Arsenal have left West Ham's home ground with a total of 11 goals scored in their previous two visits to the Olympic Stadium - this May they managed to achieve one, but quite possibly the most important, goal in the last 22 years, with great difficulty.
North London is celebrating again, the Gunners have once again won the eastern part of the capital of the United Kingdom (1:0) and with two rounds remaining, they remain five points ahead of Manchester City, who have a match in hand.
In a somewhat boring match, the "crazy" arrived in the last fifteen minutes when David Raja "took away" the chance of the game from Mateusz Fernandes, Leandro Trosar scored for 1:0, and VAR rightly overturned Callum Wilson's equalizer goal deep into injury time.
Still-underrated Burnley at home and Crystal Palace away, Mikel Arteta's team will win their first title since the golden generation of invincibles from 2004. However, this match also showed that nothing is over until the last minute of the season.
The Gunners' desire was to get to the goal as soon as possible, which would make their job easier, so they dominated the first twenty minutes, with Riccardo Calafiori and Trossard missing big chances, while William Saliba reacted slowly when he could have slammed the ball into the goal from five meters.
After half an hour, Ben White was injured, so Arteta had to replace him with Martin Zubimendi, who took his place in midfield, while Declan Rice ended up at right back.
In parallel with this situation, West Ham finally came alive and started to show that they knew how to play. From all of this came a huge chance - Aaron van Bissaka crossed from the right, Tati Castellanos headed the ball dangerously in the air, but David Raja showed why he is currently the best goalkeeper in the world.
The scoreboard at the "Olympic Stadium" after 45 minutes showed an initial 0:0 - goals awaited in the second half.
However, there were no real chances for a long time. Arsenal kept the ball, tried, but apart from harmless shots by Bukayo Saka, they did not threaten in a real way. On the other hand, Nuno Espirito Santo's team was compact and patient, waiting for a chance, and it seemed that they could not have achieved a greater one than the one that Mateuš Fernandes had in the 78th minute.
After a double pass with Pablo, the Portuguese was left alone with Rayo, face to face, but the Spanish goalkeeper saved his team with another surreal intervention.
When a team fails to capitalize on a game-changing opportunity, a penalty is almost always the order of the day - especially from a team full of quality. Martin Edegor brought creativity into the game, finding Trosara and the Belgian finding his way into the net - 1-0.
It seemed like everything was over at that moment, but the real drama came in stoppage time. Wilson scored from a corner to make it 1-1, but moments before that Pablo had fouled Ray with his hand and VAR had no choice - a goal that would have pleased both West Ham and City was disallowed.
Completely justified, although many will remember that Arsenal - corner kick specialists - also scored after questionable contact with opposing goalkeepers.
Arsenal against Burnley and Crystal Palace, and City also against Oliver Glasner's team, Bournemouth and Aston Villa. The race continues, but the Gunners are the ones to blame for everything.
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