Arsenal humbled by West Ham and are out of the Cup

When VAR intervenes in the Premier League, quite often the result is not good, and mistakes happen. But when VAR is not in use, we go back to the times when three referees were the only beholders. And in the Round 4 the Carabao Cup, game between West Ham and Arsenal was without VAR and again, the result was not good. It was 16th minute when Ben White gave the lead to the hosts with an own goal. Problem is, the goal would be nullified due to Soucek's foul on Aaron Ramsdale, but the referees didn't saw it. This situation dictated the rest of the match, as West Ham won 3-0 only for the second time in the last 17 games with Arsenal.

It wouldn't be fair to say that only this suspicious goal was the reason Arsenal lost. West Ham had zero shots in the first half and were leading just because of White's mistake, but the Gunners didn't use a couple of good chances in that period, and totally sunk after Mohammed Kudus scored the second goal of the match. Arteta made six changes from the Sheffield game and that certainly influenced their display, as Saka, Martinelli, Rice and Saliba, among others didn't start the match. When they came in, it was too late. Out of one cup, coach Mikel Arteta has to shake up his team, who is travelling to a tricky road game against Newcastle on Saturday.

Arsenal did have a promising start of the match as Havertz took a shot only to see Fabianski tips it over. But despite the dominance, this unfortunate first goal came in the 17th minute. The guests still had a chance to equalize in the first part of the game when Nketiah took a shot after a corner kick but the ball went over the bar.

The second half started with a terrific chance for West Ham, but it was Ramsdale who saved the Gunners with a great save after a shot from Bowen. The ball was near the goal line, but White prevented anyone from touching it and scoring the goal. But the Ghanaian international stepped up minutes later and took a precise shot into the bottom right corner, through the legs of Gabriel. Arteta introduced Tomiyasu and Rice instead of Zinchenko and Jorginho but the immiediate result was the third goal. This time it was Bowen who took a shot which deflected from Kiwior's thigh straight into the face of Ramsdale, who saved it initially in self-defense, but the ball went into the net. Saka, Martinelli and captain Odegaard all came in inside the last 30 minutes, but only thing they could do was a consolation goal deep in injury time.