Former West Ham United coach Stuart Pearce believes Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey was ‘awful’ during Sunday’s dramatic 2-2 Premier League draw at the London Stadium.
For all the improvements he has made during his third season as a Gunners player, the former Atletico Madrid enforcer is still capable of putting in the odd performance like this.
Games where his feet appear constructed out of lead. When his sat nav malfunctions. When he makes the sort of mistake which paved the way for West Ham’s unexpected comeback at the London Stadium; Partey gifting the ball to Declan Rice mere moments before Lucas Paqueta was sent flying in the penalty area and Said Benrahma slammed home the resulting spot-kick.
Jarrod Bowen then slammed home a deserved equaliser shortly after half-time; profiting after Ben White and Rob Holding were slow to react at the second phase of a typically threatening West Ham set-piece.
Pearce, who had two spells alongside David Moyes between 2017 and 2022, is still backing Mikel Arteta’s side to snatch the Premier League title from under Manchester City’s nose. But they cannot afford many more performances like this. Not with City, Brighton and Newcastle United coming over the next few weeks.
Arsenal’s Premier League hopes suffer a blow at West Ham
“This was probably the best half hour they’ve played against West Ham, and probably the worst hour after that. I have never seen so many Arsenal players this season play so badly,” Pearce tells talkSPORT (17 April, 10am).
“Partey was awful. (Bukayo) Saka, almost non-existent. And these players have been the mainstays. I don’t know what influenced the performance. But I still fancy them to win the title.”
After throwing away a two-goal lead at Anfield seven days earlier, history repeated itself for Arsenal against relegation-threatened West Ham. Just to add to the frustration, Saka fired a second-half penalty wide mere moments before Bowen’s equaliser.
On such moments, titles are so frequently decided.
“When they went 2-0 up, West Ham were out of the game,” Pearce adds; Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard both scoring within ten minutes of kick off. What they should have done is just kept going after West Ham. If they kept doing that, they probably would have got four or five,”
“But they didn’t do that. They sat off, and they allowed Declan Rice to squeeze up the pitch and get a press on. That’s where the goal came from. The momentum changed.”
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