VIDEO: Soucek scored again, West Ham beat Arsenal in London derby. A great match for the Hammers!

19th Premier League round culminated on Thursday night with the London derby. Arsenal did not confirm their role as favourites, although they dominated the game for almost the whole match. But unlike West Ham, United did not score any goals. The 0:2 scoreline was decided by goals from Soucek and Mavropanos.

Soucek scored for the fifth time in this PL season

The home side entered the match at the Emirates Stadium more actively. The first shot on target came in the fourth minute, but goalkeeper Alphonse Areola had no problem with Sakova’s finish. Even after that, the team with the Czech duo Coufal, Soucek in the starting line-up mainly defended.

At the end of the opening ten minutes, however, the Hammers got the advantage of a standard situation thanks to an opponent’s foul. Soucek jumped on the centre from the right side in the whitewash, but his header went wide of the three bars. At the other end of the pitch, Trossard sent an inaccurate shot.

West Ham soon broke out of the Canaries’ initial pressure, at least for a period of the half, and even celebrated the leading goal in the 13th minute as they took advantage of their rival’s disjointed defence. The action was neatly finished off by Tomas Soucek, who scored for the fifth time in this season’s top English competition. VAR then examined Bowen’s return pass but found that the ball had not left the field of play.

Despite the scoreline, Mikel Arteta’s charges still had the upper hand after the unexpected penalty. However, they were unable to significantly engage the French goalkeeper. However, after half an hour of play, he had to neutralise a header by Saka, which he did.

Coach David Moyes’ team then suffered a complication in the form of a forced withdrawal of an important player. Lucas Paquetá made way for Saeed Benrahm, who, as a full part of the match, was on hand in the 37th minute to watch a hopeful Martinelli effort that was just wide of the target.

Five minutes later, an even bigger shooting opportunity was missed by the already repeatedly shooting Bukayo Saka. The young midfielder rushed into the hexagonal box from the right and from a sharp angle he hit the near post. The teams spent the half-time break at 0:1 after five minutes of stoppage time.

The surprising evening was topped off by Greek Mavropanos

Arsenal started the second half in the same vein as most of the previous one. In the 53rd minute, Rice, formerly a West Ham star, shot over his rival’s net from mid-range. He and his current teammates had to endure another shock three minutes later.

Ward-Prowse centred from a corner onto the head of Konstantinos Mavropanos, who scored with the help of a rebound off the post. Incidentally, the Greek stopper was also playing in the derby against his former club, having started his career in Arsenal’s jersey after transferring from Giannina in football’s top league.

The Canaries’ efforts to reverse the unfavourable development of the match were obvious, but were precipitated by missed opportunities to score. Around the 65th minute, a header from Jesus failed twice. The 74th minute brought a shot from Trossard in the whitewash, Areola again stepped in.

Arsenal didn’t make a breakthrough in the last ten minutes either. In injury time, David Raya grabbed Benrahm’s penalty, but it didn’t make any difference to the 0:2 defeat. The thirteen-time champion of England did not return to the top of the Premier League. The calendar year will end with a New Year’s Eve match at Fulham Stadium. Sixth-placed West Ham will play Brighton, who beat Tottenham 4-2 in their second match on Thursday, on 2 January 2024.

"Declan Rice Toure regen"

"Saliba Rolls Royce CB"

"Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko we stole City's best players"

"Martinelli better than Doku"

"Saka better than Salah and Foden"

Stfu and watch West Ham and Moyes school Arsenal and Arteta with Hoofball pic.twitter.com/dPkyVLSVig

— Mancity_Joe (@_MCFC_JOE) December 29, 2023

Source: Premier League, Canal+ Sport