With a hard-fought 2-1 win over West Ham, Arsenal climbed back ahead of Tottenham in the race for Champions League qualifying.
Mikel Arteta’s Gunners were starting off less than an hour after Tottenham Hotspur had defeated Leicester City 3-1 to move into fourth position in the Premier League.
West Ham, like Leicester, made substitutions ahead of the second leg of a European semi-final, but they put Arsenal to the test in a game that took a while to get going.
Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes were the surprise Arsenal scorers either side of a Jarrod Bowen equalizer after a 38-minute delay for the first notable effort.
Lukasz Fabianski saved Eddie Nketiah’s low effort from the edge of the box seven minutes before the interval, and the game exploded into life after that. With Holding getting up ahead of Kurt Zouma to nudge into the bottom-left corner for his first Premier League goal, Arsenal took the lead.
West Ham came back, and after keeping out a header from Declan Rice with skill, Aaron Ramsdale was beaten by a deflected Bowen strike, with the winger afforded time and space to control and shoot inside the box.
Gabriel, Arsenal’s other centre-back, was picked out by a magnificent Gabriel Martinelli cross and headed past Fabianski nine minutes after half-time to put the Gunners back in lead.
Nketiah should have put West Ham out of the game after cutting in from the left on the break, but he shot wide before drawing a fine low save from Fabianski.
The visitors, on the other hand, were not punished for their missed chances, as they held on for a third straight win, extending their lead over Tottenham to two points.
