The Grim Cannon

LONDON, SATURDAY — All Arsenal players and supporters looked gloomy as they left the Emirates Stadium after the London derby against West Ham United, Saturday (22/2/2025). The 0-1 defeat to their city rivals has begun to raise doubts about ending their Premier League trophy thirst this season.

The 26th week duel was actually Arsenal's best chance to reduce the points gap with Liverpool at the top of the standings. The reason is, Arsenal is hosting West Ham who is ranked 16th, aka 14 steps away from the standings. The difference in quality is also very far because the points difference between the two teams reaches 26 points.

On the other hand, Liverpool visited Manchester City's headquarters on Sunday (23/2/2025). Liverpool's negative trend in away games during February is a valuable opportunity for the Gunners to heat up the championship hunt.

However, hope was just hope. Surprisingly, Arsenal fell thanks to a header goal from winger and captain of "The Hammers", Jarrod Bowen, in the 44th minute. Bowen's seventh goal in the league campaign this season gave Arsenal their first defeat at the Emirates in the 2024-2025 Premier League.

"It's a big loss. Our performance was not good enough. It's very, very disappointing," Arsenal attacking midfielder and captain Martin Odegaard told the BBC.

Defeat to West Ham makes Arsenal's chances of ending their league trophy drought even more difficult - if not impossible - since 2004. Should Liverpool beat City, Arsenal would be 11 points behind.

Arsenal will face three tough games from the end of February to the end of March. They will visit the home of this season's surprise team, Nottingham Forest, then legendary rivals, MU. Arsenal close March before the international break by facing Chelsea.

In between those three crucial matches, Arsenal will also play two Champions League round of 16 matches against PSV Eindhoven. With the squad depth thinning, especially in the front line, Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta will find it difficult to maintain the consistency of his squad in the next month.

Arsenal had given everything to conquer West Ham. They attacked from the start of the match. For the majority of the match, the Gunners confined the visitors' defense in half the field.

A record of 69 percent possession and 570 accurate passes showed that the Gunners were very ambitious to conquer West Ham. However, the superiority of the game failed to be balanced with good attack quality.

Odegaard and his friends created 20 shots that only resulted in two shots on target. In fact, Arsenal only had one big chance. Only Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard were able to force West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola to make a save.

The 1.23 expected goals (xG) also proved that Arsenal players were unable to break down West Ham's five-man defence. The Gunners' xG was almost the same as West Ham's 1.2 xG, which only fired five shots.

Odegaard also did not want to use the injuries of several attacking players, such as Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, and Gabriel Jesus, as an excuse for his team's defeat.

Arsenal's gloom was further compounded by a red card for substitute left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly in the 73rd minute. Lewis-Skelly was careless in tackling West Ham striker Mohammed Kudus, who was able to steal the ball from him.

In fact, Lewis-Skelly came on alongside Oleksandr Zinchenko in the 56th minute to replace Calafiori and Declan Rice. The double substitution was intended by Arteta to improve the defensive side of his team's left defense which conceded a goal from West Ham through a fast break situation, aka a counter-attack.

"We had some players out, but the players we had were good. We were not good enough in front of goal. The red card made it difficult," Odegaard said.

Meanwhile, a goal that started with Aaron Wan-Bissaka's cross through a counter-attack was enough for West Ham to leave the relegation zone with a 13-point advantage. West Ham, who are sitting in 17th place, have the same points as Manchester United. Only goal difference makes West Ham fail to displace MU's place.

Meanwhile, West Ham collected their fourth away win of the season. The Hammers recorded back-to-back wins for the first time on two visits to the Emirates.

In the history of encounters with Arsenal, West Ham once achieved two consecutive victories at Arsenal's home ground. This occurred in 1959 and from 2006 to 2007. The two victories in the 1959 matches took place at Highbury Stadium.

Then, in 2006 and 2007, Arsenal fell in their final match against West Ham at Highbury. They also lost in the first London derby game against The Hammers at Emirates.

"All the players worked really hard. We knew we had to come together and defend well. When everyone was looking down on us, we showed we can win any game even when the chances are very small," Bowen, who scored his 50th Premier League goal, told Sky Sports.

Former England goalkeeper Rob Green said Arsenal's attacking performance was very poor. They lacked the final decision to break down West Ham's defense.

"It's hard to see Arsenal scoring because of how poor the forward line is. West Ham are also very consistent in their defensive shape. Brilliant performance from West Ham and a disaster for Arsenal," Green told the BBC.