Arsenal’s title bid took another hit on Saturday with a first home defeat of 2024/25.
Assessing West Ham United’s win at the Emirates from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective, it’s our latest Scout Notes.
NWANERI INJURY FEARS EASED
Already four men down in attack and struggling for numbers, Arsenal looked to have been dealt a further injury blow on Saturday when Ethan Nwaneri (£4.6m) limped from the field.
Six words from Mikel Arteta after the game eased those fears – although the “I think” leaves some trace of doubt.
“It was just fatigue, I think.” – Mikel Arteta on Ethan Nwaneri’s substitution
HOW LONG LEWIS-SKELLY WILL BE BANNED FOR
Myles Lewis-Skelly (£4.5m) was dismissed for the second time this season on Saturday. Like the first, it stopped a swift breakaway. Unlike the first, it won’t be overturned.
A professional foul/the denial of a goalscoring opportunity carries an automatic one-match ban. Two red cards in the same season usually means an extra one-match suspension on top of that – but because Lewis-Skelly had been exonerated the first time around, that does not apply here.
Long story short: he’ll miss Gameweek 27 and return after that.
MERI-NO SURPRISE ELEMENT
An ‘out of position’ Mikel Merino (£6.0m) had rescued victory at Leicester City a week ago but there was to be no repeat performance in Gameweek 26. This time, West Ham knew what was coming.
The surprise element lost, the Hammers mostly handled the makeshift striker with ease. Bar one early chance on the stretch, Merino didn’t really get much of an opportunity.
“Because of what happened against Leicester with Merino coming on and scoring two, we guessed that he would start the game. If you look at how he attacks the box and what he does, he’s incredible, getting on the shoulder of defenders and timing his runs into the box. So he’s very dangerous, and then you’ve got the quality from the sides and Odegaard’s putting balls in and from all angles pretty much. So again, we had to defend that situation well. I thought we did it as well as we could.” – Graham Potter
That will be the concern for Arsenal going forward. When Plan A (or whatever plan ‘Merino up front’ is) fails, what else can Arteta do? Looking at the bench, the Arsenal boss could only call upon a has-been in Raheem Sterling (£6.7m) and a might-never-will-be in Nathan Butler-Oyedeji (£4.5m). It doesn’t bode well for another low block from Nottingham Forest in midweek.
The Gunners had 20 shots against West Ham, the most of any club on Saturday. It all added up to just 1.2 xG, with Merino’s aforementioned chance deemed the best of them. Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) and Ben White (£6.1m) flashed efforts wide, while Leandro Trossard (£6.9m) topped the shot count (five). Really, though, there was no clear opening.
Nwaneri’s reputation has risen to the point that he was doubled up on by West Ham. Welcome to Bukayo Saka‘s (£10.2m) world, Ethan…
POTTER MAGIC IN NORTH LONDON
Graham Potter has won more games than he’s lost at the Emirates following this victory.
From what we’ve seen so far, the Hammers look much better in the wing-back system he used on Saturday (and before that) than the 4-2-3-1 he tried against Brentford in Gameweek 25.
You can imagine Potter going a bit more attacking against Leicester City at home next (maybe back to a back four), so it remains to be seen how that affects their performance in Gameweek 27. Then again, it’s Leicester – do tactics matter?
Above: West Ham set up in a 5-3-2, with Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen up top
A Jarrod Bowen (£7.3m) punt is tempting in Gameweek 27. Remember that West Ham have Newcastle United after that, too, just six days before the Magpies head to Wembley. Everton away follows in Blank Gameweek 29.
Bowen had already fired one warning shot when skewing wide but he wouldn’t miss again, nodding in the 44th-minute winner. Both of his chances were set up by Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.4m), the formerly attack-phobic right-back who continues his slow transformation into Cafu.
That’s now six attacking returns in eight starts for Bowen.
Mohammed Kudus (£6.2m) was brilliant, too. Given that he was being pilloried by his own support only a week ago, the challenge now is consistency.
