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West Ham United 0-1 Arsenal: Premier League – live | Premier League
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“As an Arsenal fan,” says Kári Tulinius, “I should feel deliriously happy but instead I feel wrung out like a sponge.”
Wait until Burnley make it three at the Emirates a week tomorrow.
“If I were an Arsenal fan – and the following email demonstrates that I’m not – I would be slightly sheepish about that,” says Felix Wood. “I’ve watched them absolutely rugby the flip out of set-pieces this season and VAR has been extremely reluctant to take a view on it, so to see the season decided on that leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Clear and obvious? Debatable. Very Debatable.
“On the other hand there were some debatable, very debatable, calls in the city game yesterday so maybe we should all accept VAR doesn’t make anything better and ignore it and focus on the football.”
With that, good luck.
Today’s Premier League results
Leandro Trossard is an also-ran in the race for the golden boot. But his sixth Premier League goal of the season could be the most important of the lot.
Declan Rice was right: it wasn’t over. Arsenal need to win two games, two measly football matches, to become champions for the first time in 22 years.
This is what it does to the Premier League table
Arsenal picked the perfect time to get back in touch with an old friend. That’s three one-nil-to-the-Arsenals in their last five games, the same as they managed in 30 matches before that. The last two, against Atletico Madrid and West Ham, have moved them to the brink of unprecedented glory.
The West Ham players surround the referee Chris Kavanagh, still fuming about Callum Wilson’s equaliser that wasn’t. They contributed fully to a pulsating finale and would have gone ahead in the 78th minute had David Raya not made an epic save from Mateus Fernandes.
Leandro Trossard’s deflected shot whistled into the net three minutes later, and Arsenal survived a monumental scare when Callum Wilson walloped what looked like an equaliser in the fifth minute of added time.
After a VAR check that was officially timed at 12 years, 10 months, the goal was ruled out for a pointless foul by Pablo on Raya.
Full time: West Ham 0-1 Arsenal
After all that, it ends one-nil to the Arsenal.
90+10 min There’s also an argument that Todibo was pulling Raya’s shirt. Never mind that because the match has resumed and nobody has a clue how long is left.
NO GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Arsenal
The goal has been disallowed for a foul by Pablo on David Raya! The biggest VAR decision in English football history has gone Arsenal’s way.
90+9 min Chris Kavanagh is still looking at the replay. I think it’s a foul, in truth, but whether it’s a clear and obvious error… no idea.
VAR recommends an on-field review!
90+8 min VAR, bloody hell. Chris Kavanagh is going to look at the evidence, and that usually means the decision will be overturned.
90+7 min Darren England is the poor bugger tasked with making the decision.
90+6 min: The VAR check is ongoing. You can argue it either way. Pablo had his arm across Raya, and Gary Neville on Sky Sports think it was a foul.
The corner was spilled by Raya, under potentially illegal pressure from Pablo, and bounced off Saliba at the far post. Wilson blasted the loose ball savagely into the net from 10 yards.
GOAL? West Ham 1-1 Arsenal (Wilson 90+5)
Arsenal think David Raya was fouled but for now West Ham have equalised!
90+4 min: Just wide from Wilson!
Oh my word. A long cross was headed down by Mavropanos to Wilson, who controlled it on the chest and dragged a shot that… wait, hang on!
Edit: Wilson dragged a shot that hit the human barrier known to most as Gabriel Magalhaes, and bounced wide of goal. Bowen was also waiting behind Wilson and might have had a better chance.
90+3 min Bowen’s cross is excellently cut out at source by Lewis-Skelly. If any team knows how to protect a 1-0 lead, it’s this lot.
90+2 min Raya’s save from Fernandes gets better every time you see it. It would have been so easy, especially at such a vital moment, to fall for it when Fernandes shaped to shoot across goal.
90+1 min Trossard is booked for delaying a West Ham free-kick. The hell he’ll care!
90 min There will be six minutes of added time.
90 min Mavropanos allows Arsenal to waste 30 seconds with a needless foul on Gyokeres. West Ham’s heads have gone.
89 min Saliba is booked for fouling somebody on the halfway line. West Ham are running out of time to equalise.
