For the second season in a row, we went on a first-half rampage at the London Stadium to blow West Ham United away as we won 5-2 to cap off a hugely successful week for Mikel Arteta’s men.
To discover just why we were so devastating in east London, Adrian Clarke has poured through the footage and stats to unearth these five key takeaways from the game:
Gabriel loves London Stadium
For the third time in four seasons, Gabriel found the back of the net away to West Ham. 10 of the Brazilian’s 17 league goals have now come in London derbies (59%) which is the highest proportion of any player in Premier League history, who has scored at least 15 times.
The key to Gabriel’s success is his movement and expert timing. Instead of making a run from the penalty spot, he started in a crowded domain at the far post, where Michail Antonio was assigned to mark him.
The plan was for him to arc his run around Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and William Saliba, who were effectively his shield, and meet the ball between the Hammers’ front post zonal markers:
As you can see, he looped his run around Calafiori, keeping the Italian and his marker between himself and Antonio. This created a healthy distance that forced the striker to run through a space crowded with bodies.
Jurrien Timber also played his part, dashing from the back post to the near in a bid to distract Lucas Pacqueta. Pleasingly, Gabriel’s brilliant zig-zagged run freed him up to connect with Bukayo Saka’s delivery unmarked.
Gabriel’s awareness of space and how to cause problems for his assigned marker is incredibly clever. He also dropped his shoulder before looping a similar run around Saliba for the penalty he earned just before the break. Once again, Antonio had to go the long way around to track his man:
