Arsenal needed a late goal from substitute Eddie Nketiah to overcome West Ham on Saturday evening.
After their recent successes at Wembley and last weekend’s comfortable win at Fulham, Arsenal fans could be forgiven for thinking their team would steamroll West Ham here.
But in reality it was the Gunners who struggled and in the end, the victory was a bit of a smash and grab.
Mikel Arteta’s side were pedestrian for the most part and in between Alexandre Lacazette’s first half opener and Nketiah’s late winner, they failed to muster a single attempt on target.
But in fairness, they soaked up West Ham’s pressure in the second half and took their chance to win the game when it came along.
And after their spat in the warm up at Craven Cottage last week, it was rather fitting that it was Dani Ceballos who laid on Nketiah for the winner.
They say winning when you’ve not played well is the mark of champions but this performance felt more like a reminder that Arsenal are a long way from competing for the title yet.
Arteta looked delighted with the result at full-time but he will know as well as anyone that his team got away with one here.
