West Ham - Arsenal was one of the Premier League matches of the season even before Alexandre Lacazette put the finishing touches of a 3-3 draw at London’s Olympic Stadium.
David Moyes’ Irons led 3-0 in a match that could’ve seen 10 or more goals with better finishing, but own goals from Tomas Soucek and Craig Dawson joined Lacazette’s 83rd-minute equalizer in pushing the Gunners to a point.
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Jesse Lingard had a fantastic goal and an assist for West Ham, while Michail Antonio had two assists to join goals by Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen on the score sheet.
West Ham moves to 49 points, two back of Chelsea and three more than Liverpool and Everton. Tottenham is four back of West Ham, and both Spurs and Everton have a match-in-hand.
Arsenal’s 42 points are three back of Spurs and one ahead of Aston Villa. The Gunners have played two more matches than Villa and one more than their North London derby rivals Tottenham.
Thirty-one combined shot attempts with 12 on target. What a match.
STREAM WEST HAM - ARSENAL FULL MATCH REPLAY
Three things we learned from West Ham - Arsenal
1. Was this a London derby or a Messi-Ronaldo El Clasico? No, the defending wasn’t great but this was incredibly easy on the eyes from two sides who have had their fair share of complaints for playing it too safe this season. Full praise to David Moyes, Mikel Arteta, and their defenders for playing loose with the tactics in a six-goal thriller that could’ve easily been a nine- or 10-goal thriller.
2. West Ham take lead, then done-in by fine margins: Little deflections and missed chances kept the Irons from going level with fourth-place Chelsea, as Arsenal shook off the cobwebs from a midweek match against Olympiacos to fire forward with a blazing second half. But it wasn’t some spell of pure Arsenal dominance, as Michail Antonio was among several West Ham players to miss out on the goal that could’ve put the match to bed.
3. Arsenal better with Lacazette: It’s difficult for Mikel Arteta to trot out Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang together, not with Nicolas Pepe -- a starter on most teams -- and a bevy of promising young talents available for the attacking places. But Lacazette just keeps scoring, and probably deserves credit for the first goal that went down as a Soucek o.g.
Lacazette is on to 11 PL goals this season, his fourth-straight campaign with double-digit league markers and this one coming in just over 1700 minutes (His 10 last year came in just under 1900). Obviously he hasn’t replicated his 28-goal season that led him from Lyon to London, but 48 goals in 123 matches over four seasons isn’t so bad and Arsenal is 8-1-1 when he scores this season.
Man of the Match: Martin Odegaard
What a special, special player. Whatever magical manipulation Mikel Arteta or Edu did to get this six-month loan, keep trying the same until Real Madrid grants some sort of reasonable fee on the 22-year-old Norwegian. We doubt it’ll work. He’s quick, his vision is excellent, and he’s improved finishing away from being Kevin De Bruyne level dominant.
Calum Chambers, Lacazette, Lingard, Antonio, and Declan Rice were also quite good in this thrilling affair.