Arsenal suffered a 1-0 loss to West Ham and had Myles Lewis-Skelly sent off in a huge blow to their Premier League title hopes which gives Liverpool the chance to go 11 points clear.
The Gunners were hoping to cut the gap to five points but could not recover after Jarrod Bowen punished poor defending to head in Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross before half-time. Liverpool can now extend their eight-point lead at Manchester City on Super Sunday.
Mikel Arteta started Mikel Merino up front amid Arsenal’s injury crisis but the makeshift striker was unable to replicate his two-goal heroics against Leicester in a laboured Gunners display.
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Player ratings
Arsenal: Raya (6), Timber (6), Saliba (6), Gabriel (5), Calafiori (5), Partey (6), Rice (5), Odegaard (5), Nwaneri (5), Trossard (6), Merino (6).
Subs: Lewis-Skelly (4), Zinchenko (6), Sterling (6), White (n/a).
West Ham: Areola (7), Wan-Bissaka (8), Todibo (8), Kilman (8), Cresswell (7), Scarles (8), Ward-Prowse (7), Soucek (7), Alvarez (7), Bowen (8), Kudus (8).
Subs: Mavropanos (6), Ferguson (6), Soler (n/a).
Player of the Match: Aaron Wan-Bissaka
The hosts struggled to create chances, never mind take them, and their task was made tougher when substitute Lewis-Skelly had a yellow card upgraded to a red for a last-man foul on the excellent Mohammed Kudus in the second half following a VAR check.
The 18-year-old had a red card against Wolves last month overturned but there is little prospect of that this time, given Kudus was through on goal with David Raya around 40 yards off his line.
Arsenal subjected West Ham to heavy pressure in the closing stages, but Gabriel Magalhaes sliced a shot over the bar and Ben White fired narrowly wide as their lack of firepower, with Kai Havertz added to their injury list earlier this month, proved costly.
The defeat leaves their title hopes hanging by a thread. As their players sunk to their haunches at the final whistle, West Ham’s celebrated a deserved victory, only their second under Graham Potter but his fourth in five visits to the Emirates Stadium.
Bowen’s goal, following a breakaway which involved defensive lapses from Riccardo Calafiori, Declan Rice and Gabriel, came from one of five shots to Arsenal’s 20 but the Gunners only managed to get two on target, with the visitors defending their box comfortably.
The defeat ends a 15-game Premier League unbeaten run for Arsenal, their longest under Arteta, and makes it two wins from two for West Ham at the Emirates following their 2-0 win last season.
Merson: Title race is over, Arsenal have no chance
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson on Soccer Saturday:
“[The title race is over] one million per cent. Arsenal cannot catch Liverpool. They’ve got no forward. They’ve got a young 17-year-old in Nwaneri who has got a bright future but he struggled today.
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“Trossard is a bit-part player in my opinion. There’s absolutely no chance Arsenal can win the league. Even if Liverpool get beat 7-0 [against Man City], Arsenal cannot win it.
“I’ve seen enough today to know they are going to struggle until the end of the season. They’ve got 12 games left and will do well to win half of those.
“Suddenly the PSV game in the Champions League is a heads or tails. They’ve got nothing up front. They are toothless. Centre-forward is such an art, you can’t just throw someone up there. I don’t see them beating Nottingham Forest either – I’d be shocked.”
Arteta: We deserve the pain
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta:
“We never got a grip of the game because we’re so inconsistent with the ball. We give so many balls away. We never get enough positive sequence of actions, one after the other, that could generate threat and momentum in the areas we want to conquer. That allowed the game to be the flick of a coin.
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“We allowed them to run with simple giveaways. They are a dangerous team. They have the quality to deliver the moment. After that is becomes a difficult game. Then we get the red card and it’s a big mountain to climb. We try to react but we didn’t have specific quality moments.
“The moment we got into the areas, then you have to unlock something, and we didn’t. That is down to me as well. That is my responsibility and I don’t want to take that all to the players. Today we weren’t at the level required to be convincingly better than the opponent.
“It is painful. We need to feel the pain today, we deserve it.”
Potter ‘delighted’ by West Ham display
West Ham head coach Graham Potter:
“Delighted, fantastic performance, very disciplined, committed, full of effort and intelligence.
“I thought the players were really topping that because obviously we’re playing against a fantastic team. You have to suffer at times, but I thought the players did it well.
“We carried a threat ourselves, scored a really good goal and had some other opportunities and the opponent didn’t have too many against us.
“Overall, just delighted for the players, delighted for the supporters. I think it’s a really big win for us and a positive day.
“We had a tough week because we were disappointed with how we were against Brentford in the first half and then the players just responded really well.”
Analysis: Blunt attack and defensive lapses cost Gunners
Sky Sports’ Nick Wright at the Emirates Stadium:
Arsenal’s late win at Leicester, secured by Merino’s double, coupled with Liverpool’s subsequent 2-2 draw against Aston Villa, had raised hopes that the Gunners might yet keep this title race alive, despite their injuries. Those hopes took an almighty blow with this defeat.
It was no great surprise that they struggled in attack. Any side would without their four main attackers. The absences of Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus were keenly felt. The paucity of options available to Arteta was summed up by the sight of him sending on two left-backs, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Lewis-Skelly, when chasing the game in the second half.
One of those left-backs swiftly departed following a red card. Lewis-Skelly could have few complaints, despite his foul taking place on the halfway line. But at that point the game was already drifting away from Arsenal, who had 20 shots but were unable to create any clear opportunities.
Their depleted attack was of course a huge factor in the result. West Ham deserve huge credit for their excellent performance too. But ultimately it was uncharacteristically poor defending which did for Arteta’s side. West Ham took advantage for their goal.
Arsenal’s best hope of keeping in touch with Liverpool in this period was always likely to be leaning on their defence and nicking goals from set-pieces. But Bowen’s header left them with too much to do. A draw would have been bad enough. A defeat might be terminal.
Potter haunts Arsenal again – Opta stats
- West Ham boss Graham Potter became only the second manager to beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium with three different clubs in all competitions (also with Ostersunds and Brighton), after Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, Everton, Bayern Munich).
- West Ham have won consecutive away league games against Arsenal for the first time since 2005-06/2006-07, when they were the last side to beat the Gunners at Highbury, and the first to beat them at the Emirates Stadium.
- Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off for the second time in the Premier League, though his first was eventually overturned. He’s the third teenager to be sent off twice in the competition (also Richard Dunne and Steven Taylor), and the first before turning 19.
- Jarrod Bowen’s opener was his 50th Premier League goal. He is just the second player to reach this milestone for West Ham after Michail Antonio (68).
