There may not be a more absorbing contest than this all season. West Ham had it in the bag, or so it seemed, after steaming into a three-goal lead within 32 minutes. Jesse Lingard, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek put them on course to move level with fourth-placed Chelsea but then Arsenal, who were awful until that point, stirred thrillingly. If they were fortunate to score twice through own goals by Soucek and Craig Dawson, Alexandre Lacazette’s equaliser was just reward for the marvellous football they played when the shackles came off. Ultimately a draw between two fine, but flawed, sides was fair but a point apiece told little of the story.
West Ham’s start yielded exactly the reward it deserved. They set into Arsenal at a ferocious tempo and, perhaps freshened by a clear week of preparation, were simply a couple of gears quicker in executing every action. Soucek had twice come close when two goals in as many minutes gave them an advantage they would never have expected to squander.
