West Ham United: Sky Sports pundit wowed by ‘magnificent’ Alphonse Areola footage v Arsenal
Gareth Ainsworth praised Alphonse Areola for making a “magnificent” save against Arsenal, but claimed the West Ham goalkeeper was also “lucky”.
Areola pushed Leandro Trossard’s powerful effort over the crossbar in the 24th minute of Sunday’s (11 February) Premier League clash at London Stadium.
The save was made at a time when the scores were level at 0-0, although the France international did go on to concede a penalty before half-time as the Irons fell to a 6-0 loss.
Reacting to the save from Trossard’s shot on Sky Sports News [11 February, 2:27pm], former QPR boss Ainsworth said: “Gabriel Martinelli stood it up at the back stick and Trossard has hit it well.
“If it’s three yards either side of the keeper it’s a goal without a doubt. Areola is lucky, but it’s also magnificent. He’s looking at the ball but it comes at him at some pace – it’s a brilliant save, really good.”
Arsenal blow West Ham away
There was absolutely nothing “lucky” about the save Areola made to deny Trossard – it was a world-class stop.
As Ainsworth said, he watched the ball all the way and somehow reacted quickly enough to help it over the bar.
That looked like being a possible turning point in the game as Arsenal were on top, but it did not work out that way for the Irons.
Areola was given plenty to do and unfortunately the save was soon forgotten about when he wiped out Bukayo Saka to concede a penalty.
David Moyes made a big call in installing Areola as his first choice over Lukasz Fabianski, but the decision has largely paid off.
However, West Ham and Areola have now gone four games without a clean sheet and that has to change if this slide is going to be halted.
The Arsenal performance was as bad as anything we have seen under David Moyes, although Areola is not wholly to blame for the result.
In other West Ham news, a United player was left “devastated” after a development last week.
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