Arsenal made Premier League history for the wrong reasons against West Ham

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Arsenal fans were hoping to return to the top of the Premier League by around 10pm on Thursday night.

Instead, Gunners supporters were left to rue a crushing defeat that exposed their main weaknesses.

Arsenal hosted West Ham at the Emirates Stadium, hoping to make it four games unbeaten in all competitions.

The Gunners went into the game on the back of a 13-game unbeaten home run in all competitions, so they’ll have fancied their chances.

Instead, the Hammers made it three league wins on the trot, making the most of Arsenal’s error-prone defence to score twice.

At the other end, West Ham shut up shop, and Gunners forward Gabriel Jesus once again reminded people why calls for signing a clinical target man are growing ever louder.

Arsenal error-prone at the back and toothless in attack

Indeed, The Telegraph noted how Arsenal had actually made Premier League history for the wrong reasons on Thursday night.

By the end of the match, Arsenal had taken 77 touches in the opposition penalty area. Never before has a team taken so many in a Premier League match without scoring.

The Gunners couldn’t find a way through the solid West Ham defence. Emerson Palmieri, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Angelo Obgonna, Vladimir Coufal, Tomas Soucek and James Ward-Prowse made 31 clearances between them.

If there’s any silver lining to all this, it’s that the January transfer window is fast approaching. However, signing a top striker is difficult as it is in the summer, when teams are more willing to cash in on their main assets. In January, it’s much more difficult.

Nevertheless, the manner of the defeat will surely have convinced Mikel Arteta and Edu that they need to bring in reinforcements at centre-forward and at left-back, after Oleksandr Zinchenko also failed to convince once again.