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Home   >   Match   >   [Ratings] West Ham 1-3 Arsenal: Pepe stars, Xhaka flops as Gunners secure vital win

[Ratings] West Ham 1-3 Arsenal: Pepe stars, Xhaka flops as Gunners secure vital win

By on December 10, 2019

Arsenal finally got back to winning ways after coming from behind to beat West Ham 3-1 at the London Stadium on Monday night.

The opening 45 minutes was one of the worst halves of football from Arsenal this season and we deservedly fell behind when Angelo Ogbonna headed home via a deflection off Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the 38th minute.

However, Arsenal improved after the break and levelled things up in the 60th minute when Gabriel Martinelli slotted home from a Sead Kolasinac cut back and Nicolas Pepe put us ahead minutes later with a superb finish into the top corner.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then volleyed home in the 69th minute to make it 3-1 as Arsenal eased to our first win in ten matches.

Here are my ratings:

Leno  6.5/10 | Good save to deny Antonio in the first half and made a couple of other routine saves.

Maitland-Niles  5/10 | Ducked out the way for the Ogbonna goal. Needed to be braver to get his head on it. Looks short of confidence and had no real influence going forward.

Chambers  6.5/10 | Good to see him given a chance at centre-back and put in a solid display. Didn’t really put a foot wrong and was composed on the ball. Deserves a run in the team.

Sokratis  6/10 | Still looks short of confidence and nowhere near his best but this was an improvement on recent displays.

Tierney  5/10 | Off injured in the first half with a dislocated shoulder. Hopefully it’s not too serious.

Torreira  6/10 | Sat and protected the back four and he looked far happier. Kept it simple on the ball.

Xhaka  4/10 | Awful performance. Got away with a shocking lazy pass straight across the face of our box – which was one of several miss-placed passes. Lucky not to give away a penalty too. Decent on the ball with plenty of short passes but we need so much more from him.

Pepe  8/10 | He’s arrived! Caused West Ham plenty of problems with his dribbling and was our most dangerous player. Put Arsenal ahead with a superb curler into the top corner and created Aubameyang’s goal too. Terrific performance.

Ozil  5/10 | Missed a good chance to head home the opener. Anonymous for long periods and didn’t look up for the battle at all. Improved in the last 20 when Arsenal were on top but disappointing display.

Martinelli  7.5/10 | Justified his start with a nice finish to make it 1-1. Worked his socks off, charging around trying to win the ball. Great attitude and a great goal-scorer. Deserves a run in the team.

Aubameyang  7/10 | Started through the middle and got a goal and an assist. Certainly not his best all-round game by any stretch but made a difference when it mattered.

Subs:

Kolasinac   6/10 | Vulnerable at the back but squared for Martinelli to make it 1-1. Important contribution.

Guendouzi   N/A | On for Xhaka for the final 10 minutes.

Manager

Ljungberg  7/10 | Good to see him make the right call in switching to a 4-2-3-1 and playing Auba through the middle. His team selection was much better too and Freddie coped with losing both his first choice full-backs. Good to see him get his first win under his belt, hopefully we can kick on from here. Unfortunately it’s Man City up next in the league.

Watch the highlights and goals here