For sheer entertainment value, the fair served up by Arsenal and West Ham was about as good as it gets.
It had goals, cards, penalties and drama across 90 minutes of bonkers football that would have kept the neutral gripped, let alone fans of the two antagonists.
And while we can all be delighted at coming away with the three points and a nice little boost to our goal difference, by the end of the match it started to feel a little costlier than we might have liked – especially with what’s to come over the next month.
Before we’d even taken to the pitch, the manager revealed Mikel Merino and Thomas Partey would be out of the squad with different injury issues. While we pray both are precautionary and short-term, the reality is likely to be far from pleasant.
That meant Jorginho being pressed into action alongside Declan Rice in midfield and it also meant that Ethan Nwaneri was the only recognised midfielder on our bench…that could be a big problem.
As if that wasn’t enough, however, we lost Gabriel Magalhaes at half-time with an as-yet unidentified issue and Riccardo Calafiori was also withdrawn just short of the hour mark with what looked like a groin issue.
Factoring in the long-term absences of Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White means the squad is starting to look threadbare again, barely a week after being restored to something like full health.
For me, it took a little of the shine what was an otherwise outstanding evening’s work at the London Stadium. West Ham have been something of a pain in the backside for us in recent times and you never really know what you’re going to get from them.
Thankfully, on this occasion, we got the disaster-prone version of West Ham, the sort of side that concedes five goals in a single half of football, and thank goodness for that.
Arsenal really were in the mood from the outset and took advantage of some quite amateurish defending from the hosts. Before they’d even had chance to collect their thoughts, we were into a 4-0 lead and the match was, for all intents and purposes, finished as a serious contest.
There’s plenty to pick over from among the goals but, for me, Leandro Trossard’s was the pick of the bunch. It was just a brilliant move. From front to back, we had West Ham bested and a simple close-range finish was a neat way to wrap it up. It’s the kind of attacking move we were desperately short of in Martin Odegaard’s absence and shows again, if anybody still doubted it, just what he adds to this team.
Elsewhere, it was as surprising as it was welcome to see Anthony Taylor award a penalty kick for Lukas Fabianski’s punch to Gabriel’s head. It’s a call I have never seen made before but, when you consider it for a moment, is absolutely correct. Goalkeepers are too immune from consequence when it comes to claiming the ball and he completely missed the ball. The spot-kick was justified.
Just a few words on West Ham’s attempted comeback; like any true world-weary fan, I feared it might be the start of something disastrous but thank goodness it was just a couple of flashes in the pan. In fairness, their first goal was an excellent move and their second a 1/1000 free-kick. Fortunately, it was all they were able to produce as we overran them in all other departments.
We have the luxury now of being able to enjoy a busy Sunday schedule of matches safe in the knowledge that we have all three points in the bag. I wasn’t confident heading into this weekend but we’ve held up our end of the bargain and done so in some style.
My only hope is that the injuries we appear to be accruing aren’t as serious as they might seem because, as much as results matter right now, a full squad from which to choose is almost as important. We need all the tools at our disposal if we’re to get back into this Premier League title race.
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