Arsenal bounced back from their heavy defeat by Chelsea last weekend with an efficient FA Cup fourth-round defeat of last year’s runners-up, West Ham. A stunning side-footed volley from Lia Wälti and a first-half goal from Katie McCabe ensured the Gunners remain in the hunt in four competitions and for a 15th FA Cup title.

“It was important to show a reaction because last week we were not playing the way we want to,” Wälti said, while their manager, Joe Montemurro, said he was proud of the turnaround. “The maturity of this team is that it can slow games up when it needs to; it can control games when it needs too,” he said.

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The second all-WSL tie of the FA Cup fourth round was in the end routine for Arsenal but West Ham have previously tested Montemurro’s free-flowing side. Their three league meetings since the Hammers launched a women’s team and entered the top tier went Arsenal’s way but all were close – 4-3, 4-2 and, most recently, 2-1 last September. The form of Matt Beard’s West Ham team, though, has been patchy, producing only seven wins in their 15 games since that defeat, and none back to back. Beard opted for three centre-backs with the England Under-20 captain, Grace Fisk, who joined in December, slotting in alongside Gilly Flaherty and Katharina Baunach and his wing-backs dropped into a back five whenever Arsenal pressed forward.

For the visiting team this game had the added importance of following their bruising 4-1 home defeat by Chelsea in the WSL. Lose and they would have gone into back-to-back games against Manchester City in the League Cup and WSL having suffered consecutive competitive defeats for the first time in 20 months.

Any nerves, though, were settled early on. With the Arsenal super-fan Maria going solo in her jovial chanting battle with the home crowd, the Gunners put pressure on the tight West Ham lines.

Just shy of the 20-minute mark they were one up after Kim Little raced into the penalty box, looked around and laid the ball back to McCabe, who cut inside from the left and lashed home.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Esmee de Graaf of West Ham clears the ball under pressure from Arsenal’s Leonie Maier. Photograph: Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United FC via Getty Images

Montemurro had relegated the wide players, Lisa Evans and Beth Mead, to the bench and pushed McCabe back into defence against Chelsea, sacrificing their potent width as they attempted to dominate in the middle, and it proved costly. Here they were restored to the starting XI and their more natural berths and the impact was clear with McCabe and Mead linking well. The former swung the ball to Mead at the back post but her side-footed volley was over.

West Ham were not without chances of their own, Kenza Dali’s powerful cross with just a little too much in it for Julia Simic to be able to direct her header on target. “It’s the toughest draw we could have got,” Beard said. “But it shouldn’t take for me at half-time to show five clips and raise my voice a little bit for them to do it. I need to find out why it’s happening. It’s too many times I’ve had to go in at half-time and tweak things or show them exactly what we’ve asked them to do and why.”

Absorbing a spell of West Ham pressure after the break, Dali collected a clearance on the edge of the box and swiped her shot off the bar for a fine effort – Arsenal looking dangerous with every attack. The England forward Mead punished the Hammers for not capitalising on their period of possession with a pinpoint delivery from a corner that Wälti beautifully converted on the volley with 17 minutes to play. It was her first Arsenal goal.