This season has not always been easy on the eyes, but Arsenal are now on the verge of their first Premier League title in 22 years. The Gunners were made to sweat yet again in their dramatic 1-0 win over relegation-threatened West Ham, with Leandro Trossard’s goal and a disallowed West Ham effort making the difference for Mikel Arteta’s side.
The vital victory stretched Arsenal’s lead to five points ahead of Manchester City, who have a game in hand, and put league silverware in touching distance after three successive second-placed finishes. Some will say Arteta’s side have arrived here the hard way, while others will argue that victories secured when a team does just enough to get over the line are the mark of champions.
The 1-0 win over West Ham was the seventh time this season Arsenal have won by that scoreline in the Premier League. It wraps up a crucial week for the club, with title rivals Manchester City dropping points in midweek. Before the win over Fulham last weekend, Arsenal had won just two of their previous eight games in all competitions and suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time during those matches. But now, after three successive wins without conceding a goal—one of which secured their place in the Champions League final—Arsenal are on the cusp of history.
“What a moment, what an afternoon, what a week it’s been for us,” Arteta said. “So full of emotions, I cannot praise enough the attitude, the desire, the courage and the quality of the team shown throughout this week, because there was so much at stake and today we knew against a team that is fighting for their life, a club with an incredible history, how tough it was going to be.”
The closing stages of the match with West Ham were nothing short of chaotic. David Raya produced a vital save to deny Hammers midfielder Mateus Fernandes when he looked certain to score, before Trossard’s intervention and the major VAR call that chalked off Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time effort for a foul on Raya by Pablo. Arteta called the disallowed goal one of the “most chaotic circumstances,” with both teams “playing for their lives.” But he heaped praise on referee Chris Kavanagh for his decision.
“A call from the refs that I think is very brave, but very consistent with what they’ve been talking about all season. And today I have to praise them, at least for giving the option to a referee to decide. Away from the lights and the chaos, to give clarity to him to make the right call. And when you look at the action in that way, I think it is an obvious error. So congratulations because they made a big call in very, very difficult circumstances.”
Arteta has regularly said that his ‘finishers’—the substitutes who come on to finish the match—have a big part to play, and on Sunday he backed this up by highlighting captain Martin Odegaard’s “incredible impact” in assisting Trossard’s winner. “I said to the boys, we’re really going to go for it. So get ready, because if the game is not panning out in the manner that we [want], we’re going to have to change it,” he added.
