Man City delight and Saka sorrow: Arsenal winners and losers from West Ham draw

Rob Holding, Man City and Bukayo Saka feature in Arsenal winners and losers from West Ham United draw

Winners

Manchester City

The real winners of the day, of course, are Arsenal’s title challengers. Man City breezed past Leicester on Saturday with three goals in the first quarter of the game, going on to win the match and claim all three points.

Martin Odegaard

Despite the overall performance lacking for much of the game, the Norwegian was a metronomic presence that continued to keep the Gunners moving the ball well. It was actually a surprise to see him brought off as Mikel Arteta threw on Eddie Nketiah.

His goal takes him to 11 for the Premier League season. But it was his work on the ball and the passing which stood out, including the ball to Ben White who set up Gabriel Jesus.

Gabriel Jesus

His movement for his goal was great and his influence on the game was critical to everything good the Gunners did. If, and it now looks a big if, Arsenal are to win the title, Jesus is going to be massive.

Losers

Bukayo Saka

It was clear that the miss affected more than just Saka. With the double blow from the equaliser, it sucked the confidence out of the team and it felt that it needed something from the bench to change it which ultimately was too late and arguably inaccurate.

Thomas Partey

If Arsenal have a hope of winning the league then Partey is going to need to rediscover his best. Based on the furious gesticulation from Mikel Arteta toward him on the sidelines he’s not going to be allowed to rest on this disappointing display.

Rob Holding

In the previous three games, Rob Holding had shown to be a good back-up to William Saliba but certainly, the limitations were evident. The question was whether he could successfully establish these “good” displays game after game.

Today he was beaten in 50/50 duels, made risky tackles and booted the ball long to the frustration of his manager on the touchline. It was the greatest example of what Arsenal look like without Saliba and incredibly frustratingly, there’s obvious parallels to last season’s injuries that came at the worst possible time.