Arsenal go aeriel route to fend off Spurs in top four race
Arsenal's Gabriel Magalhaes celebrates scoring his sides second goal during the Premier League match at the London Stadium. Picture:John Walton/PA Wire
Arsenal picked up the gauntlet flung down by Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the day to go back ahead of their North London rivals in the quest for a top-four finish.
Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Leicester City had moved them a point and a place ahead of the Gunners but a derby victory in East London restored Arsenal's two-point lead.
Unusually, Arsenal’s goals came were headers by central defenders following corners. Rob Holding put them ahead after 38 sterile minutes with his first Premier League goal in his six seasons with the club. Jarrod Bowen levelled for West Ham just before half-time, but Gabriel restored Arsenal’s lead nine minutes into the second half.
Arsenal had to work hard for the points - harder, in fact, than they might have been led to expect. West Ham manager David Moyes had been expected to make wholesale alterations to his starting 11 in order to rest players for Thursday’s do-or-die Europa League semi-final second leg away to Eintracht Frankfurt. Craig Dawson was already suspended but in the event Moyes made only four changes, including benching the overworked Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio.
Jarrod Bowen was asked to fill the central striking role, but early on he popped all over the forward areas as the home side looked to put pressure on an Arsenal defence missing Ben White, who was ruled out with a tight hamstring.
To describe the first half as a slow burner would be putting it very mildly. Neither goalkeeper had a save to make in the opening 20 minutes although both had to punch away inswinging corners. Arsenal looked most dangerous when Bukayo Saka tried to force his way in from the right but West Ham always had enough men scurrying back to cover.
Veteran Hammers club captain Mark Noble, making only his third league start of the season, seemed to appreciate what was at stake in a London derby, no matter what extra pressure the league positions might exert.
He was driving his team forward with as much passion as anyone and Holding, standing in for White, came to Arsenal’s rescue after 29 minutes by blocking Manuel Lanini’s shot after a cross by Vladimir Coufal had been deflected across the visitors’ penalty area.
But it took until the 33rd minute for a shot to reach a goalkeeper, a tame effort from Declan Rice barely troubling Aaron Ramsdale. But it was more than Arsenal had managed, a strange circumstance for a side supposedly battling for a Champions League place.
The Gunners obviously thought so too as they suddenly burst into life. First Eddie Nketiah slalomed through from the left and forced Lukasz Fabianski to push his low shot away for a corner. And when Saka arced the kick into the West Ham penalty area, Holding escaped the marking of Lanzini to glance a header into the bottom corner.
West Ham looked for a quick reply and Ramsdale had to save well from Rice’s near-post header. But they were not denied for long. In the final minute of the first half, Coufal found Bowen with a short pass inside the penalty area with the defence expecting a cross and the forward’s quickly-struck shot took enough of a touch off Gabriel to give Ramsdale no chance.
Arsenal must have feared the worst after 52 minutes when Bowen, running onto a long pass, went down in a heap after Ramsdale had rushed from his goal to intercept, but referee Mike Dean showed Bowen yellow for simulation.
Within seconds Saka had forced a save from Fabianski at his near post, and from the corner kick, Arsenal retook the lead. Gabriel Martinelli fastened onto West Ham’s half-clearance and flighted the ball back across goal, where defender Gabriel Magalhaes had worked his way free of markers to head home unchallenged.
Nketiah twice had chances to extend Arsenal’s lead on the break but first shot wastefully wide then saw Fabianski sprawl to his left to save.
Fabianski 7; Coufal 7, Zouma 7, Cresswell 6, Fredericks 6; Noble 7 (Soucek 77), Rice 7; Fornals 7, Lanzini 6 (Antonio 71), Benrahma 5 (Yarmolenko 81); Bowen 7.
Areola, Vlasic, Diop, Masuaku, Kral, Alese.
Booked: Bowen.
Ramsdale 7; Tomiyasu 6 (Soares 77), Holding 8, Gabriel 7, Tavares 6; Xhaka 6, Elneny 7; Saka 7 (Smith Rowe 87), Odegaard 7 (Lokonga 90), Martinelli 7; Nketiah 7.
Leno, Lacazette, Pepe, Lokonga, Kirk, Oulad M’hand, Swanson.
Booked: Saka, Nketiah.
Mike Dean 7.
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