29 December 2023 , 08:21
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Gary Neville believes there were positive signs from Arsenal’s attack, despite them drawing a blank in the defeat by West Ham.
The Gunners were beaten 2-0 by West Ham on Thursday night as they missed the chance to go back top of the Premier League. The away side scored with their first two shots on target through Tomas Soucek and Konstantinos Mavropanos, who dished out Arsenal ’s first home defeat of the season despite David Raya's late penalty save from Said Benrahma.
By contrast, Arsenal had 30 shots, with eight on target, but could not find a way past Alphonse Areola. Bukayo Saka hit the post, Gabriel Martinelli fired wide and Gabriel Jesus put two headers off target from good positions.
Their struggles in front of goal are not new, with Saka (five), Jesus (three) and Martinelli (two) only contributing 10 of the team’s 36 goals in 19 Premier League matches this season. They may not have found the back of the net against a resolute West Ham defence, but Neville saw signs of encouragement.
During the game he tweeted: “On a positive note for Arsenal the front 3 are playing narrower and closer to each other to combine. They look dangerous!” His comments come after he identified the issue in the build-up to the West Ham game.
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"At Arsenal is an emerging front three that could be great. But they don't combine a lot together. That's a real problem, the best front threes involve their centre-forwards and the wide players, they play and bounce it off them," he said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
Gabriel Jesus missed some good chances against West Ham (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Is Arsenal's attack good enough to win the Premier League? Comment below.
"You see in years gone by, [Mohamed] Salah, [Roberto] Firmino and [Sadio] Mane would link between the three of them. At Manchester United, when we were at our best, the front two would link between them. It is difficult for defenders to deal with them when front players link. Martinelli, Jesus and Saka, I don't see them linking up a lot.”
Arteta is not concerned by the performance of his attack. “It’s what it is,” he said. “We have to try to generate [chances]. If we don’t score with 30 shots, then we have to do 50 or 60 to try to score.
"That’s the only thing. I can’t imagine a game where we have more touches in the box, more dominance and less situations for the opponent against a really good West Ham side. Today, though, it wasn’t enough to win the game."
Asked if they were lacking confidence, he replied: “I don’t think it’s that. You hit the ball and it’s half a centimetre. You have I don’t know how many shots, someone blocks the shot and it doesn’t go in. In these situations we have to pick the right pass, there are two players free in the box and I can recall five, six actions of that. That’s what makes the difference to win the games.”