Posted in Arsenal, Premier League, WEST HAM UNITED

Arsenal turns the tables and defeats West Ham

 December 27, 2022

video goals : Arsenal – West Ham United Played on 12/26/ 2022

Arsenal overturned its failure in the first half, to a precious victory over its guest and London neighbor West Ham United 3-1 on Monday evening, within the 17th round of the English Premier League.

Algerian Said Benrahma scored West Ham’s only goal from a penalty kick in the 27th minute before Arsenal scored a hat-trick in the second half through Bukayo Saka (53), Gabriel Martinelli (58), and Eddie Nketiah (69).

Arsenal expanded the lead difference with Manchester City to 8 points temporarily, after reaching 40 points, while West’s balance froze at 14 points in the sixteenth place.

The match witnessed a special occasion, represented by the return of legendary coach Arsene Wenger, for the first time to the “Emirates” stadium, after leaving the team in 2018.

In the absence of the injured Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta relied on Englishman Eddie Nketiah in the front line in the 4-3-3 method of play, as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli played around him in the front line.

Thomas Partey played the role of the pivot player, and Martin Odegaard and Granit Xhaka advanced in front of him, while William Saliba cooperated with Gabriel in the depths of the back line, with the support of fullbacks Ben White and Kieran Tierney.

On the opposite side, West Ham coach David Moyes resorted to a 4-2-3-1 game plan, with Vladimir Koval, Thilo Keirer, Craig Dawson, and Aaron Cresswell in the back line.

Declan Rice and Thomas Sochik exchanged roles in the midfield, and the trio of Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, and Said Benrahma moved behind striker Antonio.

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Arsenal scored a goal in the fifth minute, which Saka scored, but the referee canceled it with the help of video technology, due to the presence of an offside situation in the goal-building shot.

Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale removed a dangerous low cross from Bowen before it reached Antonio in the 11th minute, and two minutes later, West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski blocked a shot from the outskirts of the penalty area for Xhaka.

Arsenal almost opened the scoring in the 24th minute, when Odegaard sent a cross towards the far post, which Saka followed into the side window from the outside.

The referee awarded a penalty kick to West Ham, after Saliba blocked Bowen, and Ben Rahma successfully hit the kick in the 27th minute.

And Arsenal pressed in the last quarter of the hour of the first half with the aim of equalizing the score, but it collided with an organized defense from the guest team, and the referee awarded a penalty kick to the landowner in stoppage time, before retracting it after reviewing the video, because the ball hit Cresswell’s head, not his hand.

Arsenal managed to equalize the score in the 53rd minute, when Odegaard stormed from the right into the depth, before passing a fast ball to unobserved Saka, who was alone with the goalkeeper and quietly put the ball into the goal.

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Five minutes later, Arsenal scored the lead goal, when Martinelli received a pass from Xhaka on the left, to advance 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 himself in a distinctive way and get rid of Keirer, before hitting the net in the 69th minute.

West Ham tried to return to the course of the match, and Ben Rahma fired a shy shot that went away from Arsenal’s goal in the 74th minute, after which his Spanish colleague Pablo Fornales entered instead of Sochik.

Arsenal came close to scoring the fourth goal in the 85th minute when Saka passed to Odegaard, who hit a ball that Dawson headed away.

And in stoppage time, goalkeeper Ramsdale and West Ham were denied scoring the second goal, when he skillfully blocked Fornalis’ shot, ending the match with the Gunners’ victory.

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