Arsenal vs West Ham results: Gunners returned to the top four after a long time

Line-ups

• Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Magalhaes, Tierney, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Lacazette
• West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Lanzini, Fornals, Bowen, Antonio

Match preview and head to head history

Arsenal and West Ham are chasing each other with not a big difference in their points. Arsenal, the club that used to be the top-flight club in every season of the Premier League in the 2000s. They were even called “The Invincibles” in the 2003-04 season for their excellent performances that were unbeaten in 49 consecutive games. 

However, in recent seasons since the 2010s, they rarely finished in the top four of the Premier League, and only qualified for the Europa League most of the time. 

West Ham United, on the other hand, has never won the Premier League. Their highest position in this competition (Football League First Division) was the third finish in the 1985-86 season. However, they have performed amazingly in this campaign and have been in the top four in the 2021-22 Premier League for a while.

Regarding their head-to-head record, since Mikel Arteta became the manager of the Gunners, Arsenal have never been beaten by the club from East London. Arteta, who used to be a player of Everton that were managed by David Moyes who is the current head coach of West Ham, seemed to be in conflict with this old teacher. 

The proof is that Arteta’s club has never lost to Moyes’ students. In the last four matches between these two clubs in different competitions, Arsenal achieved three wins and only one draw. 

So it was pretty hard to determine which club would win this game to gain a slot in the top four of the 2021-22 Premier League. 

Two young Arsenal players sent the club to the top four

The game between Brentford and Man United was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Red Devils squad. Therefore, Arsenal and West Ham met each other sooner than expected, which created a big chance for Arsenal to jump into the top four if they could surpass their rival at Emirates Stadium.

In the first half, both clubs had several shots to look for an opening goal. Especially, Arsenal played more dramatically but they couldn’t defeat the defending line of the visitors. In the 40th minute, Kieran Tierney had a really nice and dangerous shot from a far distance, but unfortunately, the ball touched the bar and Arsenal couldn’t get their first goal. Just four minutes later, Arsenal made Lukasz Fabianski confusingly stop another difficult shot from Alexandre Lacazette. 

In the 49th minute, all the efforts from the home club were paid off with the goal from a young Brazilian forward Gabriel Martinelli. The French vice-captain did a really good job to have an accurate and favorable pass for Martinelli to score over the defending line of West Ham without an off-side. 

Gabriel Martinelli scored the opening goal for the Gunners

Being led with one goal, West Ham raised their squad and had more counterattacks. However, in the 67th minute, Coufal from West Ham, unfortunately, received his second yellow card, which was equivalent to a red card to be sent off the pitch due to his foul with Lacazette in the penalty area. It was even harder for the visitors to play with only 10 men while being surpassed by the home team. 

Lacazette then missed out on the penalty goal and Arsenal couldn’t double their difference with West Ham. Saka, after failing in his shot to score the second goal for Arsenal, redeemed himself with an assist for young player Smith Rowe to break the rival’s net in the 87th minute.

Smith Rowe scored the second goal for Arsenal

The final result was 2-0 for Arsenal, which led to their fourth position in the 2021-22 Premier League table with 29 points, only one point greater than the fifth-placed team West Ham. Although it is not a really big thing like winning the Premier League or Champions League, being in the top four of this Premier League season has been a sign of luck and pride for them. It has been a long time since the Gunners have a slot in the top four of this English’s highest division. 

References

Wikipedia

Betimate.com

theathletic.com