Mikel Arteta suggested that Arsenal’s 3-3 draw with West Ham was “hard to explain” after his side completed a three-goal comeback.
Arsenal made a terrible start at the London Stadium as they were three goals down by the 32nd minute. Jesse Lingard, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek all got on the scoresheet.
Lingard netted his fifth Hammers goal via a superb volley from the edge of the area. A couple of minutes later, Bowen capitalised on a quick free-kick from the hosts to make it two. This was before Soucek diverted Michail Antonio’s header into the goal for the third.
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Arteta got a response from the Gunners as they finished the first half the better of the two sides and they got a goal back before the break. A vicious half-volley from Alexandre Lacazette was deflected into the net by Soucek.
Another own-goal just past the hour mark brought Arsenal well and truly back into the London derby. Martin Odegaard and Callum Chambers combined well and the latter’s cross was tapped into the net by Craig Dawson.
Both sides had chances before the end, but Arteta’s men grabbed an equaliser in the final ten minutes. Nicolas Pepe sent in a teasing ball into the area and Lacazette rose highest to head home at the back post.
It finished 3-3 and this result leaves Arsenal ninth in the table with nine games remaining. Arteta told BBC Sport that his side played the best they have all season in the second half:
“Hard to explain, we knew the game we would face against West Ham, they can create problems for any team. The first goal is something they do really well. The second and third goal, and the chance at the end is unacceptable. We didn’t look at the races.
“That is the level we can show, the other is top level and probably the best we play all season – we could have scored six or seven goals and won the game, but we cannot have two faces.
“We stuck to the plan we had because we were getting further away from that, we started to play much better and I have faith in the boys they are not going to give the game away. We had the belief we could do something.
“This game is going to give me a few nightmares. It is really difficult to stop some of the things we have been doing to hurt ourselves.”
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