88 min A member of the West Ham coaching staff has been sent off by Chris Kavanagh, presumably for inappropriate use of the mouth.
86 min There’s a bit of a row between Madueke and Pablo, who wasn’t happy when Madueke deliberately kicked the ball at a West Ham player with a view to it ricocheting out for an Arsenal throw-in. Not sure why – don’t players do that all the time?
Moments later, Todibo, who has form for loss of noggin, growls in the direction of Gyokeres.
85 min: West Ham substitution Axel Disasi is replaced by Callum Wilson.
Myles Lewis-Skelly ushers the ball out for a goalkick and roars with delight.
Arsenal could so easily have gone a goal down. Now, three minutes later, they’re in front! Odegaard, so good in tight spaces, combined neatly with Rice on the edge of the area and pushed the ball back to Trossard. His first-time shot from 15 yards took a deflection off the lunging Soucek and zipped past Hermansen at the near post.
GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Arsenal (Trossard 83)
Leandro Trossard has scored the biggest goal of his life!
81 min Replays confirm that, whether Fernandes should have scored or not, it was a sesnsational save by Raya. Fernandes tried to give him the eyes and sweep the ball past him at the near post; Raya threw out his right leg and saved it with his thigh.
80 min: Arsenal substitution Mosquera is booked for a foul. Noni Madueke comes on for Bukayo Saka.
78 min: Huge save by Raya!
Fernandes collects a loose ball on the edge of the area, plays a slick one-two with Pablo and runs through on goal. And time. Stands. Still before Fernandes sweeps a shot from five yards that is smothered heroically by Raya.
Fernandes should probably have scored – he was almost moving too fast and got too close to Raya before he took the shot.
77 min Saka, who has had a very quiet game so far, is booked for a foul on Summerville.
76 min “This is just torture for Arsenal fans – the equivalent of the medieval rack,” says Charles Antaki. Every minute is another ratchet up, and even the substitutions put a bit more strain on the system. Something may crack, but not in a happy way.”
I say!
75 min Bowen gets to the byline and spanks a rising cross/shot – not sure which – that is pushed over the crossbar by Raya. After a spell of Arsenal dominance, West Ham are starting to carry a threat on the break.
74 min In case you’ve been at a digital retreat in the Kerguelen Islands for the last fortnight, Arsenal need to win to keep the title exclusively in their hands. A draw means both teams can control their own destiny by winning their remaining games 15-0. And a defeat would put the title back in City’s hands alone.
The relegation picture is more complicated, so don’t start.
73 min Saka’s flat cross is headed over at the far post by Gyokeres. A tough chance, 10 yards out and under pressure from Todibo, but a chance of sorts.
71 min Bowen does superbly to hold onto the ball, wait for support and then release Diouf on the left. He curls an excellent cross towards Pablo, forcing Rice to get in front and concede a corner. Superb defending from Rice.
69 min: Off the line by Mavropanos!
Rice’s free-kick hits the unsighted Mavropanos and bounces out in front of goal. Arsenal shriek for handball against Pablo, who was on the floor and couldn’t get out of the way. While that was going on, Gabriel forced a shot from six yards that was cleared off the line by Mavropanos.
Gabriel’s shot might have been hitting the post anyway, I’m not sure. There’s a VAR check for handball but Pablo eventually gets the all clear.
68 min Todibo shoves Gyokeres over from behind and is booked. The free-kick is about 30 yards from goal on the left wing, so the big men are coming forward.
68 min These are the revised line-ups.
West Ham (5-2-2-1) Hermansen; Wan-Bissaka, Disasi, Todibo, Mavropanos, Diouf; Soucek, Fernandes; Bowen, Summerville; Pablo.
Arsenal (4-3-3) Raya; Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard.
68 min: Double substitution for Arsenal Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz come on for Eberechi Eze and the first-half substitute Martin Zubimendi.
67 min This video is dedicated to fans of West Ham, Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester City, the England cricket team…
66 min: West Ham substitution Pablo replaces Taty Castellanos, who impressed once again for West Ham.
65 min Fernandes fires a sharp pass into Bowen, who hits a speculative right-foot shot from 20 yards that is blocked by Saliba (I think).
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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