From the Newsroom - Matty Lawless

The Mail Online's Matty Lawless gives his opinion on a disappointing day at the office for the Hammers at Arsenal

The Mail Online's Matty Lawless gives his opinion on a disappointing day at the office for the Hammers at Arsenal...

You may have noticed a Twitter exchange between myself and one of West Ham's media team, Rob Pritchard, on Saturday.

It wasn't a spat. It wasn't a row. It was merely a difference of opinion.

Rob rightly looks for a positive outlook for such instances. Heaven knows he's had a lot of practice in his seven years at the club.

Usually I do too. But there was a massive sense of frustration from me and, like most do these days, I used social media as the forum to get it off my chest and into the open.

I labelled the defeat - adding to a woeful run of just one win in our last 12 games - as 'abject'.

"Was it really 'abject'?" Rob responded. "I've seen abject performances over the years and that was far from the worst."

Well, yes, in my frank opinion it was. One shot on target over the entire 90 minutes (compared to Arsenal's nine). Total passes 271 (Arsenal 591). Possession of just 32.2%. And most importantly, 3-0 to Arsenal.

West Ham were never at the races in this game. Admittedly, when one parts with £36.50 (a fair price in comparison to many other Premier League clubs by the way) of his hard-earned money, one fully expects to be backing the wrong horse as a visiting fan to the Emirates Stadium.

But you expect to put up a bit more of a battle in a London derby. One shot on target? In 90 minutes? If that's not abject, I'm struggling to fathom what is.

You can't blame the striker. I thought Diafra Sakho worked tirelessly and could have been a threat had he been adequately supplied. I thought the defence played well. Adrian, Chiekhou Kouyate and James Collins were particularly decent in the opening 45 minutes before Olivier Giroud produced a moment of magic in stoppage time. It felt unfair. They deserved better in truth.

But that was it. Game over. Resigned to a defeat.

What rankled more was that only Kouyate had the decency to come and thank the travelling support yesterday. Whether you play well or not, regardless of the result, the team should do always do that. Not one fan there booed them yesterday. All united in support. A small show of appreciation, for that wouldn't have gone amiss.

Nevertheless, I agree with Rob that we have been dreadfully unlucky at times in this second half of the season. In fact, there's a mighty good argument to say we ought to have beaten Manchester United and Spurs. We were unfortunate not to take anything away from Chelsea too.

In all of those games we were excellent. And so when you change from the Hammersmith and City line at Kings Cross onto the Piccadilly line for the short trek to Arsenal, you go in hope that the team will be there to give it another good go. Of course, it wasn't to be.

The break to Dubai was intended to rejuvenate the players. We came back to action with unexpected injuries (not sustained on the mini-break, I should add) to two key players, while some of the others simply played like they were still on the beach. It just wasn't good enough for me.

The past run of fixtures have been massively difficult. However, we have a rather more forgiving run-in from here on in, so it's time to be putting points back on the board.

I genuinely believe that this is one of the finest squads we have had at this club in some time. I'm a big supporter of the manager and his staff too. And I believe they will finish this season with a flourish.

They owe it to the supporters but most of all, they all owe it to themselves.

After that exceptional start to the season, it would be an incredible shame to let all that hard work go to waste.

See you all at Upton Park for Sunderland on Saturday. Come on you Irons!

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United.