Arsenal's fresh legs have them with one foot in next season's Champions League
LONDON -- It has long felt as though Arsenal's absence from Europe this season would provide them a telling advantage at some stage, and Sunday's 2-1 win at West Ham was it. The timing of this game could not have been better for them, coming in the middle of West Ham's first two-legged semifinal for 46 years -- something their manager, David Moyes, has openly admitted prioritising -- while the Gunners enjoyed a clear week in which to finalise their preparations.
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Perhaps they spent the week working on set-pieces? Both goals came from corners delivered by Bukayo Saka, the first converted by Rob Holding after 38 minutes of utterly turgid football to that point. (Moyes later wondered if Holding had handled Saka's initial delivery.) Jarrod Bowen's deflected equaliser restored parity on the stroke of half-time before West Ham faltered at the back again, failing to deal with Saka's delivery as Gabriel Martinelli returned the ball back across goal for Gabriel to head beyond Lukasz Fabianski.
Moyes only felt able to field one recognised centre-back at kick-off, with Craig Dawson suspended and Thursday's Europa League semifinal, second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt in his mind, and so Arsenal scoring through both their central defenders rammed home that particular edge somewhat pointedly. But it was more than that. The London Stadium was subdued throughout, punctuated by a smattering of empty seats - a degree of ambivalence explained by one West Ham supporter leaving the ground at full-time, saying "we've got bigger fish to fry" in reference to overturning that 2-1 first leg deficit in Frankfurt.
West Ham surrendered any hope of gatecrashing the top four a while ago, and Sunday was their 52nd game of a gruelling campaign, 11 more than Arsenal have played. They have won just four of their last 14 games in all competitions as exertions at home and abroad begin to catch up with them. Arsenal lost a Europa League semifinal against Villarreal last season and finished eighth in the table, with the silver lining being more time between matches for Arteta to implement his ideas.
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"My goodness, it has made a difference from day one," said Moyes. "Arsenal's improvement this year has been incredible because probably not being involved in Europe has given them a chance to prepare correctly for games. While you've got a young team and you're trying to get a good enough squad together... even last year, Arsenal were in the semifinal of the Europe League last year, we're in it this year, and it became quite a difficult season for them because of that. So, we're a bit the same."
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