Match report: Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
Premier League: Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe got the goals that settled an entertaining and often tetchy encounter at the Emirates. Nick Ames reports ...
Romain Saiss speaks ...
“It was an important win and we’re happy with the performance, said the Wolves defender in a chat with BT Sport. “Brighton is a good team so let’s recover for the next game.
“I’m always happy to score goals and I was close to scoring a second well and that’s something I’m trying to improve. Every season I get a lot of chances so I’m happy to score.
“I’ve known Ruben [Neves] very well for a lot of years and it was a fantastic pass but I deserve credit for the finish with my right foot - I never use my right foot.
“It was important to score before the end of the first half and we tried to play from the back but in the first half we didn’t create a lot of chances.”
Gabriel Martinelli speaks ...
“It was a very good game,” said one of Arsenal’s goalscorers in an interview with BT Sport. “The win was so important for the team. We know the potential we have. It was a great victory. I am so happy.
“We like to see the fans like that and cheer us on. We knew it was going to be a very difficult game but we have a very good group. They were defending well and we were waiting for the moment. Thank you Laca for the assist! I want to play every time.
“We are a team. We are together. It’s up to Mikel [Arteta] and the whole team to decide who will be captain.”
Match report: Brighton 0-1 Wolves
Premier League: Romain Saiss volleyed home the only goal of the game to leave goal-shy Brighton without a win in 11 top flight games. Jacob Steinberg reports ...
Premier League results
- Brighton 0-1 Wolves
- Crystal Palace 2-2 Southampton
- Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
- View the Premier League table
Full time: Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
Premier League: Goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe earned Arsenal a deserved win and moves them into fourth place in the Premier League table.
Scottish Premiership results
- Rangers 2-0 St Johnstone
- Ross County 1-2 Celtic
- View the Scottish Premiership table
Scottish Premiership: Anthony Ralston has won all three points for 10-man Celtic with a late, late against Ross County in the seventh minute of added time.
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham: With less than a minute of normal time left, Said Benrahma fires a free-kick from a good position into the Arsenal defensive wall.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 West Ham (Smith-Rowe 87)
Premier League: Emile Smith-Rowe wraps up a counter-attack for Arsenal, cutting inside from the right and rifling the ball into the bottom right-hand corner through the legs of Issa Diop.
Updated
Match report: Crystal Palace 2-2 Southampton
Premier League: Southampton were denied their first victory in seven games by Jordan Ayew’s first goal in 44 top flight matches. Ed Arrons reports from Selhurst Park ...
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: Martinelli squares the ball to the near post, where Saka looks a certaintly to score into the bottom corner. Issa Diop sticks out a leg and deflects the ball out for a corner.
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: From a corner, Gabriel sends a left-footed volley wide of the near post.
Full time: Brighton 0-1 Wolves
Premier League: A delightful Romain Saiss volley in first half added time was enough to win all three points for WOlves.
Brighton 0-1 Wolves: They’re still playing at the Amex, where there are over 10 minutes of injury time due mainly to some lengthy running repairs to referee Tony Harrington’s electronic equipment.
Full time: Crystal Palace 2-2 Southampton
Premier League: It’s finished all square at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace may feel aggrieved at not taking all three points. Southampton were a goal down after two minutes but 2-1 up at the break. Jordan Ayew scored the equaliser with his first goal in 44 top flight games.
Lacazette misses from the spot!
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: Lucasz Fabianski saves brilliantly from Lacazette, diving to his left and getting both hands to the ball and parrying it clear.
Updated
Penalty for Arsenal!!!
Premier League: Vladimir Coufal dives in, gets the ball but unwittingly rolls his foot over the top of it on to Alexandre Lacazette’s shin. The West Ham defender gets his second unjust yellow of the evening and it’s followed by a red. Arsenal have a penalty. That looks a bit rum to me - a penalty maybe, but definitely not a booking.
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Hoffenheim 4-1 Arsenal
Women’s Champions League: Arsenal’s women have coneded three goals in four minutes - with Barcelona already through, the German side need to win by five or more goals to progress from the group at Arsenal’s expense. There are over 30 minutes left in that game and Simon Burnton has the latest.
Brighton 0-1 Wolves: Brighton appear to have offered very little in the second half of their game against Wolves and trail to Romain Saiss’s fine strike as the game enters its final minute.
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: Odegaard shoots through a gap in the wall created by two Arsenal players ducking out of the way but Fabianski gets down to his left to save.
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: Craig Dawson trips Alexandre Lacazette just outside the West Ham penalty area. Free-kick for Arsenal in a wonderful position, directly in front of goal.
