West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui left furious with £34m Arsenal star after 5-2 defeat

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During Arsenal’s brilliant first half performance against West Ham United, Julen Lopetegui was watching from the stands, not able to be on the touchline.

Unlike Mikel Arteta, who was orchestrating his Arsenal team beside the pitch, Lopetegui was serving a touchline ban – he was as distant as some of his West Ham players from the action early on.

Arsenal were rampant once again in east London, the away team took their tally to 11 goals in their last two visits to the London Stadium, a happy hunting ground for Arteta.

That being said, it was Arsenal’s brilliance from set pieces that began the scoring, a goal scored by Gabriel Magalhaes and assisted by Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Jover.

Once again, it was very obvious that Gabriel was going to be the target of another well-planned set-piece, but that doesn’t make him any easier to stop.

Julen Lopetegui unhappy with Jurrien Timber’s role in Arsenal’s opener

However, when reflecting on the game when speaking to Sky Sports, Lopetegui had one complaint about Gabriel’s opener.

The Spaniard spotted the clever role that Jurrien Timber played at the near post – it was his job to push Lucas Paqueta out of the way.

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From Arsenal’s perspective it was another moment of ‘dark arts’ brilliance, but Lopetegui wasn’t so enamored with the action.

Without naming Timber, Lopetegui made it clear that he thought the Dutchman committed a foul.

He said: “In the first-half, there is one player that bumped into the back of Paqueta with the only intention that he can’t jump.

“The first goal was key but the stuff after are things that we can do better. Sometimes we prepare for matches and we don’t know what is allowed or not. The rules have to be the same for all of us.”

Jurrien Timber avoided Oleksandr Zinchenko mistake

Interestingly, Timber spoke about budging Paqueta, claiming it was like an assist for Gabriel’s goal.

The Dutchman certainly understood the brief when he was in Arsenal’s pre-corner huddle, one led by Gabriel.

Although, it was interesting to note that Timber passed on the opportunity to provide too much of an insight into Arsenal’s tactics when quizzed after the game.

Oleksandr Zinchenko made a big mistake in that regard recently, one that Arteta surely would have been frustrated with.

But either way, the whole club will be gleefully reflecting on three wins in three after the international break, and a great glut of goals.