Injury interrupts bold test Arsenal still has the strength to rush to top the Premier League

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Sports Weekly All-Media Reporter Yan Yu

In terms of the game, Arsenal's 2-0 victory against West Ham is not very exciting. After all, many people's expectations were originally high, and the plot trend was mixed with some unpleasantness - in just 30 minutes of the game, Odegao was injured and ended up, and the imagined big victory was a bit discounted. But the result was always a win, and Liverpool lost the subsequent "Red and Blue Battle". Arsenal, who officially topped the Premier League, deserves congratulations. There is a joke called "Ord is stronger if Arsenal is injured", but this is really just a joke. After seeing his previous performance in the reversal of Newcastle in the round, which gun fan would slander the Norwegian for only passing safety balls, and would not hope that he would return to his peak form as soon as possible and contribute to the championship career? Arteta's arrangement in this game was also particularly "tempting": Eze and Odegao both started, while the left winger was Trosal. This is clearly a use of two attacking players to play in the midfield, leaving Rice with one midfielder, and he wants to attack upwards! It's not very good at Arteta, but it also matches the appetites of many "radical" fans.

Unfortunately, it is rare for Tashi to be bold in the Premier League (he had tried to play midfield with Eze and Envanelli at the same time in the League Cup). Before the test began to really work, it had to be announced in advance. Odgao hit the knee while intercepting his opponent's breakthrough. He originally wanted to persist, but even after receiving emergency treatment, he didn't last long and had to be replaced by Suvimenti. According to Arteta's statement after the game, the injury of the Norwegian midfielder "looks not too optimistic at the moment."

Ordgao was out of the game, the game lasted only 30 minutes, and including his early retreat against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest (both due to shoulder injury), the attacking midfielder became the first player in Premier League history to be replaced in the first half of the league starts three times in a row. Such an embarrassing record cannot help but make people wonder: Is Captain Gunner completely "glass"? Although Odegao's form in the past year is indeed a bit unbearable, he has assisted in the last two games and is obviously recovering. Just because he was "suppressed" by injuries again was really a loss to the team and the club.

In addition to Ode's high injury retreat, Rice, who was replaced in the 79th minute, also pressed the back to the midfield and seemed to be injured, although it didn't seem as serious as the former. In addition to the annoying thing about injury in this game, center Tsaike Laish's goal drought is also a bit anxious. After scoring three goals in the first four rounds of the Premier League, the Swedish center has lost all six games. And unlike his previous active goal-making efforts against Newcastle, Zhekai seems to be a little slower in this game, making people wonder if he is a little tired if he is already a little tired after playing all three games in 7 days.

Such a midfield injury and the center is weak, but how can Arsenal win? Of course, it depends on strong overall strength. This year, the Gunners are different from the past. They have sufficient personnel reserves, and someone will immediately take over if one is injured. In this game, Odegao left the court, and Suvimendi, who came from the bench, became a "shock", and both goals had a lot to do with him: before Rice scored, it was Suvimendi's straight pass that created the opportunity for Eze to be heavily fired at a small angle; and Timber created a point, and it was the Spanish midfielder who passed the ball over the top for him.

Let’s not take the joke mentioned above seriously here. In fact, before Odegao ended, Arsenal also had a similar chance to score, but he was not sure of it. The routine was still far behind the midfielder (Odgao) and the attacker (Saka) inserted into the penalty area from the opponent's ribs. However, Saka's choice was to cross at that time, and Eze, who also faced the empty goal, did not shoot the front door frame like Rice.

The different combinations have played similar power, which should be said to be worthy of joy and is also the advantage of Arsenal now. Once upon a time, this team always relied on a few absolute cores, and once they were tired and injured, they were easily defeated. But now Arsenal really has "two teams" and the difference in strength is not huge, which makes them still stand firm due to frequent injuries.

Of course, a victory against West Ham is not worthy of a big blow, after all, the opponent is just a team in the relegation zone. After the change of coaches, the Hammers led by Nuno Santo actually performed well. Although they were shot 21 times, they did not collapse. It is also worth mentioning that the penalty Arsenal received was actually somewhat controversial: the opponent's defender did foul, but it was more like a foul on Timber outside the penalty area and then fell into the penalty area.

The referee of this ball did not conduct a VAR review. Is it considered that the Premier League referee was "finding" for Arsenal's cancellation of penalty kick against Newcastle in the last round? Although they have emphasized that the change was the right decision. I won’t discuss much about the referee, and I still need to mention the penalty kick again. Arteta previously revealed that Zhekelais has been designated as the team's number one penalty kicker, so why not let him break the penalty in this game? Instead, let Saka take the penalty? This may be related to the latter being the 200th Premier League game. After scoring, Saka added another label with the same name as legendary Henry, who are the only two players in Arsenal's 200th Premier League goal in the history of Arsenal.