Arsenal’s unexpected 2-0 home loss to West Ham on Thursday prevented them from taking over first place in the Premier League.
In the second half, former defender Konstantinos Mavropanos scored the game’s winning goal for West Ham, rising highest from a corner, adding to Arsenal’s anguish after Tomáš Souček’s first-half strike had put the visitors up against the run of play.
David Raya’s save of Said Benrahma’s penalty kick late into stoppage time prevented the Gunners’ score from being worse yet.
But, as has been the case so many times this season, VAR was a hot topic of discussion once more.
Notwithstanding Arsenal’s insistence that the ball had left play as Jarrod Bowen cut it across for his teammate, an analysis of the build-up to Souček’s opening goal concluded that there was no sufficient proof to rule out the goal.
When a similar event happened earlier this season and resulted in a goal for Newcastle, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reacted with significantly more composure.
It’s unfortunate that our current technology makes it difficult to determine whether something was in or out. There is absolutely nothing we can do for it right now; it’s over and gone.
Arteta may be far more concerned with how inefficient his side was versus West. With seventy-four percent of the possession and thirty shots to West Ham’s six, Arsenal dominated the bulk of the game. Only three of the Hammers’ six shots were on goal.
Arsenal recorded the most touches in a Premier League match for a club that did not score, with 77 total in West Ham’s penalty area, according to Opta.
In football, you have to perform that better in order to win, and that is why we didn’t win today. Nevertheless, the team persevered and once again displayed a fantastic mindset.
Despite the fact that Arsenal’s carelessness in front of goal may once again emphasize the need for a brutal striker, Arteta stated he is content with the group of players he has available.
The result of Arsenal’s loss was positive for Aston Villa and Manchester City in the chase group as well as Liverpool, who maintains its lead in the Premier League.
West Ham is now playing in the Europa League, and David Moyes is doing an outstanding job leading the team to sixth place in the league and only four points outside of the Champions League spots.
An exciting challenge saw Brighton & Hove Albion defeat Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 thanks to an outstanding performance in Thursday’s second Premier League game.
