West Ham surprise Arsenal and Liverpool are winter champions

Liverpool ends the traditional Boxing Day at the top and is the Premier League winter champion at the end of the first round. The ‘reds’ owe him West Ham, who against the odds won the London derby at the Emirates (0-2) and prevented Arsenal, now two points adrift, from retaking the lead.

The ‘gunners’ crashed into the wall he made David Moyes before a very good one Alphonse Areola and suffered their first home defeat of the season after seven consecutive league wins in front of their home fans. West Ham, who are sixth, four points off the Champions League spots, ended eight years without a win at the Emirates, losing their seven previous visits.

Trossard for the suspended Havertz

Mikel Arteta covered Kai Havertz’s suspension due to suspension by putting Kai Havertz in his place as an interior player. Leandro Trossard in a special match for Declan Rice, facing his former team for the second time since he left last summer.

Arsenal, guided by a great Odegaardstarted in massive mode but his monologue was interrupted after a quarter of an hour by West Ham’s controversial goal in his only between three sticks in this first half.

Soucek’s controversial goal

Emerson Palmieri crossed from the left, Oleksandr Zinchenko almost scored an own goal after missing Gabriel Magalhaes. Jarrod Bowen continued the play and He was delayed from the baseline to allow Tomas Soucek to score in pleasure.

He The VAR, after a lengthy review, awarded the goal though the image offers plenty of doubt that the ball didn’t actually cross the line before Bowen did.

Then, to the post

Arsenal were completely contained by the ‘hammers’, who for several minutes did not give a single break although they fell further behind against the local push and barely saved the ball.

Bukayo Saka miraculously missed a header that Alphonse Areola deflected for a corner with a miraculous hand (30′) and had a shot against the post after receiving space in another genius from Odegaard (40′).

Mavropanos does not celebrate it

It seemed that the tie would come in the second half when Arsenal continued to come dangerously close around the visiting area, but what came was the shocking 0-2.

West Ham showed once again that they made the most of their chances and scored again with their second well directed shot on goal by David Raya. James Ward-Prowse took the corner perfectly and Konstantinos Mavropanos headed into the net (55′).

The Greek centre-back, who has a past with Arsenal, did not celebrate and with his hands seemed to apologize for what his fans.

Double change in search of a miracle

Arteta brought in Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson in search of the ‘click’ his team needed in attack. Odegaard, with his blessed composure, continued to push Arsenal in search of a comeback, but Gabriel Jesus failed to score with two consecutive headers.

Areola also did her part took a close shot from Trossard, a long shot from Odegaard and, in the end, all the desperate attempts that came his way.

Points for a penalty

It can’t be said that Arsenal didn’t chase the goal until the end without giving up their style (they shot 30 times on goal), but they could have been thrashed if not for the penalty, from Rice to Emerson Palmieri, who Raya stopped Benrahma in stoppage time.

Arteta, unbeaten in the previous seven, lost his first league game against a West Ham team that put in an impeccable resistance exercise. Moyes is on the other side. At 60 years old, he beat Arsenal at their stadium for the first time in his long career.

ARSENAL

02

WEST HAM

Arsenal: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Zinchenko (Nelson, 64′); Odegaard, Rice, Trossard (Smith Rowe, 79′); Then, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli (Nketiah, 64′)
The
West Ham: Areola; Coufal, Mavropanos, Ogbonna, Emerson Palmieri; Edson Álvarez, Soucek; Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Paquetá (Benrahma, 33′); bowen

Goals: 0-1 Soucek (13′), 0-2 Mavropanos (55′)

Referee: Michael Oliver. Yellow for Nelson (72′), Gabriel Jesus (91′)

Spectators: 60,261 at the Emirates Stadium
The

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