A fired-up Arsenal continued their title run

The break for the World Cup in Qatar did not stop Arsenal’s dream of winning their first Premier League since 2004. Their fans celebrated the victory on the traditional day of Boxing Day against West Ham (3-1) and The ‘gunners’ They temporarily sit out with a seven-point advantage over Newcastle and eight over Manchester City, who visit Leeds on Wednesday.

The Emirates believe in the title and chant the name of Arsène Wenger, who signed up for the title race by returning to the stadium for the first time since ending his glorious 22-season spell at the helm of the team in May 2018.’ gunner’.

Wenger, currently FIFA’s Director of World Football Development, stood like no other fan to applaud Arsenal’s spectacular second-half comeback. The game did not start badly, on the contrary, Mikel Arteta’s team.

Led by a tall Martin Odegaard, who is becoming more and more a leader in his role as distributor of the game but with more former than ever, the Norwegian, one of the great absentees of the World Cup, who failed to qualify, reconnects . with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, but an inspired Lukas Fabianski fought off the initial siege.

Saka had a goal disallowed by VAR in the 4th minute due to a previous offside and Fabianski had two shots from Odegaard, while West Ham, placed at the back, only needed to put a long ball in for Michail Antonio to generate danger against

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In one of them the Jamaican striker was connected with Jarrod Bowen, who was knocked out in his career by William Saliba. The penalty was converted by Said Benrahma (26′). Arsenal continued with their fast-paced, vertical, one- or two-touch football, but West Ham reached the break without much trouble after VAR ruled out correcting the referee’s decision to award a penalty for the ball Aaron Creswell hit him in the face and out of his hand.

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The second half started with a scare for Arsenal with the arrival of Antonio frustrating Aaron Ramsdale, but the ‘gunners’ got their game going again and, in the 52nd minute, found its fruits with a bit of luck, as the bad shot from Odegaard went to Saka, who alone, when Vladimir Coufal fell and did not leave him offside, beat Fabianski with a low and crossed shot.

This is the third consecutive Boxing Day goal scored by Saka, who has 5 goals in this Premier. Arsenal were unstoppable. Martineli received Granit Xhaka’s left-footed shot and his shot at the short post this time was ‘eaten’ by Fabianski (2-1, 58′).

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Eddie Nketiah joins the party. The young striker, who started due to Gabriel Jesus’ serious knee injury during the World Cup, took advantage of a ball from Odegaard to perform a spectacular turn himself and cross the net. A great goal that sealed a spectacular London derby comeback by an Arsenal launched for the title and it added 40 of the 45 points they played. They gave only one loss and one draw. At home, full of wins, seven out of seven.

arsenal

31

WEST HAM

Arsenal: Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Tierney (Zinchenko, 73′); Thomas Partey (Elneny, 95′), Odegaard, Xhaka; Then, Nketiah and Martinelli (Fábio Vieira, 88′)

West Ham: Fabianski; Coufal, Kehrer, Dawson, Cresswell; Soucek (Fornals, 78′), Rice; Bowen, Paqueta, Benrahma; Antonio (Divin Mubama, 87′)
Goals: 0-1 Benrahma (pen.) (27′), 1-1 Saka (53′), 2-1 Martinelli (59′), 3-1 Nketiah (69′)

Referee: Michael Oliver. Yellow cards to Bowen (8′), Coufal (44′)

Stadium: Emirates

see the match sheet