Arsenal gather momentum after Danny Welbeck secures win at West Ham
Arsenal may be patched up and make-shift, a team depleted by injuries to key personnel and playing catch-up with the title race a distant aspiration, but they are summoning momentum in amongst the chasing pack. This was a rugged win achieved against a West Ham United team who have grown accustomed this season to prospering on home territory. Arsène Wenger’s side are out of the top four only on goal difference and travel to Southampton, the side immediately above them, on New Year’s Day.
They will venture south bolstered by seven wins in nine games in all competitions, a revival that has almost gone unnoticed with the focus instead drawn to the defeat at Stoke and draw at Liverpool amongst that sequence of successes. But if old order re-establishing itself. Enner Valencia nodded on to the roof of the net deep into stoppage time but there was to be no reward here for West Ham. They have been leapfrogged.
This had been a test of the visitors’ resilience for long periods, with Arsenalstretched by the hosts’ muscular midfield and lively pace down the flanks as full-backs and wingers poured forward with menace. West Ham should have forged a lead early on but Alex Song’s volley was disallowed with home players offside in Wojciech Szczesny’s eye-line. James Tomkins, more critically, volleyed over the bar from Stewart Downing’s cleverly clipped centre. That was a key miss. In the few minutes which remained before the break, composure drained away and their challenge appeared to collapse.
That frantic period threatened to have decided the contest. Santi Cazorla’s dart into the penalty area provoked the initial panic, Winston Reid losing his footing but lifting his leg to trip the Spaniard and concede a penalty. Cazorla converted that with glee and, with West Ham players still incensed and distracted, Arsenal sensed further reward. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain burst to the by-line and fizzed a centre through Reid’s legs and into the six-yard box where Tomkins was dawdling. Danny Welbeck slid in to score from close range at the defender’s back.
Wenger’s team could aspire to sitting deeper thereafter in the hope they might prosper further on the counter, the onus thrust on to the home side to muster a response. Yet the visitors never suggested defensive surety. Per Mertesacker did well to deflect Andy Carroll’s header over the bar as the striker dived to meet Diafra Sakho’s cross but, from the flurry of corners which ensued, Arsenal failed to clear their lines. Tomkins barged beyond Cazorla to clip over a centre which Cheikhou Kouyaté, leaping above Mathieu Debuchy, nodded via a deflection beyond a static Szczesny.
The goal suggested another twist to come but, while West Ham were frantic in their pursuit of parity, the flurry of presentable opportunities were actually Arsenal’s. Both Cazorla and Debuchy might have reestablished the two-goal lead, with Welbeck’s pace and strength almost embarrassing Tomkins after the forward wriggled clear. The excellence of Adrián in the home goal offered the home side their real hope, the Spaniard saving wonderfully from Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain – a header from point-blank range – and Alexis Sánchez, though he should not have been forced to muster a block when Welbeck burst through on goal. The striker’s finish was blazed high and wide, but it did not prove costly.
West Ham United (4-1-2-1-2): Adrián; O’Brien (Demel, 78), Tomkins, Reid, Cresswell; Song; Amalfitano, Kouyaté (Nolan, 78); Downing; Sakho (Valencia, 62), Carroll.
Subs not used: Jaaskelainen, Noble, Collins, Cole.
Booked: Carroll.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Debuchy, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal; Flamini, Coquelin; Oxlade-Chamberlain (Chambers, 90), Sánchez, Cazorla; Welbeck (Gibbs, 85).
Subs not used: Ospina, Podolski, Walcott, Campbell, Akpom.
Booked: Sánchez, Cazorla.
Att: 34,977.
Referee: N Swarbrick.
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