Arsenal displaced West Ham United in the Premier League top four by beating the Hammers on Wednesday night by a 2-0 scoreline. Gabriel Martinelli, starting in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, opened the scoring minutes after the interval, and Emile Smith-Rowe came off the bench to seal the points for the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta’s men probed for an opening during the early stages and nearly created one in the 28th minute. Alexandre Lacazette rifled a pass into the feet of Martin Odegaard, who set a shot up for Martinelli with the deftest of touches inside the box. However, the attacker was crowded out before he could get his strike away, while Lacazette’s follow-up was blocked by the West Ham defense.
Arsenal survived a scare of their own in the 34th minute when Pablo Fornals nearly curled his shot into the net from the left side of the box, only for the ball to land on the wrong side of the post. Minutes later, Kieran Tierney rattled the crossbar for the Gunners with a volley from outside the box. On closer inspection, it looked like Lukasz Fabianski had managed to get a fingertip to the ball just in time.
Martinelli put Arsenal in front four minutes after the restart; the Brazilian ran onto a Lacazette through the ball before calmly curling a shot around Fabianski. Things went from bad to worse for the Hammers in the 66th minute when referee Anthony Taylor controversially gave Arsenal a penalty for Vladimir Coufal’s perceived foul on Lacazette before sending the defender off.
However, Lacazette had his spot-kick saved by Fabianski, who dove low to his left to parry the Frenchman’s strike away to safety.
Nonetheless, Smith-Rowe came off the bench to secure the points for Arsenal in the 87th minute. The Englishman collected the ball on the right, cut inside, and beat the goalkeeper with a fierce, low strike into the corner. The Gunners held onto their advantage to see out the rest of the game.
