In last night’s Premier League football news, Arsenal beat West Ham United 2-0 at home, at the Emirates. So, the Gunners won a convincing victory on Wednesday night to move up into the English Premier League’s top four.
The result indeed leaves Arsenal on 29 points from 17 games, gifting them the fourth place in the league standings.
Meanwhile, West Ham slipped to fifth place, just one point behind the Gunners.
So, for now at least, Arsenal have leapfrogged West Ham into the Champions League places.
Gabriel Martinelli scored a spectacular goal to give Arsenal the initial 1-0 lead early in the second half.
Alexandre Lacazette then missed a penalty that would have put the game away before 70 minutes.
However, substitute Emile Smith Rowe added Arsenal’s second just before full-time to secure the three points for Mikel Arteta’s side.
There was pre-match build-up due to Arsenal’s decision to strip Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of the captaincy for another lapse of discipline.
Just as in the comfortable win against Southampton at the weekend, though, Arsenal did not miss him or his captaincy.
Premier League Football News – Arsenal Beat West Ham United 2-0 at Home
A testy first half ended with no goals. It was testy because West Ham’s Vladimír Coufal received a yellow card early on for elbowing Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney’s face.
Arsenal forced the issue toward the end of the opening 45 minutes with some nice interplay in the offensive third. So, West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski had to make a few crucial saves just to keep it 0-0 at half-time.
Martinelli’s goal came soon after the restart when the Brazilian picked up a Lacazette through ball. He then sped by his defender and beat Fabianski with a lovely finish to give Arsenal the first lead.
Coufal brought down Lacazette just inside the area to pick up his second yellow card and so, quit the pitch.
But Fabianski saved the France international’s subsequent spot kick and West Ham stayed in touch with the hosts. Albeit, they were playing with a man down for the remainder of the match.
Disappointing as they were, West Ham were justifiably angry at referee Anthony Taylor’s decision to show Coufal a second yellow card despite VAR replays showing he had played the ball before sending Lacazette tumbling for the penalty.
Smith Rowe then beat Fabianski with a low line drive to the near post from just outside the penalty area to send the home supporters into rapturous applause as Arsenal continued their recent good form in England’s top flight.
