Gabriel and Holding on target as Arsenal win at West Ham to stay in fourth place

Two goals from central defenders, both following corners, and an overall performance that did not convince. Mikel Arteta did not care. To the Arsenal manager, it was not about how the victory came or in what kind of style. It was only about the result.

Arsenal could feel the pressure, with Tottenham having beaten Leicester earlier in the day to jump above them into fourth place – also known as the Promised Land. Arteta’s team had to react and they did so, keeping the dream burning of a first Champions League qualification since 2016.

Rob Holding, in for the injured Ben White, had not scored since September 2019 but he did so when he capitalised on loose West Ham marking on a Bukayo Saka delivery to make it 1-0.

With one eye, understandably, on Thursday’s Europa League semi-final return at Eintracht Frankfurt, David Moyes had mixed and matched with his lineup, starting Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio among the substitutes and the West Ham manager might feel that they were missed on defensive set-pieces. He was also without three of his key centre-halves.

Jarrod Bowen got an equaliser that was merited on the balance of the first half but the game turned when West Ham could not defend the second phase of another Saka corner. When Gabriel Martinelli crossed, Gabriel Magalhães was all alone to power home his header.

According to the Arsenal support, Arteta knows exactly what they need. What he did not want was an injury to Takehiro Tomiyasu, the right-back, who had started for the first time since 20 January. But for the manager, the smooth outweighed the rough. The history was on Arsenal’s side – they had lost only two of the previous 27 league games against West Ham, winning 20 – but it was all about how they imposed