(Football news) A stunning second half comeback meant that Arsenal secured a 3-1 win over West Ham at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League. The result meant that the Gunners are now seven points ahead of second place Newcastle United, who have played a game more. Former manager Arsene Wenger was in attendance for the first time since his departure in 2018 and would be undoubtedly elated to see his team perform so well.

It was West Ham who took the lead through Said Benrahma’s penalty after Jarrod Bowen was brought down inside the penalty area by William Saliba in the 27th minute. The Gunners needed a response and managed to do just that, scoring two goals in five minutes through Bukayo Saka (53) and Gabriel Martinelli (58) before Eddie Nketiah scored the third in the 69th minute to ensure Mikel Arteta’s team secured all three points.

“It’s a special day. Thank you so much for him coming and hopefully walking through the building he is going to feel everything that everybody thinks of him, everything that he left here, but also his presence is something that has to be very attached to this football club. So, thank you for doing that because it means a lot to everybody at the club. It’s great and my mood is going to be better to speak to him and be around the team. He picked the right moment. I thought the performance today was at a level that he deserved and that hopefully he would like.

“I’m really happy with the performance first of all and then the result. Obviously, the context of the game was that they went a goal up, but you saw the reaction of this crowd, generating belief and just giving a lot of energy to the team and the team showed a lot of composure and real quality, but also real clarity to understand what the game demanded, and they executed that really well. What I tell the players is we have to focus on us.

“We cannot control what the opponents are going to do, how good they are going to become or how many points they are going to get or drop, so we have to focus on our performance, what we are doing every day and what has brought us here. It is not a coincidence, so we need to keep doing what we are doing. We overcame a challenge and a difficult moment on top of injuries that we had with Jesus, Smith Rowe and Tomiyasu out. The team still believed and played to the level that they did again.”

Mikel Arteta

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