“He made me cry today and he must leave my club”: Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta names ONE Arsenal’s player who was responsible for the club’s defeat today

Arsenal failed to close the gap on title rivals Liverpool as the 10-man Gunners lost 1-0 to West Ham at the Emirates.

The first and only goal came for West Ham came via a counter attack spearheaded by Aaron Wan-Bissaka. The defender crossed the ball to Jarrod Bowen in the box who was clear of defenders and headed the ball past David Raya.

Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off just over 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute for denying Mohammed Kudus a goal-scoring opportunity.

Now with Mikel Arteta’s men lagging behind in the title chase, Daily Star Sport has taken a look at what the Spanish manager got wrong.

Didn’t take early chances

In the first half, Arsenal had a comfortable 63% possession along with nine shots. Out of these nine shots, only one was on target. West Ham had the same amount of shots on target, but they made sure theres went in.

The Irons, despite lack of ball-time, looked the most dangerous on the attack. Wan-Bissaka used his pace down the wing to lead the counters and see past any Arsenal defenders.

One thing the English right-back could be sure of is that Bowen was going to be in the box waiting for a pass. When it came to the moment, the forward was in the perfect spot for a simple header past Raya.

Merino isn’t a striker

Mikel Merino came on late in Arsenal’s last game against Leicester and grabbed the two crucial winning goals. Putting the Spaniard in a forward position looked like a plan B move which worked out.

Merino started in this forward role once again against West Ham, but it seemed like a rushed decision. The two goals scored against relegation threatened Leicester was arguably not enough to change plan B to plan A.

Merino did get himself in some good positions in the Irons box, but there were also moments where he was completely out of position and missing from the action. It is massively unfortunate that Kai Havertz suffered a season-ending injury, but Merino still has a lot to do to prove he is the certified replacement.

Poor choice of substitutions

On the 56th minute mark, Arteta made two substitutions that ended up not working out at all. Lewis-Skelly was brought on for the struggling Riccardo Calafiori. 17 minutes later, MLS was shown a straight red.

The other change saw Declan Rice take to the bench for Oleksandr Zinchenko. When you’re team is struggling, there are usually a set of players who you trust to make something happen. Rice is one of those players.

So, when he was taken off for the Ukrainian defender, it was certainly a head-scratcher. Zinchenko doesn’t have the midfield presence, nor the passing ability of Rice. Substitutes are where the managers make their money; Arteta is at a loss for these two.

Couldn’t control the counter

Although stats have meaning, they don’t win games – goals win games. Today, the stats weren’t on West Ham’s side, but the score definitely was, and it was all down to their counter attack ability.

Graham Potter’s men were rather happy to sit back and let the Gunners have the ball. Their plan from the start had clearly been to pounce on counter attacking opportunities, and they did this perfectly.

The Irons showed what a textbook, under-dog away performance looks like. Arsenal couldn’t fight against the West Ham attack. Lewis-Skelly had to take a red card to make sure he stopped it.

Needs to bring Nwaneri into play more

Arsenal were no where neat the best against West Ham, in fact, it was rather the opposite. It seemed like something was missing from the team. Certainly there are injuries, but this is a chance for players to step up.

One player who was clearly trying to make moves and push forward was 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri. The youngster is full of energy and confidence. He had a couple of fantastic first touches which got the crowd cheering.

Despite his young age, there was a sense of leadership within the English winger. He wanted the ball and was trying his hardest to get the team forward, Arteta just needs to get the squad to listen to Nwaneri.