- The Guardian Monday 2 May 2022
(^40) Sport
Football Premier League
fi rst. Moyes called the tackle “reck-
less” and it unbalanced Bowen, who
went down. The referee, Mike Dean,
let it go on the basis that there was no
clear contact. Even if there had been,
it would probably have added up to
only a yellow card.
Saka, as ever, rarely wasted the
ball. He thought that he had put his
team back in front, jinking inside
and unloading for the near corner,
only for Fabianski to turn it behind.
But Arsenal did score from the cor-
ner when West Ham again caved
uncharacteristically.
Up went a posse of bodies, with
Moyes complaining that Holding
had led with his arm and handled.
When the ball ran through to the far
side, Martinelli returned it towards
the back post. No one went out to
Martinelli and, even worse, nobody
tracked the run of Magalh ães, with
Lanzini especially culpable. The
header was too strong for Fabianski.
West Ham had nothing left and
they were fortunate that Nketiah
did not add to the scoreline from
any of three break aways. “We won
ugly,” Arteta said. Nobody was about
to argue.
P W D L F A GD Pts
Man City 34 26 5 3 84 21 +63 83
Liverpool 34 25 7 2 86 22 +64 82
Chelsea 34 19 9 6 68 29 +39 66
Arsenal 34 20 3 11 54 41 +13 63
Tottenham 34 19 4 11 59 39 +20 61
Man Utd 35 15 10 10 54 52 +2 55
Top of the table
Gabriel puts Arsenal back
ahead in the race for fourth
Two goals from central defenders,
both following corners, and an overall
performance that was unconvincing.
Mikel Arteta did not care. To the Ars-
enal manager it was not about how
the victory came or in what kind of
style. It was simply about the result.
Arsenal could feel the pressure,
with Tottenham having beaten
Leicester earlier in the day to jump
above them into fourth place. Arte-
ta’s team had to react and they did
For Arsenal it was another of those
slow starts that so frustrate Arteta;
the movement telegraphed, the
decision-making “sloppy and impre-
cise,” to quote him; the basic oomph
missing.
The visitors did little until the 38th
minute. That was when Martin Øde-
gaard released Nketiah, whose low
shot forced Lukasz Fabianski to tip
behind. The eff ort might have been
more precise, although Arsenal did
not mind because, moments later,
they were in front. It was strange to
see Holding up against Ma nuel Lan-
zini on the corner. He duly brushed
him aside and glanced into the bot-
tom corner.
West Ham had been more pro-
active up until then. Kurt Zouma
had a header blocked while Lanzini
saw Holding throw himself in front
of a shot after Vladimir Coufal’s cross
had defl ected. Holding emerged with
honours at both ends. Declan Rice
also side-footed weakly at Aaron
Ramsdale. The equaliser had been
sign posted. Ramsdale threw up a
hand to keep out Rice’s near-post
fl ick from a Pablo Fornals corner
and it came when Rice picked out
Coufal, who cut back for Bowen. The
striker’s fi rst touch set up the shot
and the technique on it was excellent,
conjuring power, the ball fl icking off
Magalh ães and beating Ramsdale. It
was his 16th goal of the season.
West Ham felt that Ramsdale got
away with one on 53 minutes when
he tore out of his area to stretch into
a high challenge on Bowen, who had
chased a ball forward and got there
38’
Holding
out for
a hero
Rob Holding
( fourth right)
watches on as
his glancing
header beats
Lukasz
Fabianski
for Arsenal’s
fi rst goal
DAVID KLEIN/
REUTERS
so, keeping the dream alive of a
fi rst Champions League qualifi ca-
tion since 2016. The north London
derby at Spurs’ stadium on 12 May
looks increasingly like a potential
blockbuster.
Rob Holding, in for the injured Ben
White, had not scored since Septem-
ber 2019 but he capitalised on loose
West Ham marking on a Bukayo Saka
delivery to make it 1-0.
With one eye, surely, on Thursday’s
Europa League semi-fi nal return at
Eintracht Frankfurt – West Ham are
2-1 down from the fi rst leg – David
Moyes had mixed and matched,
starting Tomas Soucek and Michail
Antonio on the bench. The manager
would lament that they were missed
on defensive set pieces as much as
anywhere else. Moyes was also with-
out three of his key centre-halves.
Jarrod Bowen’s equaliser before
the interval was merited on the bal-
ance of the fi rst half, with Arsenal fl at
for long spells. But the game turned
when the home team could not
defend the second phase of another
Saka corner. When Gabriel Martinelli
crossed, Gabriel Magalh ães was all
alone to power home the header. And
that was pretty much that.
4
West Ham
are winless in
their last four
league games
(D1 L3) – their
longest dry
run since
December 2020
1
Rob Holding
scored his fi rst
ever Premier
League goal
on his 81st
appearance.
It was his fi rst
in any league
since 2016 ( for
Bolton against
MK Dons)
West Ham 1
Bowen 45
Arsenal 2
Holding 38, Gabriel 54
David Hytner
London Stadium
West Ham
4-2-3-1
Fabianski; Coufal,
Zouma, Cresswell•,
Fredericks; Noble
(Soucek 77), Rice;
Fornals, Lanzini
(Antonio 71), Benrahma
(Yarmolenko 81);
Bowen•
Subs not used
Areola, Vlasic, Diop,
Masuaku, Kral, Alese
Arsenal
4-3-3
Ramsdale; Tomiyasu
(Soares 78), Holding,
Gabriel, Tavares; Ødegaard
(Sambi Lokonga 90),
Elneny, Xhaka; Saka•
(Smith Rowe 87),
Nketiah•, Martinelli
Subs not used
Leno, Lacazette, Pépé,
Kirk, Oulad M’Hand,
Swanson
Referee Mike Dean Attendance 59,959
Arsenal might have had more
through Eddie Nketiah, who led the
line with drive and attitude, albeit
without end product. But for Arteta
the smooth outweighed the rough.
Arsenal had brought an incredible
record against West Ham into the
game – 20 wins from the previous
27 league meetings, with only two
defeats. There would be nothing to
blemish that here.
Moyes asked Aaron Cresswell to
play on the left in a central defensive
two, with Ryan Fredericks away from
his preferred fl ank at left-back and
Bowen fi lling in up front. With West
Ham’s top -four hopes eff ectively
over, there were not the same do-or-
die imperatives for them, although
they shaded the fi rst half.
Possession
West Ham Arsenal
56% 44%
Shots on target
37
Total attempts
813