Lars Capiau
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Arsenal suffered a painful defeat at home on Thursday evening. West Ham United ultimately proved too strong with a 0-2 scoreline the Gunners. Thanks to goals from Tomás Soucek, which were preceded by a questionable ball or not, and a header from Konstantinos Mavropanos, West Ham ultimately defeated Mikel Arteta's team. Arsenal remains second but loses expensive points in the battle for the championship, where West Ham takes sixth place in the rankings.
Bee the Hammers, where John Heitinga is David Moyes' assistant, ex-Ajax players Mohammed Kudus and Edson Álvarez appeared at the kick-off. At Arsenal, Leandro Trossard replaced Kai Havertz in the starting eleven.
The first chances of the match were for Arsenal. After a nice heel ball from Martin Ødegaard, Saka shot safely at Alphonse Aréola, after which a long-distance attempt from Trossard also flew over.
Moments later, West Ham scored. In the thirteenth minute, the East Londoners took the lead at the Emirates Stadium. There was quite a bit of fuss about that goal.
An Emerson cross was frantically defended by the Arsenal defense, after which Jarrod Bowen passed the ball to Soucek. The Czech simply walked in. The VAR needed several minutes to determine whether the goal was valid.
Bowen pulled the ball ahead after the ball was in the air on the edge of the back line. Gunners claimed in vain that the ball was out of bounds, as the video referee ultimately agreed with the judgment made on the field.
Arsenal tried to shake it off and straightened up again. A header from Saka was catharticly parried by Areola and an attempt from Gabriel Martinelli sailed narrowly wide of the goal. After a great through ball from Ødegaard, Saka came closest to the equalizer: his shot from a difficult angle exploded onto the post.
In the second half, Arsenal again tried to force an equalizer. Declan Rice came close. If the bar had been twenty centimeters higher, he would have been accurate against his old team.
A minute or two later, West Ham reached 0-2 against the odds. Ex-Arsenal defender Mavropanos headed home from one of James Ward-Prowse's life-threatening corners. He celebrated his goal subdued.
Arsenal then looked in vain for the tying goal. Gabriel Jesus (header), Ødegaard (wide), Trossard (areola save) and Eddie Nketiah (bicycle kick) all tried, but were unsuccessful. It seemed to get worse in injury time, but a penalty from Saïd Benrahma was saved by David Raya.
Arsenal suffers a painful defeat in the battle for the Premier League championship. It is still second, but fails to catch up to Aston Villa, which lost 3-2 to Manchester United on Tuesday. Liverpool is the big winner of the midweek match and leads the rankings with 42 points.
| No. | Team | M | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 23 | 42 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 19 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 18 | 40 |
| 3 | Aston Villa | 19 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 15 | 39 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 18 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 22 | 37 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 36 |
| 6 | West Ham United | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 33 |
| 7 | Manchester United | 19 | 10 | 1 | 8 | -4 | 31 |
| 8 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 19 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 30 |
| 9 | Newcastle United | 19 | 9 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 29 |
| 10 | Chelsea | 19 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 25 |
| 11 | Wolverhampton W. | 19 | 7 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 25 |
| 12 | AFC Bournemouth | 18 | 7 | 4 | 7 | -5 | 25 |
| 13 | Fulham | 19 | 6 | 3 | 10 | -8 | 21 |
| 14 | Brentford | 18 | 5 | 4 | 9 | -3 | 19 |
| 15 | Crystal Palace | 19 | 4 | 6 | 9 | -9 | 18 |
| 16 | Nottingham Forest | 19 | 4 | 5 | 10 | -12 | 17 |
| 17 | Everton | 19 | 8 | 2 | 9 | -1 | 16 |
| 18 | Luton Town | 18 | 4 | 3 | 11 | -13 | 15 |
| 19 | Burnley | 19 | 3 | 2 | 14 | -20 | 11 |
| 20 | Sheffield United | 19 | 2 | 3 | 14 | -32 | 9 |
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