Premier League

ARSENAL 1 (Lacazette 78)
WEST HAM 0

MIKEL Arteta said it “will take time” to turn the Gunners’ ship around after his team saw out a nervous 1-0 win against a wasteful West Ham at the Emirates Stadium.

The relegation-threatened visitors had the best chances of the game, with their manager David Moyes later rueing the missed opportunity to pick up some vital points.

But Alexandre Lacazette’s 78th-minute winner, confirmed after a long, nail-biting VAR wait, proved enough to earn Arsenal their third Premier League win on the spin.

If Manchester City’s European ban is upheld, then only three points now stand between the Gunners and fifth place, which could herald a return to Champions League football next season.

“I don’t believe in fortune,” said Arteta after the game. “Big teams find a way when they don’t have the best day.

“We has some good individual performances at the back. We can build from there, and learn and take the positives and negatives in a much better way.”

The Arsenal boss added there was “much more work ahead” to get his team playing to his high standards.

“We gave a lot of simple balls away,” he said. “We allowed West Ham to generate transition moments, which they are very good at, and struggled to find our flow.

“We’re turning the corner in terms of results, and a little bit in terms of the little things I want to see in the team.

“The players were telling me just now I’ve turned the ship around, but that ship needs to turn a couple of times more. It will take time.”

In a game where Arsenal never really got out of the blocks, young full back Bukayo Saka and defender Pablo Mari stood out, while goalkeeper Bernd Leno was the home team’s saviour.

Star man Leno made a string of good saves to keep the visitors out, and bossed his penalty area with aplomb.

But above all, fans have a wasteful West Ham attack to thank for the three points today, with forward Michail Antonio especially at fault.

The best chance of the first half fell to the Hammers just before the break, with Antonio managing to somehow hook wide just yards from goal after some calamitous Arsenal defending from a corner.

Arsenal chances were few and far between, with Sokratis Papastathopoulos clipping the bar, and Nicolas Pepe panicking defenders with his unusual swaying gait, but failing to make it count for anything decisive.

The talismanic Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also struggled to make an impact from the left wing.

Eddie Nketiah had a soft penalty shout turned down in first half injury time, producing the biggest shout of the half from the subdued home fans.

West Ham’s Antonio missed another gilt edge chance in the second half, his header producing a good save from Leno.

With the game level, Arteta made two substitutions before the 70-minute mark, replacing the ineffective Nketieh with Lacazette, and swapping Pepe for Reiss Nelson.

The changes lifted the home team, with the energetic Nelson stretching play out wide on the right and making more room for the left sided players.

Arsenal’s goal eventually came from that left hand side. Saka found Aubameyang on the edge of the area, who saw his blocked shot looped into the path of Mesut Ozil, who was able to calmly head it square to Lacazette for a confident side foot finish.

VAR eventually ruled Ozil onside, which took some of the heart out of home fans’ celebrations, but the Arsenal players were visibly relieved at the decision.

West Ham and Moyes will look back on this one as a missed opportunity, with defeat leaving them hovering just outside the drop-zone by virtue of goal-difference and some tough fixtures ahead.

Moyes said: “We didn’t deserve to lose it. In recent weeks we’ve made mistakes defensively. Today I felt we didn’t take our chances.”

ARSENAL: Leno, Sokratis, Luiz, Mari, Saka, Ceballos, Xhaka, Pepe (Nelson, 69), Ozil (Bellerin, 89), Aubameyang, Nketiah (Lacazette, 59)
Substitutes not used: Martínez, Willock, Guendouzi, Martinelli

WEST HAM: Fabianski, Ngakia, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Noble (Soucek, 81), Bowen (Snodgrass, 90), Fornals (Anderson, 87), Antonio, Haller
Substitutes not used: Balbuena, Zabaleta, Lanzini, Randolph