Arsenal had a night to forget on Wednesday evening at the London Stadium, as the Gunners were dismantled by West Ham United in the Carabao Cup, losing 3-1 to deny a place in the quarter-finals.
After defeating Brentford in the previous round, Mikel Arteta would have hoped his side could see a similar result against Premier League opposition against the Irons, however, that was far from the case.
It was far from the return Declan Rice would have wanted on his return to east London, in what was a dreary defeat for the north Londoners to end their Carabao Cup journey.
How Arsenal lost to West Ham
In a game that started well in terms of possession for Arsenal, things went down very quickly as the game fell away from the visitor’s grasp as the Irons began to test the defence.
The fixture ended with the Gunners dominating 71% of possession, however, their weaknesses were exposed as the hosts scored three from just five shots on goal, via Sofascore.
Ben White regrettably opened the scoring for David Moyes’ side in the first half, burying Jarrod Bowen’s corner beyond the reach of Aaron Ramsdale, who had a trialling night on his return between the sticks.
At the interval, Arteta’s team talk evidently failed to inspire his side, as just five minutes after the restart, Mohammed Kudus doubled West Ham’s lead in a way that left Arsenal’s defence blushing.
On the hour mark, Bowen secured the Hammers’ third and put the game way beyond the reach of the visitors, before Martin Odegaard netted a consolation goal seconds before time.
From defensive frailties to lack of cohesion in the midfield, it was not Arsenal’s night in east London, however, one player stood out as the rotten apple.
Oleksandr Zinchenko's game vs West Ham in numbers
Oleksandr Zinchenko’s performance against West Ham epitomised exactly why Arteta has opted to field Takehiro Tomiyasu ahead of the Ukrainian in recent fixtures, as the 26-year-old struggled defensively.
Blasted as “weak” by journalist Josh Bunting, the full-back was mocked by Kudus for the host’s second goal, capping off what was a worrying display from the four-time Premier League winner. Indeed, the defender was caught napping on the left-hand side as the Hammers' summer signing collected the ball delicately before wrong-footing Zinchenko.
After 57 minutes, Arteta opted to haul the £150k-per-week dud off, with his defending branded “disgraceful” by Arsenal personality Eduardo Hagn.
In the limited time that the Ukraine international featured, he failed to make a positive impact, but left a sour taste in the mouths of those watching with his abysmal individual struggles on the left side of defence.
Zinchenko lost 100% of his aerial duels, and had a failure rate of 100% for his attempted dribbles, as well as losing possession eight times to expose his weaknesses for the Hammers to exploit, via Sofascore.
Having won just one ground duel at left-back, the former Manchester City defender was handed a dreary 3/10 match rating from journalist Charles Watts via Goal, who branded the 26-year-old as defensively “suspect”.
It was an eye opener for Arsenal, who still remain unbeaten in the Premier League, and an eye opener for Arteta with reference to Zinchenko, whose days as the Gunners’ first-choice left-back could be nearing a close.