Arsenal 0-2 West Ham: Hammers’ stun Gunners at their own den, thus losing the chance to reclaim top spot

Arsenal have once again squandered their chance to go top of the Premier League as they are stunned at Emirates in the hands of West Ham United, thus losing three points on the trot. Soucek and Mavropanos were on target for Hammers, as David Moyes’ side would end this year with a smile.

Arsenal bamboozled by West Ham

Arsenal, although being one of the top teams this season in the Premier League, seems to have lost the lot in last few games. They were coming on the back of a thrilling 1-1 stalemate against Liverpool away, which was marred by some controversial VAR decisions, hoping to get off the mark and end this year with three points on their bag, banking on home support. But, it seems that their fate was not trysted with a victory as they were dogged back by a stunner from West Ham, who have earned the bragging rights from Arteta’s men, thus ending the year on sixth spot, perfectly poised for an European finish next season.

Speaking of the last game, Arsenal, dominated possession since kick-off, with David Moyes sticking to his customary low-block game, rather inviting Arsenal to break them down. It was seen that Arteta’s men were playing around the visitors at a hasty pace, running around in rings, but resorted to their old knack of not finishing properly on multiple occasions. Taking advantage of this inefficacious finishing at times, Tomas Soucek pounced upon a shambolic Arsenal defensive error to give the visitors an unanticipated 1-0 lead within the first quarter of the game.

Although it was asked by the match officials to go to VAR owing to a potential touchline exit by the ball before going out to Soucek who squared up for the goal, it was reviewed and seen that the ball was well in, thus squandering their opportunity. In the meantime, Gunners did look for an equalizer which they believed they were capable of, thus going all guns blazing for restoring parity in the game, but were somehow falling short in front of the goal.

Former Gunner seals the deal for Hammers

With the game poised for a lovely grandstand finish with a score line of 1-0 in favor of the visitors, it was slated to be Arsenal’s half after restart, with their record in the second half of play being miraculous. But, Emirates was stunned once again when former Arsenal man Konstantinos Mavropanos sealed the deal for David Moyes’ side. The Greek central defender, who is also a potent right-back, soared high above the others when he headed the ball into the net from a flashing corner, thus making the score line 2-0 in favor of the visitors, almost ending the game from there, with Mavropanos scoring his first goal with the Hammers.

Arsenal pressed hard, now needing two more goals in less than half-an-hour to salvage at least a point, but their rearguard remained hard enough to thwart away any attack that came their way from the Arsenal attackers. To make matters worse, former West Ham skipper Declan Rice, who led them to the Europa Conference League Title at the end of last season, conceded a late penalty, but, thanks to the stars and David Raya’s brilliance, Said Benrahma could not see the goal drift at the back of the net to kill the game.

With this victory, West Ham rose to sixth spot surpassing Manchester United and Brighton on the process with the later defeating Tottenham Hotspurs last night, as Arsenal stays on the second spot with 40 points from 19 games, trailing leaders Liverpool by two points at the New Year.