Van Persie came on with twenty minutes to go, Bendtner was having a better game than Adebayor and should not have been the one to go off but maybe Wenger was counting on the understanding between Ade and Robin

Match Review – Arsenal 0 West Ham 0 – Premier League

Zola’s West Ham side have been playing some good football and are on a great run. They are similar to us in the fact that it is not natural for them to just sit back and defend. They like to attack and create chances for their inform striker Carlton Cole

That is what I wrote for the match preview on Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was a good opportunity for Arsenal to try and gain on some of the sides above us. Aston Villa face an inform Wigan side and Liverpool and Chelsea were due to battle it out on Sunday afternoon.

Arsene Wenger said that he would make a few changes due to the Cardiff game coming up on Tuesday. I expected the changes to be made against Cardiff instead of against West Ham as the league game was more important and very probably more difficult.

Out went Song, Djourou and man of the moment Robin Van Persie. In came Eboue, Toure and Bendtner.

Many fans have been furious at the decision to leave out Van Persie who has single handedly won us games throughout January but the truth of the matter is that we do not know the fitness levels of our players, we do not know which knocks the players are carrying. Arsene Wenger and his staff have statistics galore about each and every player, how much distance they covered, how quickly they tired etc.

After watching the lack of creative play and guile, I was quite pleased with seeing the central midfield partnership of Diaby and Denilson on the team sheet. I wasn’t worried about the Toure and Gallas partnership as we had Diaby, Bendtner and Adebayor for set pieces and West Ham were not likely to toss many balls into the penalty area.

After watching the dour Everton match I was hoping for more of a spark against the Hammers and we started much brighter. It only took 3 minutes for the first half chance to arrive. Abou Diaby headed against the top of the crossbar via James Collins.

Crowd favourite Emmanuel Eboue started the game pretty well and drove at West Ham, as quite often his final ball or shot let him down but I do not believe he is given credit for the directness he brings to the side. Many of the players pass from side to side but Eboue along with Diaby are one of the few who actually run past players and open space. Eboue’s decision making and final pass/cross/shot is currently not good enough for Arsenal standards but you can hope he develops those aspects of his game.

Eboue interestingly seemed to have a slightly different role to normal. He seemed to have a much more flexible role in the side and was often coming right inside to join the central players. If Eboue had good decision making then he would be one of the best players in the squad.

Speaking of bad decisions and distribution, I am continuously getting disappointed by the service from wide areas from our full backs. It is hard to make out if it is confidence or technique.

Sometimes Bacary Sagna has the ball in the final third on the right and he will cross it with his side foot and lean back with the ball sailing straight over the crossbar. There doesn’t appear to be curve on his foot as he crosses it in. Clichy has done this on a few occasions this season as well.

When you have Bendtner and Adebayor playing together then you have to make sure your final is at its best.

Bendtner headed wide from Nasri’s cross in the 21st minute.

It wasn’t long before Arsene swapped Nasri into the middle with Bendtner pulling to the right. Bendtner has done well in that position but he isn’t a right sided player. It seems a little too square for a rounded hole.

Abou Diaby was booked for the fifth time of the season in the 23rd minute which would have meant that he would have been absent for the Spuds match. In the end, that booking counted for pretty much nothing in the end as fate would have made him miss those games regardless of which card he picked up. I will get onto that in a second.

Emmanuel’s afternoon was cut short due to an injury that he picked up. It is a shame for him because he looked very purposeful in his running. It was probably the best 30 minutes since the beginning of the season.

Carlos Vela replaced Eboue on the 36th minute mark. It was a chance for the young Mexican to show what he could do. Many supporters have been screaming for his inclusion on the left wing although I have not been one of those I must say. I like the player, but just not as a wide player. I do not think he can give us what we need from that area. He is not a play maker, he will not come inside and find a defence splitting pass, he likes to go outside the fullback and cross, unfortunately it would be to nobody as our strikers like to have a bit part to play in our build up play.

Vela’s fist contribution was positive, he ran at the full back and won a corner after he had a cross blocked.

Like many Arsenal matches in recent weeks, we found it difficult to cut through a very defensively minded West Ham team and chances were few and far between. West Ham probably had the best chance of the game at the very end of the first half. Jack Collison won a header from a corner that had Almunia beaten, luckily for Arsenal Gael Clichy was on hand to clear it off the line.

So another disappointing first half with plenty of possession and not many chances created. We are clearly finding it hard to break teams down with the quality of Cesc and Rosicky missing. Currently in midfield we have many runners but unless Nasri unlocks a door we look out of ideas.

I was hoping for a brighter second half and we got it. We started with some more purpose, the ball was being passed around quicker and Diaby was dominating the midfield alongside Denilson. If we could start games like that then we may just avoid having to jump up gears late on in matches.

