West Ham United 1-2 Arsenal
West Ham: Carroll 83’
Arsenal: Ozil 24’, Sanchez 72’, 80’, 86’, Oxlade-Chamberlain 84’
Man of the match: Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal
LONDON // With Arsenal coming under increasing pressure as they protected a one-goal lead at the London Stadium, a flash of inspiration was required. Alexis Sanchez, to the surprise of no-one, was the man to provide it.
Arsenal pushed forward in the opening exchanges here, taking advantage of the disruption to West Ham’s rhythm caused by an early injury to James Collins. Sanchez was particularly lively, dropping deep and linking the play with some fantastic flicks around the corner, while Nacho Monreal and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain worked themselves into some promising positions down the left.
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Arsene Wenger’s charges were guilty of wastefulness with their final pass, however, allowing their opponents to keep the scores level for longer than they may have expected after Arsenal’s dominant start. Manuel Lanzini provided West Ham’s first glimpse of goal by forcing a save from Petr Cech in the 19th minute, with the home side seeing more of the ball and engaging higher up the pitch thereafter.
A mistake by Angelo Ogbonna put them on the back foot once more, though: the Italy international’s sloppy pass was intercepted by Sanchez, who raced clear and squared for Mesut Ozil to tap the ball into an empty net.
It was a familiar issue for West Ham, who were caught in possession deep inside their own half on numerous occasions. The speed and dynamism of Sanchez, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott allowed Arsenal to transition quickly when control of the ball changed hands, while Ozil took up some intelligent positions in those dangerous zones between the lines of midfield and defence.
Counter-attacks are often conceived as rapid breaks from one penalty box to another, but Arsenal showed how it can be done by pressing in advanced areas and immediately playing shorter, incisive passes to get in behind an opposition’s backline.
The half-time break brought brief respite but Arsenal threatened to pick up from where they left off after the restart, immediately forcing West Ham back and going close to a second when Walcott headed Ozil’s free-kick just over the bar.
Slaven Bilic’s side slowly grew in confidence, however, with the movement of Ashley Fletcher causing problems for Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi at the other end of the field. The visitors suddenly found themselves with something to think about, and there were a few nervy moments as West Ham went in search of an equaliser.
Arsenal, though, have Sanchez in their ranks. Just when his team needed him most, the Chilean turned away from Arthur Masuaku, skipped past Ogbonna and fired a low shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Eight minutes later he brilliantly created space for himself on the edge of the box, before putting the ball in the exact same spot and the game out of the hosts’ reach.
Andy Carroll and Oxlade-Chamberlain got in on the act late on, but Sanchez ensured the headlines would belong to him with a wonderful dinked finish for his hat-trick. West Ham, like many teams before them, simply could not live with Arsenal’s No 7.
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