Arsenal 0 West Ham 1. I wasn’t expecting that. Liverpool had given Arsenal a little bit of hope in the title race with four draws since the turn of the year when they were held by Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Everton. The hope was slammed back in their faces by a brave and disciplined performance by inconsistent West Ham. We were well worth the three points. I wasn’t expecting that.
Our last game at home to Brentford was dreadful as was the home game against Palace in January. But a win against Fulham (albeit a little lucky), a creditable draw at Villa, and an unlucky defeat at Chelsea showed evidence of Graham Potter’s impact since his appointment. This was perhaps the best performance and result so far in his short time in charge.
We exposed Arsenal’s shortcomings. They might have enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, but they had no cutting edge. Similar to all the excuses coming out of their North London neighbours they moaned about their injury list, especially in attack. Hold on a minute. We are missing Antonio, Fullkrug, Summerville, and Paqueta was added to the list before this game. We all have problems so enough of the excuses.
Manchester United were keen to offload Aaron Wan-Bissaka for what is beginning to look like a bargain fee. They were happy with him defensively but felt they needed a full back who was better going forward. For me he has been a revelation in this respect. I wasn’t expecting that.
We were massively threatening when we broke, Wan-Bissaka in particular a danger on the right. It was no shock really that he instigated what turned out to be the winning goal with a break down the right before an expert cross found Jarrod Bowen who scored with a diving header. All afternoon he caused massive problems for Calafiori, and then his replacement Lewis-Skelly who came on early in the second half.
I was shocked when Arteta decided to replace Rice with Zinchenko, nominally a left back. I wasn’t expecting that. Our travelling supporters let loose with that decision with some chants aimed at our former captain. I don’t believe that Arteta is using Rice to get the best out of him.
The Arsenal fans were venting their frustration and then they were furious when Lewis-Skelly was correctly dismissed following a VAR call for bringing down Kudus. How poor was the referee to not show the red card immediately rather than having to wait for VAR? That was Arsenal’s fifth red card of the season. They have dropped ten points in the five matches where they have had a player dismissed. The gap to Liverpool increased to eleven points the following day when Slot’s team comfortably disposed of fading Manchester City. The title race, if it still existed, was definitely over.
Not that the red card really made a great difference. In many ways we were better against eleven than against ten. Lewis-Skelly is being talked about as a future England left back. I’m probably a bit premature but Ollie Scarles had a storming game and perhaps he will move on to such heights too. It’s a bit early I know but he does look a tremendous prospect.
For me Wan-Bissaka was the star of the show but Scarles, Ward Prowse and Kudus weren’t far behind. In fact it was a superb performance by all the players. Arsenal have only lost three games at the Emirates since the beginning of last season. We have won two of those. I wasn’t expecting that.
We now move on to Leicester who are (like Ipswich and Southampton) demonstrating the enormous gulf that exists between the Premier League and the Championship. They have lost six of the seven league games played in 2025; their only win came against Tottenham. In fact they’ve only won four games in the whole season. In addition to Tottenham they beat Bournemouth, Southampton, and in early December ourselves.
We went one down in that game to a very early Jamie Vardy goal and despite peppering their goal with shots and multiple corners we conceded two more before Fullkrug’s late consolation in added on time. It was Van Nistelrooy’s first game in charge. Had the Dutch boss dreamed of the perfect start to his tenure in the East Midlands he could scarcely have hoped for anything better than the move which led to Vardy’s opening goal shortly after the first whistle which stood after a lengthy VAR check.
If we put in anything like our performance at the Emirates then we should be too much for the ailing Foxes. But anyone who has supported West Ham for any length of time will know that this is the type of game where we have been known to fall down. However, I believe that Jarrod Bowen is really beginning to come into form after his injury layoff and expect him to be among the goals in a resounding victory. The pictures below show him in goalscoring form for West Ham against Leicester in recent seasons.
There have been some great games against Leicester throughout my time following West Ham, and in fact two of them made it into the top 20 games I’ve seen when I wrote my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford. The first one I’ll recall was on Boxing Day in 1967. I watched the game from my seat in B Block in the old West Stand at Upton Park. It kicked off at 11am (yes, there were morning games in those days), and by 11.15 we were 2-0 down. But the very first goal that I can remember a very young Trevor Brooking scoring, plus a superb hat trick from one of my favourite West Ham goalscorers, Brian Dear, ensured a great win in a very entertaining game. But the undoubted man of the match was a very young (17-year- old) teenager playing in the Leicester goal who had an unbelievable game and was destined to become a star in the future – Peter Shilton.
When we met Leicester on that Boxing Day we were 20th in the league and in a relegation tussle (although only two were relegated in those days). By the end of the season we had rallied somewhat and finally finished 12th; Leicester were 13th. Incidentally we visited Filbert Street four days later and won the game again, with the identical score, 4-2, with goals from Dear 2, Brooking and Sissons.
Another great game against Leicester came in the following season. On 16th November 1968 we were 7th having won our two previous home games 8-0 v Sunderland and 4-3 v Queens Park Rangers. It was amazing that we were that high in the table considering we had a run of 9 winless games from early September to mid-October. There were a few memorable games in that 1968/69 season and this one came a fortnight after the QPR game. I watched from the North Bank and, apart from being an exciting game it also included my all-time favourite goal scored by Martin Peters.
When I met Martin almost 40 years later at a book-signing I asked him to sign the programme for that game, as well as his autobiography. And what a lovely man he was, although he had no recollection of the game. He told me that he couldn’t really remember many of his goals. An early sign perhaps of the illness that was to strike him down at too young an age.
The goal was a fantastic move started by Ferguson in goal, the ball rolled out to Peters, then to Charles, then to Sissons, and finally a fantastic unstoppable volley by Peters who had run the length of the pitch virtually to get on the end of it. You can see the last part of the goal on YouTube from where Sissons crosses it, but unfortunately not the whole move. From our position on the North Bank we had a super view of the finish. We won that game 4-0.
Leicester have conceded four goals on five occasions so far this season including in two of their three games in the month of February, last week at home to Brentford and at Everton. In their seven league games in 2025 they have only scored three goals, the 2-1 win over Tottenham and another in a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa. In those seven matches they have conceded 17 goals. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t inflict another heavy defeat on them.
Under The Hammers 