There was high drama at the London Stadium as Leandro Trossard’s (£6.5m) strike and an even later VAR call kept Arsenal’s title bid on track.
It also ensured Nottingham Forest stayed up, after Elliot Anderson (£5.6m) had earned his side a point with a late leveller at Newcastle United.
Here are our Scout Notes from both games.
WHITE AND CALAFIORI INJURY WOE
Mikel Arteta named an unchanged side for the third successive match.
The Gunners made a fast start, hitting the bar through the rejuvenated Trossard, twice coming close through Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m), and forcing last-gasp interventions from Mads Hermansen (£4.2m) and Kostas Mavropanos (£4.5m).
The league leaders rained seven shots down on goal in the opening quarter-hour only for their defensive injury curse to strike again, with Ben White (£5.1m) hobbling off with a knee injury. The defender left the ground in a leg brace and, while it’s too early for a prognosis, that could be a season-ender for the England right-back.
“We don’t know, but he doesn’t look good at all, so he needs some further testing tomorrow probably and I know a bit more.” – Mikel Arteta on Ben White injury
Not to be outdone, Calafiori also went off at half-time with an as-yet-undisclosed issue. The Italian has been magnificent for Arsenal when he has played, but has been dogged by fitness niggles all season.
“Then we have the Ben White injury; we have to make an adjustment there. After then, at half-time, we had to make another one with Richy’s injury.” – Mikel Arteta
We will have to wait until Arteta’s next press conference to see whether or not Calafiori will be available for Monday’s Gameweek 37 match with Burnley. If the defender’s social media account is anything to go by, he may be okay. He posted a photo of himself in action, the players celebrating, and the message ‘Let’s goooooo!”. Read into that what you will.
RICE AT RIGHT-BACK – BUT ONLY BRIEFLY
For some reason, instead of replacing White with Cristhian Mosquera (£5.3m), Arteta decided to bring on the out-of-form midfielder Martin Zubimendi (£5.0m) and move Declan Rice (£7.2m) into an emergency right-back role, a position he has only once previously filled this season.
The outcome was negative for Arsenal. Arteta’s side completely ceded the midfield to a hitherto overrun West Ham, and offered the hosts new hope. Arsenal managed only one shot before the interval following White’s substitution, while West Ham started to show more attacking initiative.
Calafiori’s injury led to the half-time introduction of Mosquera at right-back, with Rice shifting back to midfield. This time, Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.0m) instead had to vacate midfield to deputise at left-back. This, too, weakened Arsenal as an attacking force, as the 19-year-old has been a revelation in midfield of late.
Realising the error of his ways, Arteta took the ruthless decision to sub his sub and bring on Martin Odegaard (£7.8m) for Zubimendi midway through the second half.
“There are two actions defensively that we suffered in a little bit, I don’t think it’s because of his positioning, but the reality is I think we had to. But as well with the game that I expected, bringing Mosquera was going to lock something, we really believed that he can give us the fluidity and the chance to hurt them, but sometimes you have to make another change and the one on Zubi was tough, but I really felt that we had to put two attacking midfielders in that moment to generate all the kind of issues I’ve said, and thank God it worked out.- Mikel Arteta on subbing Zubimendi
EZE AT REAL RISK?
Kai Havertz (£7.3m) also came on at the same time, in favour of the largely ineffective Eberechi Eze (£7.3m), and Arsenal suddenly looked much better. Indeed, it was a one-two between the impressive Odegaard and Rice that led to Trossard’s 83rd-minute winner, the Norwegian producing his seventh assist of the campaign.
“I said at half-time to the boys, we’re really going to go for it, so be ready because if the game is not panning out in the manner that we have to, we’re going to have to change it. And the finishers made a difference. Martin came in and had an incredible impact on the game with an action that leaves Leo in a top position to score the goal.” – Mikel Arteta on Odegaard’s impact
Odegaard may have played his way into the side for the Gunners’ final home match of the season against relegated Burnley, with Eze’s place now at risk.
Eze can also play on the left, of course, but Trossard’s performances in recent matches have been brilliant.
SAKA AND GYOKERES SILENCED
Following their exploits against Fulham and Atleti, Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) and Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m) were the second and third-most transferred-in players of the Gameweek. However, West Ham’s deep-lying five-man defence kept them quiet.
Saka did send two hopeful efforts over the bar, but he had been replaced by Noni Madueke (£6.8m) three minutes before the Gunners scored.
Still, that was likely Arsenal’s biggest remaining test of 2025/26. Relegated Burnley and a distracted-by-Europe Crystal Palace are to come.
RAYA SCOOPS THE GOLDEN GLOVE
If Arsenal do win the league this season, it will be in no small part thanks to their magnificent goalkeeper, who racked up his 18th clean sheet of the campaign. That assures he’ll retain the Golden Glove.
