Arsenal came from behind against West Ham on the traditional Boxing Day of the English Premier League, increasing their lead at the top of the tournament.
The Arsenal established itself as the leader of the Premier League after going back to West Ham (3-1) with an indisputable performance by Martin Odegaard, who used all his resources at the service of his team to unblock a game that was crowned with a magical action by a player who had a lot of pressure on him: Eddie Nketiah.
Odegaard distributed two assists in addition to a multitude of actions with which he showed that he is one of the players of the Premier League. At least, it will be in the eleven of the season. And, one of those who took advantage of the Norwegian’s good moment was Nketiah, starting for the first time in the League to replace a key player like Gabriel Jesús. He scored a great goal, the third for Arsenaland with a stroke of the pen he postponed any debate about whether he is the ideal man to fill the gap left by his partner.
Positioned in the lead, with a five-point advantage over Manchester City before the break caused by the World Cup in Qatar, Arsenal had to stretch out against a team in low hours that had three consecutive defeats and that looked into the abyss of the places of decline.
A priori, it was not a bad rival to return to the great competition. The urgencies that the needs generate are usually dangerous and West Ham, despite having relevant names such as Lucas Paquetá and Declan Rice, on the eve of the game walked on a fine line that could be broken to sink even more in the lower zone of the board.
In addition, West Ham arrived at the Emirates Stadium on a very symbolic day and not because it was the traditional Boxing Day. First, for the exact three years that Mikel Arteta was serving on the Arsenal bench; and, second, due to the presence in the stands of Arsene Wenger, who since he left the Gunners’ bench in 2018 had not returned to what was his home for 22 seasons.
West Ham, faced with a bleak future, had no choice but to face the match crouching in their plot of the field, resist as much as possible and go out on the counterattack to hit as many blows as possible to Arteta’s men. David Moyes gave that order and nothing went wrong.
At least, in the first part, in which he managed to go ahead on the scoreboard thanks to a goal from the penalty spot by Said Benrahma. It was caused by Jarrod Bowen in an isolated play by his team with which Arsenal’s total dominance was shaken.
There the comeback began to take shape. Arsenal did not lower their arms and continued to do their thing. But it needed to finish. The loss of Gabriel Jesús was noted, injured on one knee during the World Cup. His substitute, Nketiah, still has a long way to go to get closer to the Brazilian’s category.
Arteta, with a scowl on his face, went to the locker room wanting to give his players one of his motivational talks. And, although they responded with a concession to Antonio, who was on the verge of scoring in the first minutes of the restart, they recovered their sanity to definitively unbalance the balance in just five minutes.
Odegaard, after generating countless goal passes without finding his prize, hit the target with an erratic long shot that turned into a perfect pass that he did not miss Saka, who beat Lukasz Fabianski in a one-on-one. Unexpectedly, Arsenal took the lead and immediately played an outburst so that Martinelli, with a final left-footed shot in one of his internshipswill definitely put an end to the spider web mounted by West Ham.
With the Brazilian’s goal, Moyes’s team definitively knelt down and still had to endure the work of art from Nketiah, who with a beautiful gesture took off all the pressure he had to replace Gabriel Jesús. Odegaard, this time yes, he scored an assist willingly.
The Norwegian midfielder set up the young West Ham striker, who brushed off Thilo Kehrer with a time-stopping spin dancer at the Emirates Stadium. Later, he surpassed Fabianski with a perfect forehand and signed up for the party of a team that enjoyed until the end a victory with which he placed eight points above City. Arsenal are definitely a serious title contender.