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale saves splendidly from a deflected shot off the boot of Jarrod Bowen.
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham: Granit Xhaka has a low drive blocked by a Craig Dawson who slides in to block and optimistically appeals for handball.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 West Ham (Martinelli 48)
Premier League: Gabriel Martinelli runs in behind down the inside left on to a ball into space from Alexandre Lacazette, advances on the West Ham goal and slots the ball into the far corner.
Updated
Scottish Premiership: It’s Ross County 1-1 Celtic, with Jack Baldwin bundling home from six yards out for the hosts.
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: The second half kicks off at the Emirates, where it is scoreless. Arsenal have had the pick of the chances.
Crystal Palace 2-2 Southampton: Southampton win two corners in quick succession but Palace clear their lines second time around with a long hoof downfield.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-2 Southampton (Ayew 64)
Premier League: Jordan Ayew scores his first goal in over 40 Premier League games, slotting home from a tight angle at the back post after a Christian Benteke cross-shot had been diverted his way by Southampton goalkeeper Willy Caballero.
Updated
Scottish Premiership: Ryan Kent doubles Rangers’ lead against St Johnstone.
Brighton 0-1 Wolves: Brighton’s Enock Mwepu hooks the ball high over the bar with the outswide of his boot from four or five yards out after connecting with a viciously whipped free-kick from the right. He should have scored!
Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 West Ham
Premier League: A bad-tempered, goalless but entertaining half draws to a close not long after Alexandre Lacazette had forced another save out of Fabianski with a low drive.
Brighton 0-1 Wolves: At the Amex Stadium, there’s a five-minute delay as referee Tony Harrington, making his top flight debut, has to have the communications pack strapped around his upper arm replaced. I feel his pain as my wifi went on the blink at around the same time – apologies for any delays in transmission.
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: Kieran Tierney smashes a shot goalwards after a Craig Dawson block on Martin Odegaard. Lucasz Fabianski somehow tips his rising drive on to the bar.
Brighton 0-1 Wolves: Trincao has a low drive saved at the near post by Brighton goalkeeper
Scottish Premiership half-times
- Rangers 1-0 St Johnstone
- Ross County 0-1 Celtic
- View the Scottish Premiership table
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: For West Ham, Pablo Fornals tries his luck from distance but sends his shot flashing wide of the right post. Close, but no cigar for the midfielder.
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: There have been penalty appeals galore at the Emnirates, but none of them gone Arsenal’s way. In the latest, Lacazette goes to ground under a challenge from Craig Dawson but neither referee Anthony Taylor nor his VAR Peter Banks are having it.
Moments previously, Gabriel Martinelli was the subject of a couple of lunges as he tried to take a shot but the officials were unmoved then too.
Updated
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: Bukayo Sako advances on the West Ham penalty area, tries to unleash a shot but ends up kicking the back of Arthur Masuaku’s leg as the West Ham defender tried to get between him and the ball. Arsenal appeal for a penalty but do not get one. Corrrect decision.
Half-time: Crystal Palace 1-2 Southampton
Premier League: Wilf Zaha opened the scoring for Crystal Palace but goals from James Ward-Prowse and Armando Broja mean Southampton have the interval lead.
Half-time: Brighton 0-1 Wolves
Premier League: Brighton have had the best of it at the Amex Stadium, Wolves go in a goal to the good thanks to Romain Saiss’s excellent strike. It’s their first goal in 438 minutes.
GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Wolves (Saiss 45+1)
Premier League: After Brighton fail to clear a corner properly, Romain Saiss latches on to a wonderful ball from Ruben Neves from the edge of the penalty area and sends a splendid diagonal volley into the far corner from the edge of the six-yard box. A great finish and a wonderful assist.
Updated
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: Nelson Semedo goes down in the Brighton box under a challenge from Dan Burn. He appeals for a penalty but none is forthcoming.
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: Arsenal’s players surround the referee hoping to persuade him to send off Vladimir Coufal for what they see as an elbow on Kieran Tierney. Coufal gets booked and can probably feel very hard done by for seeing a card of any colour. He put his arm across Tierney’s chest as he tried to hold him off the ball - it was accidental and a no more than a foul.
Arsenal 0-0 West Ham: Arsenal win a free-kick a little over 25 yards from the West Ham goal foi a Declan Rice foul on Alexandre Lacazette. Granit Xhaka stands over the ball but fires it straight into the defensive wall.
GOAL! Crysatal Palace 1-2 Southampton (Broja 36)
Premier League: From much the same spot as James Ward-Prowse equalised for Southampton, Armando Broja gives them the lead. His low drive into the corner leaves Butland clawing at fresh air.
