West Ham traveled to the Emirates, shocking Arsenal and the whole Premier League with a 2-0 win away from home. Goals from Cheikhou Kouyaté and forward Mauro Zarate clinched an opening day loss to the Arsenal squad. Following the loss, Per Mertesacker spoke about the match.
Many are confused on the loss. The Gunners had a flawless pre-season, which included victories over Olympique Lyon and VFL Wolfsburg. The vice-captain talks about the result: “Sometimes it’s hard to explain. We played a great pre-season but that is absolutely nothing. I’ve said that before already, especially after the Community Shield game.
“That’s reality now. It’s a massive loss for us because we had great confidence and now it’s time for us to settle down, stay healthy and look forward to next Sunday.”
Even if they had an amazing pre-season, the Arsenal squad didn’t play the same. Throughout the game, especially the second half, the team couldn’t connect.
“Our first half was not too bad but we lacked a bit of control. We lost a lot of balls, we weren’t patient enough at times, our possession was not that great and they scored at the right times. They didn’t have a lot of chances but they scored at the right times and punished us from a set-piece and in the second half when we lost the ball.
“They didn’t create too many chances but overall we weren’t decisive enough, especially in the final third. It looked like the last ball was always the wrong decision.”
Arsenal didn’t play well, but West Ham weren’t the best either. The Gunners conceded due to some careless mistakes, which could have been easily avoided.
“They score at the right times – shortly before half-time from a set-piece. That was very disappointing. We worked a lot on that, not to concede. But I think they deserved it in the end, because especially in the second half, they just defended very deep and we didn’t find any solutions.
“Sometimes it’s good to come back from a massive loss. I think we are capable of coming back.”
With the opening day loss, which some consider the worse possible start; many have already begun to lose hope in Arsenal for the whole season. However, the German thinks otherwise: “That’s our job now. That was the first game of the season. [It’s] a bad start but sometimes you need a bad start to come back and realise that you have to give more than just what we did.
“I think we would love to have a different result but we have to take the result.”
West Ham took the lead just before half time. The goal was well-deserved for the Hammers, but the games momentum shifted to the Irons for the rest of the match.
“The first half was ok, not decisive enough, especially not in the final third. We can only blame ourselves for today’s game. Hopefully we can come back from that disappointment.
“The confidence was high, everyone felt great but we had a couple of misunderstandings, especially in the first half. We lost the ball a lot, we were not patient enough at times, so there is a lot to work on. We have to work more.”
The only choice for them is to work on today’s mistakes and look forward for the rest of the season. Mertesacker agrees that they’ll need to bounce back.
“It’s very important. We want to have a better start than last season so we need to be very cautious of the situation. To start with a game like that is not good but to bounce back is even more important now.”
Today’s 2-0 defeat will need to be worked on. The only choice now is to look forward to next week’s game at Selhurt Park on Sunday.
