A Jerk-Free Reaction

Brace yourselves, because the principal exponents of the North London branch of the Knee Jerk Reaction School of Football Analysis are about to have a field day. It doesn’t take much to set them off, so imagine the effect of a 3-2 defeat in a London derby at Highbury – to West Ham of all teams.

Already, the message boards are alive with verdicts, rumours, suggestions and solutions - most of them laughable at best - from contributors whose knowledge of football is in inverse proportion to the quality of their written English.

Fortunately, they are a minority – albeit a noisy one. So in the interests of the majority of Arsenal supporters, we shall ignore their ideas and attempt a constructive response to what happened at Highbury on Wednesday 1st February.

To begin with, results are important, nowhere more than at Arsenal, so it would be pointless to attempt to disguise the deep disappointment of this defeat. But what is perhaps less obvious is that it would be equally futile to allow the result to obscure the positive effect of Arsenal’s football on the night.

Injuries and suspensions obliged Arsene Wenger to field a team which was an almost equal balance of youth and experience, but the quality of Arsenal’s attacking play allowed them to dominate possession from the start. It was a torrid first quarter of an hour for West Ham who were fortunate not to go at least two down in this period. First Thierry Henry’s goal bound volley was inadvertently deflected by Freddie Ljunberg, then Robin Van Persie was unlucky to see his shot rebound off the outside of the post after he had mesmerised Danny Gabbidon with some wonderful close control.

Then soon after, the unthinkable happened. Sol Campbell completely missed his kick, allowing West Ham captain Nigel Reo Coker to break through and beat the advancing Jens Lehmann. And seven minutes later, Campbell’s attempted long ball gave possession away and allowed Konchesky to find Bobby Zamora, who to the astonishment of practically everyone out-muscled Campbell to curl a brilliant finish past Lehmann.

Highbury fell silent. After dominating the first half Arsenal seemed doomed to go in 2-0 down, until Henry’s deflection of Robert Pires shot on 45 minutes reduced the deficit. For a player who has scored so many spectacular goals to break Cliff Bastin’s league scoring record in this way was bizarre, but in some strange way it typified the state of the game and at the same time provided Arsenal with a glimmer of hope.

Campbell did not appear in the second half, but though a single mistake by impressive substitute Sebastian Larsson led to Etherington scoring West Ham’s third on 80 minutes, the youthful ‘makeshift’ back four of Flamini, Djourou, Senderos and Larssen had nevertheless brought a welcome stability defensively. That foundation enabled Arsenal to dominate the game and go close on numerous occasions – notably through Henry and Van Persie – before Robert Pires rifled in the second on 89 minutes to launch a frantic, but ultimately ineffectual siege on West Ham’s goal.