Daniel Feliciano

Sun 16 April 2023 15:53, UK

West Ham turned in one of their best performances of the season to earn a 2-2 draw against Arsenal despite finding themselves 2-0 down early on.

It was a shocking start to the game as we found ourselves 2-0 down inside the opening ten minutes thanks to goals from Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard, with some “embarrassing” defending the reason for it.

Arsenal were dominant until Declan Rice nicked the ball of Thomas Partey on the edge of Arsenal’s box and passed to Lucas Paqueta, who faked a shot before being brought down by Gabriel and allowing Said Benrahma to slot the penalty home and pull one back.

The Hammers then came out well in the second half but it was Arsenal who had the biggest chance as Michail Antonio handballed it in the box, only for Bukayo Saka to miss the target from the spot. Jarrod Bowen then volleyed home an equaliser minutes later to make it 2-2 and earn a hard-fought point.

This is how we rated the performance of each West Ham player in the game at West Ham Zone..

Lukasz Fabianski – 5/10

Fabianski could do little about the two goals that were conceded early on, but after that his distribution and command of his area were good. Made himself big for the missed penalty and had safe hands too in other instances.

Vladimir Coufal – 6/10

His form has been iffy at best this season, but this was a good performance from Coufal against one of the most in-form wingers in the league in Gabriel Martinelli. He had him locked up for most of the game and was a threat going the other way too.

Kurt Zouma – 5/10

For someone as dominant as he is aerially and physically, Zouma had a torrid game against Gabriel Jesus up until the Brazilian went off. His experience was key to soak up pressure though and the performance improved as the game went on.

Thilo Kehrer – 4/10

We’re still unsure whether or not Kehrer is a right-back or a centre-back because his performances are so hot and cold wherever he plays. Should have done far better for the two Arsenal goals and is doing nothing to make himself a regular starter right now.

Aaron Cresswell – 6/10

He’s had plenty of criticism this season, but Cresswell was really strong against Saka out wide keeping him very quiet for the most part of the game. He used his experience and quality, and his set piece delivery was great all afternoon too.

Declan Rice – 9/10

The best player on the pitch by a country mile. He made an impression early with some strong challenges, showed great leadership at 2-0 down to lead the fight-back and was excellent defensively for the whole game. A captain’s performance. A £100m performance.

Lucas Paqueta – 5/10

The Brazilian struggled to get up to speed with the game early on and was constantly misplacing passes and losing duels, but he got better as the game went on and did well to win the penalty too.

Tomas Soucek – 3/10

At some point David Moyes will see what the rest of us are seeing and Soucek will get dropped. He completed just two passes in the first 45 minutes of the game, and his usual energy that he gives was absent for much of the game too.

Jarrod Bowen – 8/10

A brilliant performance from the winger who never, ever gave up and gave Kieran Tierney a torrid time going forward. He worked really hard defensively too and made some vital interventions, as well as taking his goal brilliantly. More of that and we’ll be safe.

Said Benrahma – 5/10

Even with his goal it was not a good performance from the Algerian. He was arguably at fault for the first goal, definitely at fault for the second goal and offered little creatively going forward too.

Michail Antonio – 8/10

A really excellent performance from Antonio, who never gave up even at 2-0 down and was a constant problem for the Arsenal defence. Was unlucky with the penalty given against him and more than justified his starting place.

Substitutes

Flynn Downes – N/A

Maxwel Cornet – N/A

Pablo Fornals – N/A