Laurent Koscielny feels Arsenal’s failure to pick up in the final third is the reason behind their defeat to West Ham United.
A lacklustre performance from the Gunners saw them crashing to their third defeat in the last six games. Declan Rice’s first goal for his club earned them a huge three points at the London stadium.
Unai Emery left Lucas Torreira and Aaron Ramsey from the starting lineup and introduced a three man backline to prevent the Hammers from open their scoring. But former Arsenal player Samir Nasri came back to haunt them as he laid a perfect ball to Rice who latched up on it which later proved to be the winner for the London giants.
Koscielny laments his side’s inactivity. “I think in the final third we needed to keep more calm and not try to find the final ball and to continue to play with movement.
“In the second half we didn’t stop but conceded the goal early. We had some chances and we didn’t score. It is difficult to win if you don’t score. We need to keep our ambition and our game. We can come back.
“We needed to be clean with the ball and we weren’t. In football if you give a small chance to your opponent you pay and today we did.
“When you are arriving towards Christmas you know it is a big period and it is hard to compete at the same level.
“We started the new year with a win and we prepared for this game and came here with ambition for three points but we need to keep calm and focused on how we want to play.”
