Rory Jennings shocked by ‘huge’ info Soucek shared after West Ham win v Arsenal. Rory Jennings was left in disbelief about what Tomas Soucek said after West Ham United beat Arsenal 1-0 in their Premier League clash on Saturday.
The Hammers unexpectedly managed to beat Mikel Arteta’s men on 23 February with the East London outfit only having two shots on target throughout the clash.
Thanks to their win over the Gunners, Graham Potter’s men now have 30 points to their name in the top flight and are 13 points ahead of 18th-placed Ipswich. However, West Ham’s victory wasn’t what Jennings was left shocked about.
Soucek leaves Jennings in disbelief after what he said about Mikel Merino
Over the past couple of weeks, Arsenal have been experimenting with Mikel Merino up front due to their distinct lack of a proper number nine to lead their attacking line.
While it may have worked out against Leicester as the Spaniard bagged both of Arsenal’s goals in their 2-0 win, it didn’t quite work out how Arsenal had planned against West Ham. Speaking to talkSPORT after the game, Soucek admitted that West Ham had some “information” about Arteta starting Merino up front.
This then led to Jennings sharing his thoughts on what the Czechia international said. “There’s one thing that we have to focus on from that interview, the final part of that interview there, he’s just dropped a huge piece of information,” he said on talkSPORT (22 February).
“He effectively told us that he had insider information, he told us that he knew that the Arsenal plan was to play Mikel Merino up front.
“He didn’t say it as if it was part of the education as we’ve seen him do it before, he knew that it was going to happen because he had some information.
“What’s happened there?”
Arsenal win could be a turning point for Graham Potter. Since Potter took over from Julen Lopetegui at the London Stadium, it’s been far from smooth sailing.
The Englishman found himself in charge of a massively underperforming team that spent almost £150million in the summer transfer window to try and better their ninth-placed finish from the season prior.
And, up until the former Brighton boss was appointed, the Hammers seemed destined to be on a one-way road towards the relegation battle which would have been a catastrophic failure.
Now that he’s settled in and managed to get more of an understanding about the players at his disposal, his tactical style alongside the way he trains seems to finally be rubbing off on the Hammers’ squad and thanks to this win over Arsenal, could end up being a turning point for the East London club. Indeed, only time will tell whether the Hammers can capitalise on this momentum they’ve earned but if they do, it could be the start of something special for Potter at the London Stadium.
