Arsene Wenger explains Arsenal's lack of sharpness after frustrating draw at West Ham

Arsene Wenger admitted that Arsenal lacked sharpness during their frustrating goalless draw against West Ham United and believes the Hammers were helped by having one day extra rest.

The Gunners visited the London Stadium on Wednesday night (13 December) in search for a victory following a 3-1 defeat to Manchester United and a 1-1 stalemate at Southampton.

However, Arsenal were instead held to a draw by a side that over the weekend – one day earlier – beat Chelsea in another London derby.

"There are some draws that are frustrating, this is one of them because we had a lot of the ball and we played against 10 men. It was 10 against 10 in the final third and we couldn't find an opening, a little bit through the fact that they defended very well.

"They are in a highly defensive phase, focused on that at the moment and it works for them, but they did that against City, Chelsea and here," Wenger said in the press conference.

"We lacked maybe a little bit of sharpness in the final third, we had many different good opportunities where they blocked our shots. I think that's where you see maybe if we played on Sunday and they played on Saturday, it would have been different on that front because they had more physical resources to defend with a lot of decisiveness.

Alexis Sanchez once again failed to make an impact but Wenger refused to single out the Chile international following Arsenal's third consecutive game without a win.

"It's difficult to say that but he tried tonight, he did fight. It was difficult because they defended very well too," the Arsenal boss said when asked about Sanchez's dip in form.

"He is [very ambitious] but in situations like that, you do not want to focus on one player. You focus more on the collective attitude of the team to keep them focused on the quality of our game. We created chances and that will come back."

Meanwhile, Wenger was satisfied with Jack Wilshere's performance with the England international making his first Premier League starting appearance of the season, alongside other regular fringe players like Olivier Giroud and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

"Jack did very well overall for a first game, especially in the first half," Wenger said. "He could add some sharpness but he defended well as well. For a first game, it's satisfying."