West Ham fans will have known exactly what was coming against Arteta’s Arsenal. Any method of exploiting the rules, right down to deliberately standing in front of Fabianski at a free kick so he couldn’t see to set up his defensive wall – The Gunners set out to skirt the edge of the rulebook to maximise their chances of victory. It’s the Arteta playbook.
The merest whiff of contact and they’re rolling and screaming. We all know this. It influenced Antony Taylor’s decision to award the second penalty when Fabianski’s scuffed glove contact on Gabriel led to much rolling around as if floored by Mike Tyson.
But For Lopetegui to complain :”We have to review all our understanding about the rules.” over the first and fifth goal is just naive. Repeatedly, West Ham were out manoeuvred: Paquetá being shoved out of the way at the near post for Arsenal’s first being the case in point. It kept on happening at each corner with Arsenal’s ‘posse’ assembling at the back post.
“There is one player that bumped into the back of Paqueta with the only intention that he can’t jump. The rules have to be the same for all of us.
“The first was a set-piece that we prepared and, in my opinion, has been a very, very clear foul. We were unlucky with the decisions today. We asked before the match, the referee with the block, as a coach we have to know the limit.”
Which almost makes it worse- the Hammers knew what was coming and yet failed to compete toe to toe, expecting to be saved by the referee instead of their own desire to compete which was 100% absent.
For the head coach to claim:“It was a very strange first half above all,” he said. “I think that when you see the score, 2-5, you think that it has been an incredible storm, but it wasn’t like that.”
Well, Julen, I’m afraid it was an ‘incredible storm’ that blew his fragile team away inside 25 minutes. And had Arsenal been minded, they could have put their foot back on the gas and scored another handful in the second half.
