Arsenal submits West Ham and snatches fourth place

Arsenal are still in luck. The ‘Gunners’ already step on the ‘Champions zone’ after getting their sixth consecutive victory at home by beating West Ham in the derby, with goals from Martinelli and Smith Rowe.

Mikel Arteta’s team managed to defeat a direct rival and stole fourth place after a serious match by the gunners, in a clear upward trend.

Few occasions

Arsenal started well, but it was difficult for them to translate their dominance at times. So much so that the danger came close to reaching the intermission. Bukayo Saka had been a dagger from the right side and from his boots the clearest was born for the ‘gunners’.

The Englishman combined with Odegaard to enter the area and provide the goal to Xhaka. However, the defense repelled the Swiss’s shot and managed to clear the ball. It would not take long to return like a boomerang, as Tierney caught the rebound on the front and landed a left foot that was not lethal. Fabianski brushed just enough for the ball to crash against the wood, derailing the occasion.

Shortly after, it was Martinelli who was wrong when he wanted to clinch the West Ham goalkeeper’s rejection of Lacazette’s shot. Without knowing it, both would be the authors of Arsenal’s 1-0. The Frenchman left Martinelli alone in front of the goalkeeper and the Brazilian adjusted his shot to get ahead of Arteta’s.

The goal would generate an opposite effect to Arsenal and West Ham. The ‘gunners’ relaxed before some ‘hammers’ who accelerated to find the tie.

It was up to Arteta’s men to suffer, especially when Odegaard gave Bowen a ball up front and allowed his shot. Luckily, Arsenal has life insurance in Ramsdale and the Englishman was right to prevent the equalizer.

The game was to change radically after the hour of play, when Coufal committed a penalty on Lacazette and left West Ham with one player less.

If Ramsdale had saved Arsenal and now Fabianski did it for the ‘hammers’ by deflecting the Frenchman’s launch.

Arsenal had patience to achieve a sentence that would come with a counter ended by Emile Smith Rowe.

This victory gives Arsenal for the moment the initiative in the close fight for fourth place, with 29 points, one more than West Ham, although Manchester United and Tottenham, fifth and sixth, have played fewer games.

The Wolves react

Wolverhampton ended their losing streak of four games without winning thanks to a goal from Moroccan Romain Saiss (m.46 +) that gave them the victory at the Amex Stadium against Brighton by Rober Sánchez and Marc Cucurella (0-1) , who has not won in Premier since September 19.

Distribution of points at Selhurst Park

Southampton also continues in low hours despite drawing in the fiefdom of Crystal Palace (2-2), which frustrated the comeback of the team led by Austrian Ralph Hasenhutti.

Ivorian Wilfried Zaha opened the scoring in the opening bars (m.2), but Southampton recovered with two goals in the space of four minutes. A goal from free-kick specialist James Ward-Prowse (m.32) and a target from Albanian Armando Broja (m.36) fed the visitors’ options.

Instead, Crystal Palace thwarted this reaction and with a goal from Ghanaian Jordan Ayew (m.65) saved one of the points in dispute at Selhurst Park.

Burnley-Watford postponed

The match between Burnley and Watford, which was also to take place this Wednesday, was suspended due to a Covid outbreak in the London team.

It is the third game of this Premier League that is suspended due to covid, all in the last week. It has not been possible to play Brighton-Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford-Manchester United, in addition to the ‘Spurs’ requesting the postponement of their match this Thursday against Leicester City, but the Premier League rejected it.

As confirmed by the Premier League, Watford did not have enough available first-team players to play the game.