0-6. Arsenal annihilate West Ham – 2024-02-14 12:09:09

Liverpool and Manchester City won before, Arsenal responded with all the ambition and forcefulness that their deserved status as a candidate for the ‘Premier League’ demands, with a powerful display over West Ham, which they devoured with four goals in the minute 32 to 47, increased to 0-6 in the second half.

Bukayo Saka, scorer of two goals, was unstoppable; Declan Rice, protagonist of the 0-6 and passer of the 0-1 and 0-3, was close to perfection; Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, the two centre-backs, both scorers this Sunday, barely felt any concern in their essential mission and David Raya was just another spectator in the visiting goal until the 82nd minute. The only time they shot at him.

Mikel Arteta’s block needed it, spared as a visitor (he had won in one of his four most recent outings, before this Sunday), retaliated against his opponent (he had won in the two previous matches this season), winner of four consecutive duels at the beginning of a year for the first time since 1935 and, above all, on the lookout for Liverpool’s lead, two points away. Arsenal are third. Manchester City, second.

An unacceptable 0-6 in a derby for a large sector of the local fans. An expressive number of fans headed towards the exit of the stadium to ‘escape’ from such a embarrassing result, already with the score 0-4 at half-time. The image of the meeting at the London Olympic Stadium, which was depopulated. There were still many people left to digest the inevitable defeat firsthand.

More than surprising the result, more than unforeseen the difference, was not the starting point of the duel, so defined, within the expected parameters, in the style that marks two different concepts of football, confronted for half an hour.

Because West Ham are generally a stressful opponent. He was also this Sunday until his resounding fall that puts everything in the club in doubt. In the concentration of footballers around their most precious territory, their own goal, the difficulty of overcoming such a compact wall is an exercise in precision, overflow and, above all, patience, even more so when Areola responded as he did to the volley. by Leandro Trossard.

An incredible save with which he flew to retain the 0-0 in the 22nd minute, against the Arsenal offensive, meter by meter, moment by moment, insistent again and again, to transfer all the action to the local area, without possibility nor to be careless in their defense, even though each West Ham exit was then already an inhospitable adventure, with hardly any success.

Until Arsenal destroyed him. The turning point was 0-1. The match broke up after half an hour. A corner kick taken by Declan Rice, against the team from which he was transferred this summer for 116 million euros, led the way. Saliba’s header at the far post, unreachable in the jump and in the fight with Edson Álvarez (substituted at half-time by Kalvin Phillips), finished off the action to beat Areola and create another completely different match. Even unforeseen. Very damaging for the local block.

When there are spaces, Bukayo Saka is unstoppable. You feel in a paradise. First she forgave in a failed headbutt. Afterwards, he did not find a teammate when he chipped the ball in front of the goalkeeper. And then, already in the 38th minute, just six after 0-1, he ran behind the West Ham defense to reach Trossard’s cross. Areola knocked him down. A clear penalty that only admitted doubt from the winger’s starting position. The VAR confirmed the legality.

Saka himself successfully took the penalty, on the opposite side of Areola’s shot. His twelfth goal, apart from eleven assists, this season. The end of West Ham, surpassed in a disastrous sequence until half-time, when Arsenal overwhelmed him, thrashed him and knocked him out even before the intermission, with two more almost consecutive blows.

The 0-2 was in the 41st minute. The 0-3 of Gabriel Magalhaes, header of another perfect center launched by Declan Rice from a set piece, was in the 43rd minute. The 0-4, of Lenadro Trossard, with a right hand inside the area to the squad, it was two minutes into added time, still in the first half, even though the local block, six games undefeated at home until the blow this Sunday, had not even taken on the second goal. When he did it, there was no choice.

Trossard, signed from Brighton for €24 million, has started less than half of his games for Arsenal (24 out of 50). He is a necessary player for Mikel Arteta. He has scored ten goals and given another twelve. He averages a goal or assist every 98 minutes in the Premier League. Only Thierry Henry did it before in the club’s history: one every 86.

Arsenal did not go further because Areola excelled at a new shot from Saka. Although he conceded six goals, the worst win of his career and of his 182 defeats among all his clubs and national teams, the goalkeeper was West Ham’s best, unable to oppose Saka’s 0-5 at the hour mark. The permissiveness he enjoyed in the area was unheard of.

Arteta’s team did not stop there yet: Declan Rice made it 0-6 with a right foot from outside the area. He didn’t celebrate it. He asked for forgiveness. Respect for his former team, moments before leaving to applause. Saka also left. The work was done. He had already scored six goals against Lens this season (6-0) in the Champions League. It was at his house. As a visitor, he had not done so since 2021 at West Bromwich Albion. Arsenal wants more.

– Datasheet:

0 – West Ham: Areola; Coufal, Zouma (Mavropanos, m. 46)Aguerd, Emerson (Cresswell, m. 76); Edson Alvarez (Calvin Phillips, m. 46), Soucek; Ben Johnson, Ward-Prowse, Kudus; Bowen.

6 – Arsenal: David Raya; Ben White (Fighting, m. 77), Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Kiwior; Odegaard, Rice (Elneny, m. 66), Havertz; Saka (Nelson, 66), Trossard (Nketiah, 66), Martinelli (Cédric Soares, 77).

Goals: 0-1, m. 32: Saliba. 0-2, m. 41: Saka, de penalty. 0-3, m. 43: Gabriel Magalhaes. 0-4, m. 47+: Trossard. 0-5, m. 63: Saka. 0-6, m. 65: Rice.

Referee: Craig Pawson. Yellow carded locals Edson Alvarez (9th), Areola (40th), Kudus (75th) and Kalvin Phillips (91st).

Incidents: match corresponding to the twenty-fourth day of the English ‘Premier League’, played at the Olympic Stadium in London in front of some 60,000 spectators. EFE