Arsenal came closest to scoring 5 minutes after the restart. A free kick was curled into the box, Robert Green punched it without much distance being applied, the ball fell to Toure who hooked it over his head, over Green towards the goal but not over Collison who was on hand to clear it away from danger.

Abou Diaby drove at West Ham, turned past a player but miscued his shot. Abou Diaby was having a great game in the center of midfield. He has added steel and discipline to his game on that showing at least. Many times, he slid in, took the ball strode past a player and passed it but the difference is he held back and kept his shape. The slightly lazy Diaby was nowhere to be seen. He was chasing West Ham players for most of the afternoon.

Many have been calling for a tackling center midfielder to ‘mind’ Cesc but maybe this is the reason why Wenger hasn’t dipped into the market to bring someone in.

Just after the hour mark Arsenal were involved in the best move of the match and missed the best opportunity of the game also. Some great one touch football opened up space for Sagna to stride down the right. Adebayor made a great run from left to right and Sagna’s low cross was perfect but Adebayor’s left foot shot flew wide of the near post. The best chance of the game missed by Adebayor again. He clearly is not in good form right now and could be suffering from low confidence. Last seasons Adebayor would have scored the goal at Cardiff and he could have scored again against West Ham.

Van Persie came on with twenty minutes to go, Bendtner was having a better game than Adebayor and should not have been the one to go off but maybe Wenger was counting on the understanding between Ade and Robin.

Adebayor had another golden chance to open the scoring but his header was straight at Robert Green after Carlos Vela’s left wing cross.

West Ham rarely got out of their half and were limited to a few counter attacks that were dealt with by Gallas and Toure for most of the afternoon.

Arsenal huffed and puffed after that but there was no real way through. We needed Cesc Fabregas to stride forward and spot a right to left run, we needed Theo Walcott to come on and run at pace into the box and make something happen. We needed Rosicky to drift in from the left and play one-two’s and find goalscoring opportunities. We need Andrei Arshavin to run at players and find the killer pass.

In the 73rd minute Vela shimmied and shuffled his way into the penalty area and fell to ground a little too easily, he was booked for his troubles. I thought to myself that he would be forgiven by the Arsenal faithful who will have a list of unchecked strikes for him, sadly Eboue’s strike list seems to be all crossed out from the fans.

Carlos Vela looks a bit like Jose Reyes on the left wing (without the running into the opposition then falling over routine), he does go to ground a little easily and that might have something to do with not being developed physically enough as yet. I am looking forward to Vela having a run as center forward. We are missing movement pretty badly right now. One of Vela’s attributes is his fantastic movement which cannot be seen stuck on the left wing.

Adebayor and Bendtner are very static or run towards the ball, I’ll go one further and say that there is not one fit player in our team right now that will make runs for his team mates, this is part of the reason why we are finding it hard to break teams down. Another reason is the lack of players in the opposition penalty area. I watched the game again (yeah, not sure why either) and noticed that players were not busting a gut to get in the box when one of our players had the ball in wide areas. When watching someone like Manchester United you really notice the difference.

Back to the game very little happened before the final whistle apart from our best player on the day being taken off with yet another injury which the manager indicated was quite serious. It is just typical of our luck and horrible run with injuries. Diaby growing in a central role, having one of his best games in that position, one of the only shining lights in a dour game picks up an injury and is ruled out for a while.

Think back to the invincibles team, how many injuries did Bergkamp, Henry, Gilberto, Ljungberg, Campbell, Toure etc etc pick up? Not very many. The same group of players played pretty much week in week out. Many complain of a supposed lack of squad strength but we have never really had big squads. It is just Miss Lady Luck was a kind soul in those days.

I still maintain that a team of

Would be well up there at this stage of the season and we would all be talking about our great chance of winning the league. People complain about the regular inclusion of Eboue (25), Song (21) and Bendtner (21) but these are squad players still learning their games. They are still developing. Think back to the Alex Song who played at Fulham, he was criticised (myself included) and although is not the finished article has come on leaps and bounds.

Don’t get me wrong. I have developed myself into a more positive person in regards to Arsenal and I think there are many many plus points at Arsenal but I am worried about the short term future, by short term I mean the remainder of games. We are looking a little toothless in attack (minus Van Persie) and we have picked up another two injuries that we cannot afford at this stage. We are still talking months for our creative players to come back to their best form, fitness etc so our season really depends on the matches before Cesc, Walcott and perhaps even Rosicky.

There are two ways to look at the Aston Villa draw.

1) We missed out on a great chance to peg them back, we have blown it.

or

2) They failed to gain any extra advantage on us drawing against West Ham

Both points are true but for the sake of your health, concentrate on number 2.

We shall find out by the end of play if part of our creative problems could be solved.

Top Gun of the day had to go to Abou Diaby who ran the midfield and looked very disciplined in his work. It is sad and unfortunate that the injury curse had to find his way back to the Frenchman.