Arsenal overturn deficit to win over West Ham Arsenal overturned its deficit in the first half, to a precious victory over its guest and neighbor London West Ham United 3-1 on Monday evening, in the seventeenth round of the English Premier League.
Arsenal overturn deficit to win over West Ham
Algeria's Said Benrahma scored West Ham's only goal from the penalty spot in the 27th minute, before Arsenal scored a hat-trick in the second half through Bukayo Saka (53), Gabriel Martinelli (58) and Eddy Nketiah (69).
Arsenal expanded the lead with Manchester City to 8 points temporarily, after reaching 40 points, while West froze at 14 points in sixteenth place.
The match marked a special occasion when legendary coach Arsene Wenger returned to the Emirates Stadium for the first time after leaving the team in 2018.
In the absence of injured Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta relied on Englishman Eddie Nketiah in the front line in a 4-3-3 formation, where Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli played around him in the front line, Thomas Partey played the role of the center, and in front of him Martin Odegaard and Granit Xhaka, while William Saliba teamed up with Gabriel Magalhães deep in the back line, supported by full-backs Ben White and Kieran Tierney.
West Ham manager David Moyes opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Vladimir Koval, Thilo Kehrher, Craig Dawson and Aaron Cresswell in the back line, Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek swapping roles in midfield, and the trio of Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and Said Benrahma moving behind striker Michael Antonio.
Arsenal scored a goal in the fifth minute, scored by Saka, but the referee ruled it out with the help of video technology for an offside situation in the goal-building shot.
Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale kept out a dangerous low cross from Bowen before it reached Antonio in the 11th minute, and two minutes later, West Ham goalkeeper Lukas Fabianski saved a shot from the edge of the box for Xhaka.
Arsenal almost opened the scoring in the 24th minute, when Odegaard sent a cross towards the far post, which Saka followed up into the side net from the outside.
The referee awarded a penalty to West Ham, after Saliba blocked Bowen, and Benrahma successfully struck the kick in the 27th minute.
Arsenal pressed in the last quarter of an hour of the first half in order to level the score, but collided with an organized defense from the away team, and the referee awarded a penalty to the home side in stoppage time, before retracting it after a video review, because the ball hit Cresswell's head and not his hand.
Arsenal levelled the score in the 53rd minute, when Odegaard broke into the right towards the depth, before passing a quick ball to unattended Saka who singled out the goalkeeper and calmly put the ball into the goal.
Five minutes later, Arsenal took the lead, when Martinelli received a pass from Xhaka down the left, to step up and block a creeping ball into the dead corner of goalkeeper Fabianski.
The morale of the Arsenal players rose after the second goal, and Nketiah wrote his name on the scorers' list, when he received a pass from Odegaard, to turn around in a distinctive way and get rid of Kehrher, before shooting into the net in the 69th minute.
West Ham tried to get back into the game, and Benrahma fired a shy shot away from the Arsenal goal in the 74th minute, after which his Spanish teammate Pablo Fornals entered instead of Soczek.
Arsenal came close to scoring a fourth goal in the 85th minute, when Saka passed to Odegaard who headed a shot that Dawson turned away.
In stoppage time, Ramsdale moved West Ham from scoring the second goal, when he skillfully saved Fornals' shot.