West Ham 1 Arsenal 5: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admits he was worried about spurned chances… before Alexis Sanchez ran riot with 14-minute hat-trick
ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger admitted there were nervy periods in the game for him - despite seeing his side thrash West Ham 5-1 away from home.
The Gunners were holding a 1-0 lead until the 72 minute of the game at the London Stadium, and had spurned a number of chances.
Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain were the guilty parties on the whole, but once Alexis Sanchez scored the first of a magnificent hat-trick, the floodgates well and truly opened.
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Speaking after the game, Wenger said: "We had very strong periods in the game but we didn't take advantage of many of the chances created.
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"But overall I am pleased with the result and the performance.
On hat-trick hero Sanchez, Wenger added: "It took him a while mentally to get into the game, but he can always give you something special. He’s a fighter and a classy player. You don’t find many players like him. He can always surprise you. He also has great technique as well and he has been exceptional."
Asked whether spurned chances may have come to haunt Arsenal teams of the past, Wenger said: "It happened to us last year, but West Ham lacks confidence at the moment, you feel they need to win a big game to come back to their confidence level.
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But in stark contrast, West Ham boss Slaven Bilic was scathing of his under-performing footballers.
He said: "I am not looking for excuses, okay we had injuries, made mistakes, but we were not good enough.
"It was humiliation, I feel sorry for the fans for the club.
"We have played some good games this season, and we had some good moments, even today at 0-0 and 1-0, but we have to be honest and say we don't have the intensity, and from that comes dedication and quality.
"We don't have it enough in training. We have it occasionally in games, that's why we are so up and down. That's the main reason we can't do it for 90 minutes.
"Whenever Arsenal had the ball it was likely they would have a clean shot on goal."
Bilic sure has work to do to turnaround his side's fortunes, and cut a disconsolate figure in the aftermath of a crushing home defeat.