Shortly before the visitors scored, David Raya (£6.1m) pulled off a world-class save from Matheus Fernandes (£5.5m). In truth, the West Ham midfielder should have scored (the chance had an xG of over 0.5) but Raya stayed on his feet long enough to pull off a possibly title-clinching save.
Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.3m) also made a crucial block in added time to help maintain the clean sheet, his 17th of the campaign. His stoic performance also earned him two defensive contribution (DefCon) points and three bonus for an 11-point haul, lifting him beyond 200 points.
Above: Players sorted by defensive contributions in Sunday’s game
The Brazilian, who also had two shots in the game, now needs only 12 points to beat the all-time FPL record for a defender – the 213 achieved by Andrew Robertson (£5.7m) in 2018/19.
POSITIVES FOR WEST HAM DESPITE THE DEFEAT
As well as Fernandes’s miss, West Ham can consider themselves incredibly unlucky that Callum Wilson (£5.8m) did not get on the scoresheet. The veteran forward only appears for late substitute appearances these days but was twice denied an added-time equaliser, first by Gabriel’s aforementioned block, and secondly by a long VAR review that is destined to be remembered for years to come.
Kostas Mavropanos (£4.5m) also gave another eye-catching performance. He kept Gyokeres largely quiet, had a header on goal and on another day might have got on the end of the final corner of the game had he not been rugby tackled by Rice. The West Ham defender could still be worth considering as a differential for the Hammers’ final hurrah against Newcastle and Leeds.
GIBBS-WHITE INJURY LATEST
At the City Ground, Forest managed to scrape a crucial point from a match that looked beyond them.
They sorely lacked the attacking impetus of Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.5m), who missed the match with his facial injury, and so it was fitting that it fell to their other talisman, Anderson, to come up with the goods two minutes from time. The midfielder found the net against his former employers after a lovely threaded pass from James McAtee (£5.0m).
Thanks to his fourth goal of the season and his customary DefCon points, he’s now among the top five midfielders in the game:
As well as Gibbs-White, the hosts were without Murillo (£5.2m), Ibrahim Sangare (£4.9m) and Ola Aina (£4.7m), and having calculated that a draw would probably suffice to keep them up, Vitor Pereira elected to deploy a five-man defence, but he soon felt compelled to flip it to a back four, after which they improved.
So, will Gibbs-White et al be fit in Gameweek 37?
“I hope. It was a pity that we played the second leg of the Europa League semi-final without a lot of players, without solutions, in difficult circumstances. I believe we could have done it in a different way.
“It was not my decision [to omit GIbbs-White]; I cannot decide. This was a medical decision from the specialist. He was not in condition to play.” – Vitor Pereira on the prospect of getting his injured players back next weekend, via the Nottingham Post
BRUNO + BARNES GAMEWEEK 37 OPTIONS?
Eddie Howe handed Nick Woltemade (£6.7m) his first start in two months, while William Osula (£5.4m) led the line again, a reward for his three goals in four previous matches. Lewis Hall (£5.3m), curiously at right-back, returned to a defence deprived of the injured Tino Livramento (£4.9m) and Fabian Schar (£5.2m).
The departing Kieran Trippier (£4.9m) only emerged in injury time, while the wantaway Anthony Gordon (£7.3m) was also left on the bench and may have probably played his last match in a Newcastle shirt.
The visitors’ chief goal threat came from Bruno Guimaraes (£6.8m), who was twice denied by Matz Sels (£4.6m). The Newcastle captain had four shots on goal in total, including a rasping free-kick from range that flew just wide, created three big chances, produced three key passes and came top among all players for fouls won (five). Bruno’s performance will earn him two bonus points.
Osula also peppered the Forest goal with four attempts, one of them a free-kick that cannoned back off the bar. They are arguably Newcastle’s two most desirable Fantasy assets at present, although Bruno is the safer bet for minutes.
Substitute Harvey Barnes (£6.1m) broke the resistance of Sels, who made five saves in the match, racing onto a through ball from fellow substitute Jacob Ramsey (£5.3m) in the 74th minute. Barnes has now scored in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since November.
With Gordon seemingly out of the picture and the Magpies hoping to finish the season on a high, Barnes could well be in the frame to start against West Ham in Gameweek 37.
“He is such a good player and he has goals in him. He has done well for us historically, off the bench. He has done well when he’s started too and he’s an outstanding player. He took his goal well and that gives Harvey a great chance to start the next game.“ – Eddie Howe on Harvey Barnes
Newcastle’s defensive frailties came back to bite them again at the end, though, and there’s little Fantasy interest in their backline.
“Yeah, disappointing. I think much better in the second half, I thought we were playing really well, but we had enough chances to grow our lead.
“Another late goal that cost us points, hugely frustrating for us. Probably the first time in the game where we back off a little bit and defend deeper, and then we don’t deal with the situation well enough around the box.” – Eddie Howe on Newcastle’s defence
