West Ham 2-2 Arsenal (Benrahma pen 33′, Bowen 54′ | Jesus 7′, Odegaard 10′, Saka missed pen 52′)
LONDON STADIUM — We’ve arrived at that stage of the season where significant incidents in significant matches become magnified and analysed in forensic detail.
Everybody is searching for clues to make their own minds up about where the Premier League trophy will end up. Perhaps it will remain in Manchester after all.
It’s too early to tell whether Bukayo Saka’s penalty miss has irrevocably shifted the momentum of this title race into Manchester City’s hands or whether this will prove a vital point for Arsenal after Michail Antonio missed the chance to complete an inconceivable West Ham fightback.
But when the margins at the top are so tight, the room for error is virtually nil. Arsenal are beginning to slip up and City are not.
Statistically, there’s very little to separate the two. Arsenal are four points better off but City have an extra game. City have the best attacking and defensive records in the division and Arsenal have the second-best. Their points records demonstrate that they are the best two teams in the country by a considerable distance.
But the intangibles are perhaps what set City apart. They have been in this position on numerous occasions before and have usually prospered; Arsenal have the second-youngest team in the division and are without a league title since 2004. City have shifted into relentless mode as the pressure has increased; Arsenal are stumbling at the crucial moment.
Mikel Arteta’s side may yet win the war, but their upcoming trip to the Etihad on 26 April increasingly looks like a do-or-die decider.
If Arsenal were to lose there, they could still end up on 92 points by winning their other six matches. That would be more than the Invincibles’ final tally of 90 and yet still may not be sufficient. Those are the standards that Pep Guardiola and his squad have set.
Twice in the space of a week, Arsenal have raced into a 2-0 lead away from home only to draw 2-2. And as at Anfield, they will be wondering quite how a game that they were in full control of was able to slip away. Never before had Arsenal ceded a two-goal advantage in consecutive Premier League games. Not even at the peak of their banter era.
The atmosphere at the London Stadium was noticably flat even before Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard had put the visitors two goals ahead before some home fans had even taken their seats. They knew what was coming. West Ham have generally been slow starters in league matches that have followed Thursday nights on the continent.
In their previous home game, West Ham gifted Newcastle a two-goal headstart after 13 minutes. Against Arsenal, it was 10. David Moyes has seen the start of this horror movie before. This time the ending was different.
Arsenal’s intricate interplay on the edge of the box is so precise that it can prise open the tightest of defences and cut through the most organised of pressing systems. It was no surprise then that they managed to break through against a bunch of claret and blue mannequins, Jesus applying the final touch to a well-worked team move.
SAKA MISSES THE PENALTY!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 16, 2023pic.twitter.com/BPhUevH4NT
The second that followed swiftly after was crafted on the opposite flank and finished at the other back post but was equally straightforward. West Ham’s defenders failed to close down Gabriel Martinelli and left a gigantic space for Odegaard to wander into and side-foot a finish past Lukasz Fabianski from close range.
At that stage, it looked as though Arsenal would follow City’s example set the day before when their game against Leicester was done and dusted by the 25th minute. Instead, the third goal of the game went the other way.
“We made a huge mistake to stop playing with the same purpose to score the third and fourth one,” Arteta acknowledged afterwards. “When a team is there for the taking you have to kill them.”
Granit Xhaka was accused of galvanising a disinterested Anfield crowd after a needless act of retribution against Trent Alexander-Arnold on Easter Sunday. This time, Thomas Partey and Gabriel Magalhaes combined to offer West Ham a route back into a game that was meandering away from them.
Partey, who had comfortably his worst game of the campaign, was dispossessed by Declan Rice, a player tipped to join him in Arsenal’s engine room next season, and Gabriel slid in rashly to send Lucas Paqueta tumbling. Said Benrahma stepped up and stuck his penalty in the corner.
How Saka must wish his own effort from 12-yards had yielded the same result. The 21-year-old had converted all four of his penalties for Arsenal since his Wembley misery. That 100 per cent record is no longer standing after he skewed his fifth attempt wide.
It was a vital miss, punished emphatically 140 seconds later by Jarrod Bowen who lashed a volley into the net to equalise. A vital goal for West Ham in their bid to avoid the drop and a vital one for Arsenal in their bid to remain on top.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/6cze9tV
Post a Comment