Last night’s EFL Cup clash with West Ham offered Arsenal head coach, Mikel Arteta, a chance to rest some of his big guns ahead of an all-important clash against Newcastle this weekend.

Aaron Ramsdale got the nod ahead of David Raya, Jakub Kiwior allowed William Saliba to get a night off, the entire midfield was shuffled with Jorginho, Fabio Vieira and Kai Havertz getting the nod while Reiss Nelson and Leandro Trossard flanked the hat-trick hero, Eddie Nketiah. I had hoped for Emile Smith Rowe to get the nod ahead of Havertz, but Arteta confirmed in his press conference that the youngster suffered a knee injury that could keep him out for a long time.

West Ham started better and almost got ahead when Lucas Paqueta overcooked a chance to Jarrod Bowen but it went away from the winger. On the other end, Ben White chipped the Ball to Nelson who skipped past his marker and drilled the ball towards Nketiah’s path, but former Gunner, Kostas Mavropanos, cleared the ball and got clattered for his troubles.

Nketiah had a chance to put the Gunners ahead when he latched on to Zinchenko’ neat pass but he blasted his effort over the bar from a good range. Nelson dinked a dead ball that was headed goalwards by Havertz but Lukasz Fabianski was on hand to make a good save.

West Ham turned the screw when Edson Alvarez swung the ball to Mohammed Kudus path but Gabriel made a good headed clearance to see off the threat. However, Arsenal conceded from the resulting corner through an inexplicable own goal from Ben White. Despite the fact that White put it past his keeper from a mistimed header, Ramsdale was clearly impeded by Thomas Soucek but there was no VAR intervention.

Arsenal struggled to create anything in the start of the second half but West Ham had the better chances with Bowen firing a close range effort that was parried by Ramsdale before White cleared the ball. However, West Ham doubled their money when a cross field ball that was controlled superbly by Kudus before placing the ball past Ramsdale but Zinchenko was culpable for very bad defending.

Arsenal responded with summoning Rice and Tomiyasu for Jorginho and Zinchenko but that didn’t improve much as the Gunners conceded a third from Bowen. It was a fierce shot that deflected off Kiwior but Ramsdale’s attempt of a save was laughable at best.

This triggered Arteta to bring on Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard that tried to add impetus to attack, which led to the consolation goal.

Arteta looked very dejected in his post-match press conference, as he was clearly disappointed with the performances of his fringe players but I’m more concerned with the injury absences and I hope they don’t increase.

The EFL Cup seemed like a winnable competition especially with Manchester City out of the competition but it is what it is.

It’s time to plan for the Newcastle game, who would be buzzing from their emphatic win over Manchester United last night.

Sayonara

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