Goals from both centre-halves gave Arsenal a battling, huge victory in the chase for Champions League qualification, and secured a top-six finish in the process.
Centre-backs Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes scored in either half as Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal maintained their two-point lead over fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with a 2-1 win at West Ham United.
Arsenal went ahead on 38 minutes when Rob Holding, only in the team because of an injury to Ben White, headed home Bukayo Saka’s corner for his first Premier League goal.
West Ham reacted well, though, with Declan Rice’s header expertly pushed away by Aaron Ramsdale before Jarrod Bowen equalised with a smart 45th-minute finish.
But Arsenal scored the winner nine minutes after the break when the unmarked Gabriel met Gabriel Martinelli’s delivery at the back post with a diving header beyond Lukasz Fabianski.
The Gunners move back up to fourth with 63 points after a perfect response to Spurs’ 3-1 win over Leicester City earlier in the day.
A third loss in four matches leaves West Ham in seventh, on 52 points, three behind sixth-placed Manchester United.
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said ,””I think today we won in a different way, we did not win the game in the way that we played against Manchester United for example, but it is equally important or more important to win this game because we’ve played three big teams and won three of them.”
We are really young but now we are getting a different spirit. I see another ‘street’. I don’t know, the same spirit there when they have to do other things on the pitch and I love that because at this level it is very necessary.”
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