West Ham falter, as Arsenal play for time

West Ham 1-2 Arsenal Arsenal ran out narrow winners of this hard fought game with West Ham at the London Stadium. West Ham manager David Moyes made five changes from the first leg of the Europa League semi-final with Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday. But the team, led possibly for the last time by veteran captain Mark Noble, battled hard for.a result. In the event, they were twice undone by a failure to pick players up from corners - as happened with the first goal in the Eintracht Frankfurt game. The first corner came after Lukasz Fabianski had pushed a shot round the corner. The resulting corner saw Rob Holding rise to head home. West Ham drew level before half time when Declan Rice swept the ball out to the right, for Vladimir Coufal to play the ball into the area, where Jarrod Bowen poked home. The second Arsenal goal came after the break, when another corner was met by Gabriel coming round the back to head home. The visitors could have extended their lead, when first Eddie Nketiah, then Bukayo Saka got away, but both spurned the chances. It was a pity that Arsenal marred a good performance by feeling the need to time waste at every opportunity from the moment they took the lead in the 53rd minute. They are not the worst team when it comes to this tactic but maybe clubs, players and referees need to realise that fans don't pay £50 plus to watch these sort of tactics. Many fans must also reckon that they wouldn't mind being paid £50,000 plus a week to walk off a football pitch as slowly as possible (when substituted). West Ham manager David Moyes admitted that the team selected on the day was a risk and they got caught out on the set pieces. The manager also questioned Holdings use of his arm in the phase of play that led to the first goal. Contrasting West Ham's position to that of Arsenal, Moyes said: "Arsenal have not been involved in Europe this season, so have had all the time to prepare," said Moyes. Arsenal manager Michael Arteta described the outcome as 'a massive win' for his side. He praised the way his team managed the game. "I'm extremely happy to manage a team that can find a way," said Arteta.