West Ham United 3-3 Arsenal: 5 talking points
Arsenal were left licking their wounds when a determined West Ham United side held them to a 3-3 draw at the Boleyn Ground. First half goals from Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez gave the Gunners a 2-0 lead inside 35 minutes but West Ham’s Andy Carroll came up with two late goals before the half-time whistle to make it 2-2 at the break.
In a very fairly poised match, the hosts were given the lead by Carroll early in the second half as he completed his hat-trick but constant pressure from the Gunners meant that Laurent Koscielny popped up with an equaliser to save the blushes for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal.
The draw now leaves Arsenal 10 points off leaders Leicester City with six games to go until the end of the Premier League season.
Here are the talking points from the game:
1) Andy Carroll’s hat-trick
Arsenal were in command of the game at 2-0 with just a minute to go for half-time. But Andy Carroll had something else in mind when he saw the opportunity to score a darting header from a Cresswell cross. He gave his teammates, the fans and most importantly, himself, the belief that the game was not over at 2-0 to Arsenal.
He made sure that he hit the net with a precise header, climbing over Monreal. Minutes later, the Hammers threatened again and scored through the same man as Arsenal’s defence looked in shambles.
Arsenal were unable to clear the ball which was collected by Noble outside the box, and he fed the cross to Carroll, who headed the ball at Gabriel and then hit the rebound past Gabriel and Ospina into the net.
This gave confidence to the man who has not been in the starting XI for large parts of the campaign so far. The English striker completed his hat-trick when he rose and struck a fine header onto Gabriel and inside the net after the half-time to make it 3-2 to the Hammers.
His contribution indicates how important it is to have a dynamic team and players with different qualities, and how important it is for a manager to use them against the right side.