Updated
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Southampton (Ward-Prowse 33)
Premier League: Southampton win a free-kick directly in front of the Palace goal, about 25 yards out. There’s no prizes for guessing who takes it and James Ward-Prowse whips the ball up over the wall with a hint of fade and into the top corner. That is a glorious free-kick. In the Palace goal, Jack Butland got a hand to it but hadn’t a hope of keeping it out.
Updated
Arsenal v West Ham is go!!!
Premier League: They’re off and running at the Emirates, with Arsenal trying to leapfrog West Ham into fourth place in the table.
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: Joao Moutinho has a long range shot from distance comfortably saved by Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Palace centre-back Marc Guehi gets booked for hanging out of Armando Broja’s shirt.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Wilfried Zaha curls a wonderful ball across the face of goal for Odsonne Edouard, who somehow contrives to sidefoot the ball wide when scoring looked a formality. That is an awful miss.
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: Solly March fires high and a little wide of the Wolves goal when he should at least have hit the target.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Southampton win a corner, which James Ward-Prowse arrows towards the near post. It’s cleared with a thumping header.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: This from Ed Aarons, the Guardian’s man at Selhurst Park.
Will Hughes proving an instant hit with the Palace fans. Such a calming presence and rarely gives the ball away
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) December 15, 2021
Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Southampton attack on the break in a move that ends with Will Smallbone get a sarcastic cheer from the Crystal Palace fans behind the goal he slices high and wide of.
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: Hwang limps off in discomfort, having done a mischief to his right hamstring. He’s about to be replaced by Adama Traore, who has scored the sum total of seven goals in 155 Premier League appearances. That is a shockingly bad return for a man of his talents.
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: It looks like the jig might be up for Wolves striker Hwang Hee-chan, who is sitting on the deck again nursing the back of his thigh. He looks very disconsolate indeed.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Conor Gallagher sends a free-kick into the Southampton penalty area from wide on the right. It’s half-cleared and the ball drops to James Tomkins, who has a low drive from close range saved by the legs of Caballero at the near post. Good block.
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: Brighton win a corner, which Solly March swings to the near post. The ball is put out for another set-piece, from which nothing comes. Hwang Hee-chan has been passed fit to continue.
Brighton 0-0 Wolves: Adama Traore is warming up on the touchline for Wolves as Hwang Hee-chan, in for the suspended Raul Jimenez, receives treatment for an injury.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton (Zaha 3)
Premier League: Will Hughes wins the ball in midfield and plays it forward to Odsonne Edouard. He picks out Zaha on the left side of the Southampton penalty area and Wilf cuts inside Valentino Livramento and fires past Willy Caballero.
Updated
Play begins at Selhurst Park and the Amex Stadium ...
Peep! Curiously, Jack Butland gets a rare start in goal for Crystal Palace, with Vicente Guaita on the bench apparently pain from an unspecified number of injured fingers.
Not long now: The teams are out for our two 7.30pm kick-offs, with super in-form Crystal Palace midfielder Conor Gallagher making some last minute adjustments to his hairband at Selhurst Park.
Arsenal v West Ham line-ups
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Saka, Partey, Xhaka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Lacazette.
Subs: Smith Rowe, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Pepe, Tavares, Sambi Lokonga, Elneny, Nketiah, Okonkwo.
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Lanzini, Fornals, Antonio.
Subs: Yarmolenko, Vlasic, Areola, Noble, Benrahma, Kral, Alese, Ashby, Okoflex.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)
Tonight in the Scottish Premiership
- Rangers v St Johnstone
- Ross County v Celtic
- View the Scottish Premiership table
Some pre-match listening ...
Faye Carruthers sat in for Max Rushden on our Football Weekly podcast today and was joined by yours truly, Jonathan Liew and Paul Watson to discuss Manchester City’s demolition of Leeds United, among many other things. You can listen by clicking the link below and if you’re not already a subscriber - where have you been? You can sign up for free on all the usual podcast platforms.
Brighton v Wolves line-ups
Brighton: Sanchez, Lamptey, Veltman, Burn, Cucurella, Moder, Bissouma, Trossard, Mwepu, March, Connolly.
Subs: Mac Allister, Lallana, Scherpen, Alzate, Roberts, Richards, Leonard, Turns, Ferguson.
Wolverhampton: Jose Sa, Kilman, Coady, Saiss, Nelson Semedo, Neves, Joao Moutinho, Ait Nouri, Trincao, Hwang, Daniel Podence.
