LONDON, Sporting Alert – Petr Cech had an English Premier League debut for Arsenal he’ll want to quickly forget after the goalkeeper made two blunders in his team’s 2-0 shocking defeat to West Ham at the Emirate on Sunday.
Cech, who signed from Chelsea this summer, made his first mistake on the day in the 43rd minute when he failed to handle a set piece from Dimitri Payet which allowed Cheikhou Kouyaté to head home for the 1-0 lead.
Debutant Payet, who had a Man of the Match performance for the Hammers, delivered a teasing ball inside the box, which Cech completely miss when he rushed out to punch, and Kouyate made the hosts paid by heading home into an opening net.
The summer recruit was again called into question in the second half when he misjudged an attempt from Mauro Zárate, who took advantage of an error in the Arsenal defense in the 57th minute.
Poor defending in the box and then a given away by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain saw Zárate popping up with the ball and the striker was delighted to see his shot from just outside the box finding the bottom left corner, as Cech was caught going the wrong way and failed to make up the deficit.
Arsenal dominated the possessions 62-percent to 38 percent, but Arsene Wenger’s men failed to take advantage of having so much of the ball.
Wenger was also criticized for leaving Theo Walcott out of his starting lineup and going with Olivier Giroud.
Alexis Sanchez also cut short his holiday to come off the bench for Arsenal, but not even him could save the Gunners from going down today, as Slaven Bilic made a winning start as manager of West Ham United in the English Premier League.
“We are all very pleased and it is great start for us. Not only for the three points but points against a team that are the title contenders,” Bilic said during his post match interview.
“If you add to that a London derby, it makes it a even bigger win. This is very special. I am very proud of the second half performance.
“I know we have a good team and I know we have that in ourselves but I wasn’t sure how we were going to show it.
“Sam Allardyce left me a good team and left me some quality in the side. We are still short of a few players but we have a chance to do a good job in the Premier League.”
It was also a good day for Reece Oxford, as the West Ham 16-year-old midfielder made his debut for the club.
“It was a dream debut,” he said. “I had Winston Reid and Angelo Ogbonna behind me encouraging me.
“It is an honour to be the youngest ever West Ham player. I found out last night I was playing, I was obviously happy.”
Arsenal: Cech, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud. Subs: Gibbs, Gabriel, Arteta, Ospina, Walcott, Sanchez, Chambers
West Ham: Adrian, Tomkins, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Oxford, Noble, Kouyate, Payet, Zarate, Sakho. Subs: Randolph, Nolan, Jarvis, Collins, Maiga, Poyet, Lanzini
Referee: Martin Atkinson
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