Danny Welbeck on target as Arsenal brush aside West Ham and move into the EFL Cup semi-finals

Qualifying for the semi-finals of the EFL Cup is nice, but having a fit and firing Danny Welbeck back will be of far more value to Arsenal over the second half of this long season.

Welbeck scored the only goal here in an utterly forgettable 1-0 defeat of West Ham United, bundling in a scrappy close-ranger. It cannot even be described as the only moment of quality of a game which had none. But Welbeck’s all-round contribution was by far the most significant aspect of the evening for Arsenal, who always look stronger and more dangerous with him in the team.

Welbeck’s season has been disrupted by a groin injury and so this evening felt like something of a restart for the England striker. This was Welbeck’s first goal since he scored two here against Bournemouth back on 9 September. Even more importantly, it was his first full 90 minutes for Arsenal since 27 August, almost four months ago. But he looked fit and sharp, starting on the left and running in behind. His pace nearly won a penalty off Joe Hart in the second half too.

Arsenal’s front three of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette is well-established now but those three cannot play every single game, especially not at this time of year. Arsenal have a huge Christmas period ahead of them, with Liverpool to come here on Friday and then Chelsea on 3 January. They will need to rotate, of course, and Ozil and Sanchez could be the subject of disruptive January window bids. The fact that Olivier Giroud limped out of tonight’s game with a hamstring injury will further disrupt their winter options.

The football itself could not have done much to warm up the sparse crowd here, almost a record low for this stadium. Arsenal had a belt-and-braces midfield, with Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin holding, but passed it between themselves ponderously. West Ham, sitting deep in their 5-3-2, were happy to wait and play on the break. It was not a great advert for the EFL Cup.

But just when David Moyes’ side were five minutes away from making it to half-time, West Ham switched off and Arsenal were in. When Sead Kolasinac charged down the left and whipped in a first-time cross, Theo Walcott had more than enough time and space to score, but rushed into a diving header which flew wide.

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Just one minute later, another cross from a full-back helped Arsenal into the lead. Coquelin picked out the run of Mathieu Debuchy who headed the ball back into the box. Welbeck got the run on Winston Reid, outmuscled him to win the header and bundled the ball in.

There is no value in narrowly losing an EFL Cup quarter-final but West Ham still struggled to have any real impact on the game. The closest they came to scoring was one Aaron Cresswell free-kick that still curled yards wide of the goal. West Ham needed something different so David Moyes threw on Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho for Cresswell and Hernandez. With Carroll’s first action, he sent Coquelin sprawling on the floor.

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That was the extent of Carroll’s influence on the game. Even when West Ham launched the ball towards him, he could not win it, control it or hold it. Marko Arnautovic, their best attacking player right now, came on for the final seven minutes but too late to affect the game. With no Michail Antonio or Manuel Lanzini either, this was a team with no attacking edge at all.

Arsenal in fact looked likelier to score in the final minutes, not that they needed to. They might have had a penalty when Welbeck was brought down by Hart, but Kevin Friend gave it as a free-kick on the edge of the box. More important than any second goal was Welbeck making it to the end, effectively now an extra addition to Arsenal’s forward options this winter.