Arsenal’s Premier League title aspirations suffered a significant setback after a 1-0 defeat to West Ham at the Emirates Stadium.
The loss, combined with Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card, has left Arsenal’s title hopes hanging by a thread.
Liverpool can now extend their eight-point lead at Manchester City on Super Sunday.
The only goal of the game came from Jarrod Bowen, who headed in Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross before half-time, capitalizing on poor defending from Arsenal.
Despite having 20 shots, Arsenal only managed to get two on target, with West Ham defending their box comfortably.
Mikel Arteta started Mikel Merino up front amid Arsenal’s injury crisis, but the makeshift striker was unable to replicate his two-goal heroics against Leicester.
Merino’s performance was underwhelming, with only 16 touches and 8 completed passes in the first half.
The defeat ends Arsenal’s 15-game Premier League unbeaten run, their longest under Arteta.
West Ham, on the other hand, celebrated their second win under Graham Potter and their fourth in five visits to the Emirates Stadium.
“We never got a grip of the game because we’re so inconsistent with the ball,” Arteta said.
“We give so many balls away. We never get enough positive sequence of actions, one after the other, that could generate threat and momentum in the areas we want to conquer.”
Graham Potter was delighted with his team’s performance, saying, “Delighted, fantastic performance, very disciplined, committed, full of effort and intelligence. I thought the players were really topping that because obviously we’re playing against a fantastic team.”
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