Arsenal’s title hopes received serious blow tonight after Andy Carrol’s eight-minute hattrick restricted The Gunners to just a point.
Laurent Koscielny’s smart finish in the end could only rescue a draw for Arsenal despite 20 minutes remaining in the game.
Realistically Gunners needed all three points tonight to have an outside chance of winning the title, however, the draw has now surely knocked them out of the contention this season.
Despite the poor result, Arsenal had started the game brightly after Alex Iwobi opened the scoring on 18th minute. The youngster then turned provider for Alexis Sanchez, who doubled Arsenal’s lead on 35 minute mark.
Despite going 2-0 behind, West Ham managed to stay in the game but even the the most die-hard Hammers fans could have predicted what was about to happen next. Andy Carroll decided to go berserk and score two goals inside 2 minutes to bring West Ham level going in to the half time.
Carroll’s first came after he smartly headed in Aaron Cresswell’s cross, while his second came after the lanky striker controlled the ball on his chest and then finishing it in style with his left foot. The shot did take a little deflection from Gabriel’s knee on his way to the goal.
Carroll was done yet, he went on to score his first hat-trick since 2010 after he powered his header from the far post to put West Ham in lead. Upton Park and Slaven Bilic were buzzing and were dreaming of that coveted top 4 finish, but Arsenal had one goal left in them.
And it came from Koscielny who acted as the extra attacker in dying moments to be ready to receive Hector Bellerin cross and smartly finishing in to earn a consolation point for Arsenal.
After Koscielny’s goal, game was stretched and saw both the teams going hard for the win as the draw was not a good result for either of them.
Payet for West Ham and Walcott for Arsenal had good chances but were denied and it ended 3-3 at Upton Park much to the disappointment for both the managers. Arsenal’s title hopes are surely now over and West Ham finishing in the top-4 looks a distant possibility now.
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