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Ian Wright shares the painful realisation about Arsenal that ‘the fans in the stadium’ could sense against West Ham
Arsenal have suffered a major blow in their pursuit of the Premier League title in wake of their 1-0 loss to West Ham United on Saturday.
⛄The Gunners were flat and toothless against the Hammers, who struck against the run of play just before the break and never looked back.
🎃Jarrod Bowen started and finished the move as he released Aaron Wan-Bissaka before running the length of the pitch and heading his teammate’s cross home.
In addition, Arsenalꦉ finished the game with ten men as Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off for bringing down Mohammed Kudus.
🍃Although the foul occurred on the halfway line, Gunners goalkeeper David Raya was miles off his line and Kudus was in.
﷽Referee Craig Pawson initially showed Lewis-Skelly a yellow card but VAR recommended for Pawson to have a second look, and he upgraded it to red.
Arsenal legend Ian Wright🌜, speaking after the game, shared what was painfully evident about the Gunners that even “the fans in the stadium could sense”.
READ MORE: 📖Arsenal fans react to Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card against West Ham
Ian Wright says it was evident Arsenal lacked firepower
♕Wright said it was evident that Arsenal just didn’t have the firepower or the energy to break West Ham down, and this was increasingly clear as the game went on.
📖The Gunners are currently without Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli, which has deprived Mikel Arteta of his strongest forwards.
♛“I think you probably have to look at the summer and January,” Wright said on . “Arteta needed help.
𝔍“He has coached the team to this level, but they just don’t have the ammunition or energy to break West Ham down.
꧑“You could see that the fans in the stadium could sense it too.”
🅺Wright continued: “It was always going to be a tough one with the forwards missing.
ꦍ“You need something to happen with set-pieces, or someone like Ethan Nwaneri.
🌺“Not enough creativity, you have to give West Ham credit for the defending they did.”
How Arsenal’s front line fared against West Ham
ꦍAfter Mikel Merino’s heroic brace off the bench against Leicester, Arteta opted to hand the Spaniard a start against the Hammers.
✅To his credit, Merino wasn’t bad – he led the line quite well, making some intelligent passes and launching into some good forward runs.
However, 🌳Merino simply didn’t have the same impact as he did against Leicester🔯, something Chris Sutton predicted would be the case.
🐓This simply wasn’t the kind of game where Arsenal could get away with a makeshift forward as was the case against the Foxes.
🐻Likewise, West Ham’s strong defence also dealt with Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri quite well.
🀅Again, neither played badly, but the Hammers’ defence required something much stronger to break it down.
𝄹And sadly, as things stand, the strongest Arsenal forwards are all on the sidelines.