Subs: Hoever, Marcal, Moulden, Boly, Silva, Ruddy, Dendoncker,
Traore, Cundle.
Referee: Tony Harrington (Cleveland)
Crystal Palace v Southampton line-ups
Crystal Palace: Butland, Ward, Tomkins, Guehi, Mitchell, Gallagher, Hughes, Kouyate, Ayew, Edouard, Zaha.
Subs: Milivojevic, Olise, Eze, Guaita, Schlupp, Andersen, Clyne, Benteke, Riedewald.
Southampton: Caballero, Livramento, Lyanco, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Smallbone, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Redmond, Broja, Tella.
Subs: Long, Perraud, Djenepo, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Walcott, Bednarek, Lewis, Valery.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
Arsenal v West Ham team news
Having been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy following his latest breach of club discipline, Pierre Emerick-Aubemayang will miss his second match in succession as Mikel Arteta refuses to consider him for selection. Sead Kolasinac is also out as he continues his recovery from an ankle injury.
Defenders Kurt Zouma, Ryan Fredericks, Angelo Ogbonna and Ben Johnson are all among West Ham’s lame and halt, but Aaron Cresswell is reported to be fit after nearly three weeks on the sidelines and could play some part tonight.
Crystal Palace v Southampton team news
Defender Joachim Andersen and midfielder Luka Milivojevic are ready to return for Palace following spells out with injury but James McArthur is out with a hamstring injury.
Southampton striker Che Adams definitely misses out, while his fellow striker Adam Armstrong is also a doubt. Stuart Armstrong (no relation) will sit this match out too, while there are also concerns over the fitness of Armando Broja.
With goalkeepers Alex McCarthy and Fraser Forster both sidelined, emergency signing Willy Cabellero will step into the breach once again despite a less than convincing performance against Arsenal at the weekend.
Burnley v Watford postponement
An outbreak of Covid in the Watford squad means they haven’t enough players to fulfill tonight’s fixture, which was called off shortly before 5pm. The Premier League issuing the following statement.
It is with regret the Premier League Board has postponed Burnley FC’s home fixture against Watford FC, due to be played this evening (Wednesday 15 December) at 7.30pm.
The decision was taken following guidance from medical advisers due to an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak within Watford’s squad. As a result, the club has an insufficient number of First Team players available to fulfil the match.
The Premier League understands this decision will disappoint and frustrate fans who were due to attend this evening’s game and apologises for the inconvenience and disruption caused at such short notice.
In considering any application to postpone, the Board considers a range of sporting and medical factors. Each decision is taken on a case-by-case basis with everyone’s health of utmost importance.
In light of the recent rise in Covid-19 cases across the country, the Premier League has reintroduced Emergency Measures. These include protocols such as more frequent testing, wearing face coverings while indoors, observing social distancing and limiting treatment time.
While player safety is of course paramount, there are bound to be questions asked about why exactly the Premier League left it so late to call off the game. The answer almost certainly has to do with the fact that obtaining the results of PCR tests for the virus takes as long as it takes ands can’t be rushed.
Brighton v Wolves team news
For Brighton, Shane Duffy sits this one out with a one-game ban, while Lewis Dunk, Steven Alzate and Danny Welbeck and Jeremy Sarmiento are all out injured. Adam Lallana and Joel Veltman are also injury concerns, while Brighton have also reported that an unspecified and unidentified number of players have been affected by Covid.
Raul Jiminez will join Duffy on the Naughty Step following his comical sending-off against Manchester City at the weekend, and his absence that should herald the return of Hwang Hee-chan to Bruno Lage’s starting XI. Pedro Neto, Jonny and Yerson Mosquera are also absent through injury.
Tonight's Premier League fixtures
- Brighton v Wolves (7.30pm)
- Crystal Palace v Southampton (7.30pm)
- Arsenal v West Ham (8pm)
- View the Premier League table
Wednesday night Clockwatch ...
The midweek Premier League schedule continues with three games that all look hard to call ahead of kick-off. In the race for the top four, West Ham’s trip to the Emirates could prove crucial, as a win for the hosts would take them above David Moyes’s side into fourth spot, while a win for West Ham would open a five-point gap over their London rivals.
Further down the table, Wolves travel to Brighton in a mid-table meeting and Crystal Palace entertain a Southampton side who are without a win in five games. The planned fourth game of the night, between Burnley and Watford at Turf Moor, has been called off due to a number of Covid-19 cases among Claudio Ranieri’s squad.
We’ll have news of all the goals as they go in, flag up any major talking points and bring you post-match reaction on what promises to be yet another intriguing evening of top flight action.
