By Boris Mellor
November 6 2006

Arsenal rarely looked like winning this one, for much of the match the midfield struggled to escape the vice like grip of the West Ham midfield and defence.

 There was hardly a plethora of chances going to waste. The best chance went to Rosicky, who put clear by Henry, blasted wide. Henry had a couple of chances, one was saved, and one blocked.

Another shot from Toure looked like it had hit the back of the net, but it was cruel illusion. Arsenal had a definite penalty award turned down, and that might have made a difference, it certainly affected Wenger.

Pardew realised that this Arsenal team was out of sorts and changed from defending to attacking on about 60 minutes. Now the Hammers attacked, and it was then that you could clearly see that the Gunners were definitely out of sorts. Even the addition of Adebayor and Eboue changed little, and as the match progressed it was more likely that the Hammers would score.

At the beginning of the season Arsenal Times noted that after every CL match the Gunners were away. Now its true we have not done that badly in spite of it. However I do think Wednesday night took its toll. The failure to score saw Arsenal launch wave after wave of frenzied attack; they finally ran themselves into the ground. Meanwhile the Hammers had a quiet week.

Wenger should have rested a few and tried to freshen it up, but I suspect he wanted to show that the team that played CSKA could do it, that they could do it. Unfortunately the team wasn’t at the races, unable to break into the tempo, and rhythm, needed to win in a local derby.

It would be tempting to point out who had a bad game and so on, but far too many in midfield had a poor game, and it can hardly be said that Henry and RvP wasted a host of chances, there were far too few.

Now a lot of pundits will say that Arsenal can’t win the Premiership having lost two games, and they may be right, but Chelsea have also lost two games now. It’s also interesting that they have also lost, having to play, for just once, away after a tough CL game.

Arsenal are 7 points behind the Russians, but with a game in hand, Chelsea are still in sight. Manchester United might prove to be a different kettle of fish.