West Ham United slipped outside of the top four in the Premier League with a disappointing defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday evening.
The Irons have now failed to score in three straight matches as they were well-beaten by the Gunners in a frantic encounter at the Emirates Stadium and indeed, it was another game in which Michail Antonio looked hugely off the pace.
Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring right after the break before Hammers defender Vladimir Coufal received his marching orders after conceding a penalty, in which Alexandre Lacazette missed from the spot. But Emile Smith Rowe wrapped things up with a strike just three minutes from time.
After drawing a blank against Burnley at the weekend, manager David Moyes will be concerned that his side failed to test the opposition once again. managing only one shot on target all game.
And as he has often done lately, Antonio has failed to provide any sort of influence in the final third, making it just the one goal in his last 11 appearances, per Transfermarkt.
The 31-year-old talisman endured an absolute nightmare in north London – across 90 minutes on the pitch, he registered only 43 touches, in which he provided just six accurate passes from 15 attempts (40%).
Nor was he responsible for any of their shots on goal. A worrying sign.
Some of the blame may fall Coufal’s way but it’s performances like this from Antonio that should be called into question as he’s holding West Ham back with his poor form right now.
Elsewhere, the £10.8m-rated Jamaican international was lightweight and weak in his battles, managing just one successful dribble from four attempts, whilst he lost possession a whopping 27 times (the most in the game) and won just 18% of his total duels, both aerially and on the ground.
That shows he struggled to combat the threat from Gabriel and Ben White in the opposition’s backline. Antonio handed the ball back to Arsenal once every 1.6 touches, which is appalling.
football.london journalist Tom Clark was less than impressed, grading the Irons frontman amongst the worst performers. ‘Saw very little of the ball in the opening 45 minutes, worked hard tracking back but was wasteful in possession,’ he wrote, before later adding: ‘another poor display from the striker.’
On the above evidence, it was another shocking outing from the frontline veteran, one that will surely leave Moyes feeling badly let down, having kept the faith in his star striker once more.
AND in other news, Moyes could land another Soucek in West Ham swoop for “extraordinary” 6 ft 5 colossus – opinion
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