I watched the Chelsea versus Liverpool game on the tube home from The Arsenal last night, then finished off the second half in my kitchen as I cooked a big juicy ribeye steak and as well as being the result we all wanted, the game itself was a proper good game of basketball football. Liverpool and Chelsea basically decided they didn’t need defenders and that was a-ok for me because unusually for me I also watched the post match, in which Jamie Redknapp decided to announce that Liverpool are in a ‘mini crisis’. I mean, they’re not, but heck it was fun to hear.

Why am I starting a post match Arsenal review blog by talking about rivals? Mainly to highlight the contrast in day that we had compared to the Scousers, because Arsenal’s 2-0 win over West Ham was pretty serene, if we’re all honest. West Ham barely created a chance, their expected goals tally was 0.43 from four shots in total and zero on target, whilst we registered 2.77 for 21 shots and five on target for the day, which maybe we’ll touch on as we were a little wasteful but I don’t want to venture too far into any real negativity today.

That’s because we’re top of the league. Having been five points off Liverpool two weekend’s back, having been told by the media that Liverpool are going to walk this league, having been accused of having a manager who plays with “the handbrake on”, who doesn’t want to release his team in an attacking sense, who needs to give his players licence to roam, yesterday we saw Arteta ‘go for it’ by picking two creative attacking midfielders in Odegaard and Eze and I think it’s fair to say there was a fair few of us excited about that prospect. West Ham will have spent the week with Nuno running defensive shuttle runs and drills after defensive drills. I’ve been at pains to talk up their ‘smash and grab’ for the last two seasons, whilst we’d been profligate in front of goal and even yesterday after Eze had spooned one over from six yards, there was a slight concern that history might repeat itself in North London in the windy conditions.

This Arsenal team are made of sterner stuff this season though (so far). Arteta gave Zubi some rest, he put Rice in at six, he played Trossard, Gyokeres and Saka and had Eze and Odegaard on to provide the movement. I think it looked decent. We created chances as early on as the fourth minute with Timber forcing the Nipple goalie into a save with his feet. We had a goal ruled out on 24 minutes and it was Rice’s ball from deep that set Saka in, who had just gone a fraction early, but it was a good finish nonetheless. You could tell that we were getting closer and that disallowed goal was evidence of that, but until it happens you’re always nervous given the recent history of this result. What was interesting about yesterday and our midfield was the role that Rice played in this game and how it changed. But also, before he unfortunately got injured (is this guy gonna catch a break this season) you could also see how Arteta wanted Eze and Odegaard to operate when both on the pitch. Eze stays further up when out of position, Odegaard drops deeper and collects the ball, orchestrating from further back in the pitch. And I think it looked like it was working. Unfortunately we had yet another injury and with Arteta saying he was in a brace at the end of the game, one can’t help but be very worried about what this might mean for him longer term. I’d like to say that hopefully it is just bruising, but given what rotten injury luck he’s had last season and this season, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out he’s now out for a couple of months.

His injury meant that Zubimendi’s introduction was a lot earlier than I’d imagine Arteta would have wanted, but what it did do was push Rice further forward into one of the eight positions and from that position he scored his goal. I mentioned the Eze shot over already, but it was on 38 minutes his shot was parried into the centre of the box and there was Rice to tuck the ball away on the penalty spot. Unlike Eze he managed to keep his shot down and it was the perfect person to bag the opener, because the West Ham fans were giving him grief in that corner every time he was over there. I loved the little looks in their direction too:

I’m not gonna celebrate, I’m just gonna stare you lot down, so you know, that I know, that I’m the one that’s breaking your hearts right now.

I actually think Rice was our man-of-the-match. Jurrien Timber won the penalty in the second half, was superb and I’ve just chucked him into my FPL team because of his sparkling form, but Rice was everywhere yesterday. He got the goal, he was making some superb runs into the channels (including one that Gyokeres nearly got on the end of) and he was doing his defensive duties and slotting in to the double pivot position when out of position too when we needed it (which wasn’t very often to be fair). Given how he played in this fixture last season that will have meant a lot to him too I suspect, so I’m pleased he put in such a superb display, which went a long way to shutting those hammers fans up.

I’ve mentioned in passing the Timber role in our second goal on 67 minutes – a stonewall penalty if ever there was one – but I’m yet to tip my cap to the goalscorer. 100 goal involvements in 300 games: take a bow Bukayo Saka, because you are something special. We (I) probably don’t do enough of praising just how important he is to this Arsenal team, but it was his finish for the penalty that made the remainder of the game comfortable and gave me the inspiration for the one word to describe this match: Routine. He had a quieter game overall, which I think because their left back Diouf (a very good player by the way) kept him quiet to be fair to him, but you can’t knock the fact that he still stepped up and delivered and that was good to see that ball hit the back of the net up our end in the North Bank. I did wonder whether Big Vik was going to take it but I guess Saka wanted it on that landmark occasion to get himself his 100 goal involvements, so that’s fair enough. I suspect Gyokeres is putting his hand up for the next one we get.

And we got what we wanted – three points, top of the league, going into the international break where we can be happy that despite that Liverpool blip and some of the over-analysis from the home draw to Man City, we’re in a good spot, with a lot of the season still left to play.

We’re doing a live stream of the Same Old Arsenal in a bit (as I write this), so join us if you can but if you can’t, you’ll be able to watch afterwards here.

Catch you tomorrow.