swishing a low right-foot shot into the gaping hole Cech has left at his near post! 2-0, and the goalkeeper won’t like that one much either!
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Goal! Arsenal 0-2 West Ham (Zarate 57)
This proves none of us know anything.
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56 min: Giroud hits the side netting! He and Ozil have just started to read each other a bit better and the latter lays the ball in from the left, Giroud turns and his angled shot isn’t far off. But look out Olivier, Theo Walcott is being readied....
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55 min: Payet produces some wonderful footwork in a tight, deep area to clear up a tricky defensive situation and pass back to Adrian. Very impressive debut from him so far.
53 min: Giroud shrugs Reid off and, from wide on the left, crosses flatly. Adrian fumbles at the first attempt but nobody is around the capitalise and he gathers. If Giroud himself had been in there...
51 min: Zarate tries more trickiness, with a man over to his right, but is squeezed out by Koscielny inside the ‘D’. His head-down approach is a recurring theme.
50 min: Ogbonna, who has been solid since his early yellow card, heads away Debuchy’s cross. They’ve attacked those balls in really well so far. The Cresswell is across to thwart an Ozil-Giroud link-up.
48 min: Arsenal win a couple of throw-ins down the left but that’s as good as their start to the second period has got.
@NickAmes82 never mind the panels, I can't stop watching that black dachshund plodding down the touchline!
— 'Rey' Lewis Jones (@reyluisx) August 9, 2015
It isn’t only me!
46 min: Of course I’m far from the only person to notice the problem with Oxford wearing light blue, by the way.
Peeeeeeeeep! West Ham get us back underway.
Could they?
@NickAmes82 the grey panels hide supercomputers that arsenal uses to run fake accounts and win twitter polls
— シノン (@GunGaleGuru) August 9, 2015
For the conspiracy theorists.
“In a shower-room somewhere in Rome, Wojciech Szczęsny is smoking a cigar,” says Charles Antaki in further bugging news.
@NickAmes82 They're not panels, they're the boxes that Arsene uses to store all that cash we keep hearing about, but not seeing.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) August 9, 2015
Solid early-season attempt at lighting the blue touchpaper there.
@NickAmes82 can you settle a debate and explain what these big grey panels are for? pic.twitter.com/Jsgk43GQv4
— James Whitley (@Whits22) August 9, 2015
Anybody? Have Arsenal gone green or is the entire stadium bugged?
Half-time: Arsenal 0-1 West Ham
Can Petr Cech be the difference? Well, yes, on this evidence he certainly can. His poor decision gifted Kouyate the deadlock-breaker just before half-time but you’d have to say that Arsenal have been off colour as a whole. They built up a head of steam either side of the half-hour, Ramsey seeing a shot deflected onto the bar and Oxlade-Chamberlain causing problems, but West Ham have rarely been exposed and have kept possession well at times. A turn-up for the books, this – can Arsenal sort themselves out?
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45+2 min: An entire pre-season of opinion-forming, postulating and furious tapping away at a keyboard can be destroyed by moments like that from Cech. Selfish. West Ham are good value though.
45 min: Nearly a riposte as the hitherto-invisible Ozil plays in Ramsey, who seems sure to get a shot away but is blocked superbly by Tomkins.
44 min: Well, well, well! A seemingly innocuous free kick 45 yards out turns into the first goal of the game, as Cech comes out a long way to punch and is beaten to the ball by Kouyate, who launches himself at the ball and heads into the vacant net! That was most definitely Not Part Of The Script!
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Goal! Arsenal 0-1 West Ham (Kouyate 43)
It’s a Petr Cech error, narrative fans....
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42 min: “I’m no expert but it seems like maybe Arsenal are in a negative spiral and are quickly headed for a full blown crisis. They are on a pace to go scoreless this season and finish on 38 points,” says J.R. in Illinois.
Could not agree more. Meantime, Giroud is foiled by Adrian from close range but is – perhaps incorrectly – flagged offside.
41 min: Zarate does well to win the ball from an Arsenal throw by their right corner flag, but his reverse pass for Sakho is weighted just too strongly and runs out of play.
40 min: Oxford shows good strength and anticipation to read a Ramsey pass. Very good first 39 minutes from the 16-year-old here – he doesn’t look out of place. Ramsey finds something more incisive a moment later though, pulling a 25-yarder just wide.
38 min: Cazorla’s free kick is of the cross-shot variety, a handy fudge for the likes of me, and is batted away by Adrian with Giroud close by.
37 min: A slaloming Monreal is checked by Tomkins just outside the area and this time it’s definitely a yellow for the makeshift right back.
36 min: But that was close from them too! Payet gets through a not-exactly-wholehearted Cazorla challenge, checks and curls a shot that is deflected over. A cleverly cut-back corner, again by Payet, is miscued wide by Zarate.
35 min: Zarate, thus far peripheral, tries to trick his way through but is foiled by Mertesacker. That came after another burst from Kouyate but those West Ham sorties are nowhere near as frequent as they were earlier.
