On December 16, Beijing time, the Premier League ushered in a four-match battle, and finally with the goals of Martinelli and Smith Rowe, Arsenal beat West Ham United 2-0 at home. After winning this campaign, the Gunners also overtook their opponents in points and rose to fourth in the league.
After the club officially announced the stripping of Aubameyang's captain's armband on Tuesday, Arsenal beat West Ham United 2-0 at home on Wednesday. Not only did he finally "turn the goal difference from a negative number to a positive", but he also reached the top four of the league in the table, surpassing West Ham with a one-point advantage, and also ranked in front of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, who were less played due to the epidemic.
Arteta continues to use the starting line-up from the previous round of victory over Southampton, which arsenal has run into for the third consecutive game, so it seems that it has not been affected by Aubameyang's absence. The team quickly took the lead, they managed to squeeze West Ham's range of action into the back, the visiting team had only one threatening goal in the entire first half, Shoczek earned a free kick on the right, Fornals fired a high-quality arcing shot that deflected off Arsenal's right post.
The home fans angrily accused referee Anthony Taylor of being dazed after the shot, and the BBC commentator Bruce Ball also pointed out that the England referee was shook by Shoczek: "You can feel that Shoczek has been waiting for Lacazette's close force, so although the latter just touched him, he immediately fell forward, but the time difference is still obvious. There is no causal relationship between Lacazette's scrambling action and his final flying fall, and you can hardly tell this without looking at slow motion, but it seems that both the referee and referee Anthony Taylor who are close at hand have been successfully deceived by him. ”
Arsenal quickly followed with a long-range shot to return the color, Erdegao's pass created confusion in the West Ham penalty area, the visiting team's defence barely unblocked the ball, and Arsenal left-back Tierney, who rushed to help, fired a beautiful shot, the ball was barely saved by Fabianski, and then hit the crossbar to pop up. Schwarzer, a famous commentator from the goalkeeper, felt that the Polish goalkeeper's save was not lacking in luck: "I think Fabianski was very lucky in this save, in fact, his vision was blocked when Tierney got up, he almost obeyed the goalkeeper's instinct to take a step to his right side, only to find that the ball with a falling arc was smashing into the top left corner of the fan, and his position was just good enough to destroy this beautiful long-range shot, but despite this, the ball still hit the goal frame after being held up by him. ”
The two sides exchanged blanks in the first half, followed by another fight, and West Ham's defence could no longer withstand the repeated clashes from arsenal' side. Lacazette received the ball in front of the field and beautifully sent a diagonal pass, Martinelli comprehended the deft passage through the air of the two defenders, took the ball directly to Facing Fabianski, the Brazilian youngster calmly pushed the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal, and finally broke the deadlock for the team, 1-0!
Arsenal did not recover the formation as they did against Manchester United and Everton, and their attacks soon paid off. Cao Fale slid Lacazette recklessly in the penalty area, and although he rubbed the ball, but then shoveled into the tibia of the French striker, Taylor, who had been looser in the whole game, showed him a second yellow card and awarded a penalty. But without Aubameyang, the knife-wielding Lacazette also lost the ball, and Fabianski pounced on a beautiful side of the goal to save the ball. Schwarzer praised the save: "He seems to be very familiar with Lacazette's free throw habits, so he resolutely pounced on the right side of the goal early on, Lacazette's foot shot is not bad in fact, but Fabianski, who has been prepared, did not even use one hand to barely hold the ball out, but with both hands steadily destroyed the shot, and did not even give Lacazette any chance to make up for it in front of the goal." ”
Although there was still one more person on the pitch, Arsenal was in chaos 5 to 10 minutes after losing the penalty, especially Xhaka at the back, who was continuously targeted by opponents for slow movement and rhythm to get attacking opportunities, and finally relied on Ramsdale's close-range save to save the goal, and the England goalkeeper was subsequently yellow carded for delaying the game. Arteta removed the physically deflated Erdegaard and Martinelli and replaced them with Nketiah and Smith Rowe, and the substitutes used their abundant physical strength to start storming West Ham's defence again. Three minutes before the finale, Smith Rowe drove straight in with the ball and scored into the near corner after bursting into the West Ham penalty area, finally locking the score at 2-0.
After winning this crucial battle, Arsenal finally led by one point in the scramble for the fourth army, and manager Arteta also grew a sigh of relief after the game. Remove Aubameyang's captain's armband before the Christmas schedule, and if the game is not won, the team will face a disastrous public opinion environment, but the players on the field have expressed their focus on the game with practical actions. The Spanish coach also praised all the players on the field: "I am very satisfied with the performance of the whole team, whether it is the strength of the players, or the attitude and hard work on the field, it is impeccable. They showed the outside world today what kind of team Arsenal are on the pitch. ”
However, when it comes to the pending captainial candidate, Arteta still seems to feel that it is not yet time to make a decision: "I look forward to seeing every player stick to the value of the club, today we will only summarize the game, other topics the team will find another time to discuss." 」 Martinelli, who replaced Aubameyang in the starting position, continued his highlights of the past few games, and he also said after the game that the team was not affected by the change of captain this week: "West Ham's defence is very good, so I can only wait patiently for the moment of the fatal blow, I would like to thank Raqqa for the assist, I now want to show this performance every game." We are a team, everyone is united now, a lot of things depend on the head coach and the whole team, and everyone will determine the final captain. ”
Wen | Liu Chuan
Edit the | DBSQ