LONDON — With eight minutes of normal time left on Saturday, West Ham United replaced match winner Jarrod Bowen with Evan Ferguson, a striker they signed on loan earlier this month.
If you didn’t know better, it almost felt like a move to mock Arsenal. After all, how Gunners boss Mikel Arteta must have wished he could do the same, bereft of attacking options after opting against a midseason signing.
That decision appeared questionable at the time, but after losing 1-0 to the Hammers at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, it has already triggered the biggest question of all: is Arsenal’s title race now over?
“It’s not in our hands,” Arteta admitted after the match. “For me, I’m really, really annoyed about the things that are in our hands and we didn’t do as well as we possibly could and that’s the performance and the result today.”
The hope that Mikel Merino would follow a trajectory comparable to that of Kai Havertz — midfielder turned striker — seemed fanciful from the outset, even if he filled the vacant centre-forward position impressively with a late double at Leicester City last weekend. Havertz has a much greater pedigree as a forward, and in any case, his transition to leading Arsenal’s attack came organically over a period of time when the team was playing well, not as a stop-gap in their hour of need.
Arteta claimed on Friday that Arsenal had been “re-energised” by the way they rallied together following confirmation Havertz would miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. There was very little sign of that here and, in fairness to the Spaniard, he did little to mask his frustration at a performance that never matched the task at hand.
“We have to be [angry],” Arteta said. “I hope we are very much because we didn’t hit the levels today and I am very much responsible for that so I am very, very angry.”
The Gunners had some zip in the play for the opening 15 minutes or so, trying to angle balls to Merino, which, on two occasions, they managed effectively. After West Ham became alive to that threat, though, Arsenal struggled to assert any sustained pressure beyond control of the ball in safe areas.
Despite the sense of opportunity before them — Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Aston Villa in midweek and Arne Slot’s side not playing at Manchester City until Sunday created a chance to cut the gap at the top to five points — the Gunners were curiously flat.
Perhaps belief was in short supply. Creativity certainly was.
Martin Ødegaard lacked his usual guile, Leandro Trossard made too many wrong decisions and Ethan Nwaneri was subdued. Declan Rice, berated throughout by supporters of his former club, was hooked after just 56 minutes.
Mohammed Kudus caused Arsenal problems all afternoon, none more so than when substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly hauled him down just inside the Gunners half. Referee Craig Pawson initially gave Lewis-Skelly a yellow card but that was correctly upgraded to a red on VAR review due to David Raya’s positioning, 40 yards out of his goal.
One second-half moment summed up the Arsenal malaise. On 79 minutes, the home side won a free kick and a chance to put the ball in the box. Ødegaard instead went short and sideways to William Saliba, who then went back to Raya.
The move was met with anger and a smattering of boos in the stands, which steadily emptied as West Ham completed a well-disciplined defensive display with a degree of comfort.
Arsenal mustered just two shots on target all afternoon, one a first-half Riccardo Calafiori effort that Alphonse Areola held comfortably and the second a Trossard shot cutting in from the right. Including added time, Areola did not need to make a save in the final half hour.
Arteta rejected the idea that their lack of a recognised striker could explain everything he witnessed, believing the problem to be more fundamental.
“No, no and I refuse that completely because I am talking about the standards of the players and the team that we played today, me included,” he said. “And that was nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win a Premier League. Today, no. We were very consistent, yes, but football is about what you do today and today, nowhere near.”
There are still some grounds for hope. This was only Arsenal’s first league home defeat in 10 months and Liverpool have a tricky week ahead with City away before a trip to Newcastle United, where Arsenal have already lost twice this season.
Increasingly, though, the Gunners don’t look in a position to capitalise on any mistakes with Havertz and Gabriel Jesus ruled out for the season, while Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are both several weeks away from a return.
Arsenal made a judgement call not to pursue a January move for Ollie Watkins more aggressively as their £40 million bid was rejected, falling short of Aston Villa’s £60m demand to sanction the England striker’s transfer. That decision not to spend the extra £20m — or close to it with a bit of negotiation — was based on the possibility of disrupting future plans and an objective valuation of a 29-year-old, albeit one proven in the league.
The evidence is mounting that not signing Watkins, or an alternative, may end up costing them a lot more than that.
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