33 min: The increasingly-involved Oxlade-Chamberlain bends in a tasty cross that is beyond Giroud and headed behind by Reid. From the corner, Adrian comes a long way and is beaten to the ball by Mertesacker. He’s fortunate that the German’s header plonks against him and he is able to gather as he falls.
32 min: But that was close! Ramsey tries a half-volley from 20 yards and it cannons off Cresswell’s back, loops up, drops down and cannons out off the top of the bar!
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31 min: “Having seen the 1st 20 minutes, it’s anyone’s game,” says Andy Gianniotis. Having seen the first 30, I’d say that’s still a fair statement.
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30 min: That was more like it from Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has been in great pre-season form. Just feel Arsenal are rushing things a bit in general, though.
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29 min: Debuchy gets the ball cleanly but barges Noble in the process. Free kick to West Ham and they keep the ball alive, Kouyate’s header into the box requiring attention from the home defence. Straight down the other end and Oxlade-Chamberlain finds his wings, outpacing at least three West Ham players in a 60-yard run to the byline and chipping to the back post, where Cazorla tries to sidefoot a volley above Adrian but finds the roof of the net. West Ham then counter themselves and Sakho shoots wide a little wastefully.
26 min: Monreal’s lay-off to the left runs out of play and it’s neither the first nor the second time that has happened. Arsenal are trying to attack at speed but there isn’t a great deal of control....although Ogbonna just had to deny Giroud sharply after the Frenchman chested down a Coquelin cross and tried to tee up a volley.
24 min: Cazorla’s ball in is cleared by Sakho and, when the ball comes back down the line, Mertesacker tries the kind of footwork than a man of his height really should not, to jeers from the West Ham faithful.
23 min: Giroud brings the ball down deliciously out on the left touchline but Tomkins looks as if he’ll get a tackle in. He mistimes it badly and takes Giroud down, getting nothing of the ball. No yellow this time but a dangerous free-kick...
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21 min: Koscielny gets well above Sakho to head back to Cech. West Ham a decent mix of short passing and attempted quick releases for now.
19 min: This is another good spell of possession from West Ham and Cresswell, aiming a crossfield ball that Payet really shouldn’t keep in, succeeds in finding his man and Payet gets to the byline, checking back and putting in a cross that Arsenal only just spirit back to Cech.
@guardian_sport @NickAmes82 If the first 10 minutes are an indication Arsenal style is crisp, skillful, the class of EPL from what I've seen
— Billy Nobels (@0lddutch) August 9, 2015
Game of opinions.
18 min: Sakho could have released Oxford a minute ago, but dithered, and now Cresswell lines up a shot on the edge of the area but Oxlade-Chamberlain covers well to block.
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17 min: There is an advertising hoarding on the opposite side of the pitch plugging the wares of ‘Vitality’, who I know from a recent visit to Bournemouth are a health insurance provider and now sponsor the Cherries’ stadium. The flashy modern advertisement includes the computerised figure of what looks like a black dog running from left to right along the pitch and it genuinely made me double-take when I noticed it just now.
14 min: Tom S writes that “I’m going against the grain here and predicting a West Ham win. 0-2 I reckon,” which makes him far more interesting than the rest of you.
13 min: Kouyate is very close to Ramsey when he picks the ball up there, crunching in to concede a throw-in when the Welshman wanted a foul. That Oxlade-Chamberlain shot aside, Arsenal yet to find any space to speak of – although an element of pressure is building.
11 min: As I write that, a belting effort from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, lashing a technically-perfect volley just high and wide of the angle after a cross from Giroud had been cleared to the edge of the box. Super shot.
11 min: Steady first 10 from West Ham though, this. They won’t be unhappy, although Arsenal have shown a couple of times that at their best they should be sharper and quicker. Just a couple of situations where the home team haven’t quite been on the same wavelength so far.
9 min: Ozil’s free kick is deflected for a corner by a jumping wall. It’s played short and eventually Debuchy angles a ball in for Koscielny, who leaps very well but loops his header over.
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8 min: Another West Ham yellow card, Ogbonna sluggish to react to a Debuchy knockdown and fouling Oxlade-Chamberlain just outside the area. No messing about from Martin Atkinson early on here.
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7 min: “I think your prediction is generous to the Hammers,” says Mike MacKenzie. “I can see Arsenal scoring 5 or 6 today. Reece Oxford might have fantastic potential but giving him his debut against a powerful offensive team is madness or desperation.”
We shall check back in on this later, Mike.
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6 min: Cazorla runs across the box, shaping to shoot several times before, just as he has decided to, Cresswell gets in adeptly to hammer the ball off him and out for a goal kick.
5 min: Still West Ham with most of the ball, but then Noble slips under no pressure and, in recovering, has to scythe Coquelin down just inside the Arsenal half. First yellow card of the game for him.
3 min: The flag kick is headed away by Giroud. Decent beginning from the visitors though, with clear intent to get bodies forward from midfield when possible.
3 min: West Ham have started the stronger and they win a corner, Kouyate surging into the box and seeing a low ball cut out by Mertesacker.
