Kevin Whitcher
Last Wednesday evening was a night that one would like to forget as quickly as possible, such was the poverty of Arsenal’s performance. However, a reminder came yesterday in the form of the same opposition, but a different competition. This time, Arsenal were at home, their third successive home draw in this competition after beating Doncaster and Norwich. Not that David Moyes’ West Ham side played any differently – their focus was totally on keeping a clean sheet.
Granted, the personnel were largely different, a mix and match side, and in turn Arsene Wenger played his Europa League / League Cup side. Interesting though, to see Sead Kolasinac is not second choice at left back, behind the right footed Ainsley Maitland-Niles. The latter has faced West Ham and Newcastle in the Premier League so far. Fair to say he has not exactly been tested. We’ll see on Friday whether this is likely to be a long-term arrangement, but Wenger has come close to ruining promising careers by playing youngsters out of position at full-back. Let’s hope that is not the case with Maitland-Niles. There is every chance he may be up against Mohammed Salah.
Elsewhere, Joe Willock was drafted into a midfield with Elneny and Coquelin behind him. It was a decent back four – Holding and Chambers can be a good partnership if given enough protection, as they were last night (unlike the match in which they played against Liverpool on the opening day of last season). Up front we had the trio of Welbeck – Giroud – captain Theo.
Cometh the man, cometh the moment. With the Hammers proving difficult to break down an excellent cross from Kolasinac found captain Marvel, the espresso machine kid, totally alone in the box, the ball just waiting to be headed past Joe Hart. A gilt edged chance. You know the rest. Theo made good strong contact with the header, but it sailed well wide. Twas ever thus.
No matter, Danny Welbeck managed to muscle his way past the close attention of the West Ham defence and keeper to win a ball in the air and give himself a tap-in. The deadlock broken. Suddenly a football match broke out as the visitors made a game of it, in chase of parity.
The second half was notable for Olivier Giroud pulling up with a hamstring, and not much else. Arsenal didn’t manage to increase their lead, finding it difficult to create openings, but coped comfortably with the attempts to equalise. The creativity in the final third is becoming an issue in a growing number of games though. The crowd was in the low 30,000s at a guess, 7,000 of those from West Ham. The club gave an attendance of 44,000 – that would be because the game is on the 7,000 club level seats – so you can immediately knock a few thousand off there as club level was pretty sparsely populated. And there were probably a good few who bought seats but thought better of using them.
Reality is dawning at the club now. These games – with £10 and £20 seats, used to sell out. Now, the lower tier is mostly full at £10 a pop but the vast swathes of emptiness in the upper tier was not a good look. The semi-final will be in all likelihood against a bigger team, and should see a bigger crowd. The League Cup is the one domestic trophy the manager has never one. I doubt it matters much to him, but hell, it’s a day out at Wembley. The draw has been kind to Arsenal so far. Chelsea should beat Bournemouth and Man Utd should beat Bristol City. Wenger’s team beat Man City and Chelsea to win the FA Cup last season, but… the semi is over two legs. Not one of Arsene’s strengths.
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