Arsenal suffered their third Premier League defeat of the 2023-24 campaign at the hands of West Ham United at Emirates Stadium on Thursday night...READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
The Gunners found themselves behind in controversial circumstances after 13 minutes as Tomas Soucek put the Hammers ahead from a Jarrod Bowen cross that appeared to have gone out of play.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, the officials decided to stick with the on-field decision as VAR could not determine if the whole ball was out of play and there was no conclusive proof.
Things got worse for the Gunners after their former centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos doubled the visitors’ lead ten minutes into the second-half, and they struggled to break down a resilient West Ham defence.
Arsenal were below par last night, with most of their players failing to step up when it mattered most, and Ukraine international left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko was particularly poor.
Gunners manager Mikel Arteta was furious with the former Manchester City star following a poor pass from him to Ben White, according to CBS Sports Soccer Correspondent James Benge.
Bowen almost intercepted it, and the home supporters were far from pleased with Zinchenko’s decision.
Arteta furious with what you might call a clumsy backwards pass from Zinchenko to White, very nearly stolen by Bowen. Emirates’ reaction one of pronounced annoyanxce too.— James Benge (@jamesbenge) December 28, 2023
The full-back has been far from solid at the back this term, allowing Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah to draw the Reds level at Anfield on Saturday.
Despite his quality and experience, Zinchenko has struggled to put in assuring performances in most of his appearances for Arsenal this term.
The current lack of depth at the back owing to several injuries and Arteta’s refusal to hand Reuell Walters a chance means that the Ukrainian will continue to feature regularly going forward.