1 min: A first touch for young Oxford, chesting the ball down in his own half and knocking adeptly back to his defence.
Arsenal kick us off!
Left to right, if you need that info. Hold onto your hats.
Arsenal team to play West Ham: Petr; Mathieu, Laurent, Per, Nacho; Francis, Aaron; Alex, Santi, Mesut; Olivier.
— Daniel Harris (@DanielHarris) August 9, 2015
We’ll work up their Twitter handles for you as soon as we can.
Predictions? I think Arsenal will win this by three goals to nil. And here, onto the sundrenched Emirates Stadium turf, come your teams.
Wenger on Sanchez: “I gave him four weeks’ holiday after a very long season. He’s not ready to play but maybe he can come on for 20 minutes if needed.”
Slaven Bilic likes a trip to the Emirates. His previous team, Besiktas, were a mite unlucky to lose there last year in the Champions League play-off. He used to pop along a fair bit when Eduardo played there, too, during his time as Croatia managers. I once saw him chatting merrily away to supporters outside the turnstiles before a game – I think having slipped outside to, let’s say, ‘get some air’ – and there’s no doubt this is the kind of stage he’s been waiting for. Not sure he’s going to have much joy today; West Ham look like a team with plenty of work to be done yet, not that this is his fault. What do you think of Bilic’s prospects? Email/Tweet/Carrier Pigeon to the addresses above....
How do you like all that? Petr Cech makes his competitive debut, etcetera and so forth, and Arsène Wenger has been a bit of a scamp in putting Alexis Sanchez back on the bench after only a few day’s training. Olivier Giroud, who has a habit of scoring against the Hammers if I recall correctly, gets the nod up top ahead of Theo Walcott. Also Hector Bellerin has a small injury and is replaced at right-back by Mathieu Debuchy.
For West Ham, any team featuring Mauro Zarate risks feeling somewhat slung together but Bilic at least has Dimitri Payet buzzing around Diafra Sakho with him. The biggest piece of interest is in the selection of Reece Oxford, who does not turn 17 until December. He has impressed in his three Europa League appearances, and it looks as if he’ll play in a defensive midfield role.
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This afternoon's teams
Arsenal: Cech, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud. Subs: Gibbs, Gabriel, Arteta, Ospina, Walcott, Sanchez, Chambers.
West Ham: Adrian, Tomkins, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Oxford, Noble, Kouyate, Payet, Zarate, Sakho. Subs: Randolph, Nolan, Jarvis, Collins, Maiga, Poyet, Lanzini.
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Hello
Title race! We have a title race! What an opportunity, today, for Arsenal to steal a march on that objectionable mob from west London, show them there’s only one team in London and move two points beyond them. The tide has turned! Or, at least, it’s about to.
Hold on, hold on. For one thing, it’s only day one of 38. For quite another, we’ve been here before – the optimism, the light at the end of the tunnel, the new dawns, the positive messaging. Nobody has shot themselves in the foot in as many varied and creative ways as Arsenal in recent years and it will take a good few weeks more of the new-found resilience, clinical edge and all-round sensibleness that they have exhibited so far in 2015 before anyone will feel emboldened enough to whisper that they are the Real Deal.
But the signs are good and this afternoon you’d think they have a chance of at least getting off to the kind of start necessary for a few wide grins. West Ham rock and roll into town under Slaven Bilic’s management and nobody really knows what to expect from them, convenient Europa League defeats notwithstanding. “A shedload of inconsistency” would be my guess for now, and it’s difficult to see them escape their usual turning-over at Emirates Stadium today. But two years ago a rather haphazardly-assembled team in claret – Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa – came to N7/N5 (for the pedants) and did the business, so you never can tell. Stay near.
Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Jacob Steinberg on Arsenal:
Arsène Wenger describes himself as a natural optimist. Arsenal’s manager is the romantic who always believes in a better tomorrow and when he was asked whether his squad is strong enough to win the title for the first time since 2004, his succinct answer was heavy with trademark conviction. “Yes, I believe that,” Wenger said, his tone firm.
Thierry Henry is less sure. He believes that his old club still need to sign a top striker if they are to topple Chelsea. Henry is adamant that signing Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema would swing the balance of power towards Arsenal.
Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal break duck against José Mourinho at ChelseaRead more
Naturally Wenger disagreed. “I respect Thierry Henry a lot for his football knowledge but it is not as mathematical as that,” he said.
Or is it? Every team who has won the Premier League since 2009 had a player who scored 20 goals or more. Chelsea’s killers were Didier Drogba in 2010 and Diego Costa last season, Manchester City had Sergio Agüero in 2012 and Yaya Touré in 2014, while for Manchester United it was Dimitar Berbatov in 2011 and Robin van Persie in 2013.
Alexis Sánchez was Arsenal’s top scorer with 16 league goals last season and Olivier Giroud, who missed three months with a broken foot, scored 14. Wenger, who did not comment about the links with Benzema, argued that Giroud would have scored more if he had been fit for the entire season.
