Ian Wright has weighed in on Arsenal’s defeat to West Ham, expressing his disappointment as the Gunners lost further ground in the Premier League title race. The result was a major setback for Mikel Arteta’s side, who had the opportunity to put pressure on Liverpool before the Reds play their match tomorrow.

Liverpool have not been flawless this season, but they remain at the top of the table largely because Arsenal have also dropped crucial points at key moments. If the Gunners are serious about winning silverware, they must produce more consistent performances, something they failed to do against West Ham.

Arsenal will have more opportunities to pick up points in upcoming fixtures, but their inability to capitalise even when their rivals struggle is a worrying trend. Against West Ham, they lacked creativity and struggled to break down a well-organised defensive unit, failing to convert possession into clear chances. Wright, who watched the match closely, was left frustrated by their lack of attacking threat.

Speaking on Premier League Productions, the former Arsenal striker analysed the game and credited West Ham for their defensive efforts while highlighting Arsenal’s struggles.

“It was always going to be a tough one with the forwards missing. You need something to happen with set-pieces, or someone like Ethan Nwaneri. Not enough creativity, you have to give West Ham credit for the defending they did,” Wright said.

Martin Odegaard has admitted that Arsenal were simply not good enough in their 1-0 defeat to West Ham in the Premier League this afternoon. The Gunners struggled to break down a well-organised West Ham side, who executed their game plan effectively to frustrate Mikel Arteta’s team.

Just a week ago, Arsenal were celebrating a dramatic late win against Leicester City, courtesy of two late goals from Mikel Merino. However, the Spaniard was in the starting lineup today but was unable to make the same impact against a stronger opponent.

Arsenal’s lack of an out-and-out striker has been a talking point throughout the season, and their attacking struggles were evident once again against the Hammers. Despite dominating possession, they failed to make the most of their opportunities in front of goal.

Speaking after the match, Odegaard acknowledged that the team’s performance was below the required standard. In an interview with Premier League Productions, he expressed his disappointment at the result and admitted they must improve.

“Performance today wasn’t good enough, and yeah, really disappointed. We let them run too easily on the counter, we weren’t sharp enough on the counter or our final third efficiency. We are missing players, but we have to focus on the players that are available, and we have more than enough quality to do more than what we did today.

On Friday, a federal judge partly blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to root out programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, within the government.

That includes at least one far-reaching executive order titled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” in which the president claimed DEI programs are illegal. As my colleague Alex Nguyen reported at the time:

[The order] argues that DEI programs violate civil rights laws by illegally enforcing “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” that “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.” The White House also claimed that these policies are discriminatory because they select based on “how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.”  

As the New York Times has reported in detail, Maryland District Judge Adam B. Abelson barred the Trump administration from any effort to “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards, contracts or obligations” related to diversity and inclusion, noting that such programs have been seen as “uncontroversially legal for decades.”

Arsenal was beaten 1-0 by West Ham at the Emirates this afternoon in what can only be described as a very disappointing performance.. Here is our player ratings.

David Raya – 6.0
He did not have much to do in the game and had no chance of stopping Bowen’s goal.

Jurrien Timber – 5.0
Despite Arsenal’s possession, he did not offer productive attacking support.

William Saliba – 6.0
He was as reliable as ever but did not have much work to do for much of the game as West Ham attacked other defenders.

Gabriel Magalhães – 5.0
He had a bad day at the office and struggled with the relentlessness of Bowen and the other West Ham attackers.

On Tuesday, leaders at the National Science Foundation reportedly laid off about 170 employees, many via Zoom—an estimated 10 percent of the agency’s workers. One of those workers spoke to Mother Jones, requesting anonymity, about the chaotic and emotional meeting, and what the job losses mean for the $9 billion agency, which is tasked with funding and supporting the country’s academic research. Here’s their account in their own words.

At 9 a.m., we got an email from HR calling us for a meeting at 10 am. There was no agenda offered. But many of us suspected what it was.

Initially, the Zoom invitation listed all of the people who were going to be fired as co-hosts of the meeting, so they sent a second invite. Because of the confusion about which invitation was the correct one, a lot of people joined late. And so, at first, people who came late didn’t hear what the meeting was about.

They told us we were being terminated. People were angry. People were crying. It was just confusing, too. We were told, you could resign or you could be terminated. How do I know what to do? Some people had thought, I had finished my one-year probation. I am not a probationary employee. We were told the agency had made a mistake—it should have been two years, and they’d corrected that.

President Donald Trump is taking aim at the US Postal Service. 

According to a Thursday report from the Washington Post‘s Jacob Bogage, the president plans to fire the members of USPS’ board and hand the keys to the agency over to the Department of Commerce.

Trump plans to make the move through executive order as early as this week, the Post reports. The board reportedly intends to take the administration to court if Trump carries out the firings or tries to take control, with postal experts telling the Washington Post that absorbing the independent agency would likely violate federal law. A White House spokesperson later denied the report.

After his re-election, Trump discussed privatizing the Postal Service with Howard Lutnick—later confirmed as Commerce Secretary—at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to a separate Post article from December.

Arsenal took a massive hit to their title aspirations losing to West Ham United 1-0 at the Emirates this afternoon.

The Gunners began the game in top form as they looked to build on their last win, with Martin Odegaard, Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino looking to make things happen early on.

However, West Ham were also in good shape and prepared to make a statement on this visit to the Emirates.

Both teams continued to get some chances as the match went on, but none were exactly big chances, and neither side looked like scoring.

As the half continued, Arsenal laboured to get close to opening the scoring, only for things to go from bad to worse.

Welcome to Today in Books. In this weekend edition, a look at all the news Book Riot covered this week.