West Ham United vs. Arsenal: Winners and Losers from London Derby
Arsenal overcame a tough West Ham United side by a 2-1 scoreline in the Premier League on Sunday to move level on points with fourth-place Southampton.
Though the Hammers had the better start to the game, quick-fire goals from Santi Cazorla and Danny Welbeck gave Arsenal an undeserved and unlikely 2-0 lead. Cheikhou Kouyate pulled one back after the break, but the home side couldn't find an equaliser.
Here are all our winners and losers from the game.
Winner: Wojciech Szczesny
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The goalkeepers were really the top performers on the day, with Arsenal stopper Wojciech Szczesny showing all his best attributes at Upton Park: confidence, shot-stopping ability and the dominance of his penalty box to come out and take high balls.
As for the latter, there were a lot of them to deal with against West Ham, who pumped crosses and set pieces into his area almost without end.
Szczesny dealt with almost everything that came his way, only half-missing one punch late on, and he made a few good saves on strikes from distance to keep Arsenal ahead in the game.
Loser: Alexis Sanchez
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Despite working hard and putting in plenty of running as usual, Alexis Sanchez had what was very much an off-day for him, as he led the Arsenal attacking line in the absence of Olivier Giroud.
The Chilean ran at the defence, dribbled and looked for shooting opportunities at every turn, but he was thoroughly wasteful with his end product at Upton Park.
Several good sights of goal saw only wayward shots, while he could and should have played in a team-mate on other occasions, only to overrun the ball or fire in efforts that were never likely to trouble Adrian in the West Ham goal. Not one of his better days.
Winner: Adrian
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At the opposite end to Szczesny, Adrian was the best player on the pitch for West Ham.
The Spanish goalkeeper showed agility, consistency and good handling to stop Arsenal from scoring perhaps two or three more than they did. Although the Gunners didn't have long spells of the match when they were on top, their forays forward often led to good scoring chances.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis and Santi Cazorla were all among those denied by the in-form Adrian, who was also superb against Chelsea on Boxing Day.
Winner: Arsene Wenger
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Arsene Wenger changed his side around more than most for his team's second game in 48 hours, with a solid-looking midfield, comprised of Mathieu Flamini and Francis Coquelin, an indication of how he expected things to go.
Despite West Ham dominating much of the first half and having chances at the end of the game, three points mattered on the day, and Wenger's team managed that, while Manchester City, Southampton and Chelsea did not.
Per the club's Twitter feed, Wenger said: "It was more of a fight today than a creative game but you need to have that in England. We knew before the game that we'd have to dig deep today with the busy period but we did that."
His team didn't have much in the way of attacking flair, but they did do enough to repel West Ham after their quick-fire brace before the break.
Loser: Winston Reid
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We finish up with Winston Reid, who started the match well but got steadily worse, having a hand in both of Arsenal's goals and being unable to bring calmness to the back line.
Reid made the initial tackle that saw the ball rebound into the area before he brought down Santi Cazorla for Arsenal's penalty. He protested, but the intent in the foul was clear to see and he was perhaps lucky not to be sent off.
Moments later, Reid failed to stop a low cross coming in from the right flank—and an unmarked Danny Welbeck doubled the away team's lead.
