Arsenal FC forward Martinelli - “We are together.”

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Arteta was happy with 'the performance, the attitude, and the commitment' his Gunners showed on Wednesday night.

Martinelli broke the deadlock in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over West Ham [BT Sport Screen Shot]

Arsenal dominated much of the game, but had to wait until just after half time to break the deadlock as Alex Lacazette found Gabriel Martinelli with a superb pass and the Gunners prodigy calmly found the button corner of the net.

Gabriel Martinelli says Arsenal FC are together after they leapfrogged West Ham United to move into fourth place in the Premier League table.

Martinelli scored the opening goal at the Emirates Stadium early in the second half before substitute Emile Smith Rowe confirmed victory for the Gunners in the 87th minute.

Alexandre Lacazette, who captained the side tonight, also had a penalty saved by Hammers goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski in the second half.

West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal was given his marching orders for a second booking despite winning the ball when he tackled Lacazette in the box.

Coufal had been booked in the first half when his arm hit left-back Kieran Tierney in the face.

Tierney also hit the crossbar, while Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel came close to scoring for Arsenal, who were the better team on the night.

However, Martinelli says Mikel Arteta’s side have so much potential to become better.

'We are together'

Goalscorer Martinelli said while speaking to BT Sport: "It was a very good game. 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 [Alexandre Lacazette] 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."

'It was a statement'

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said the victory over the East London side is a 'statement.'

The Gunners boss said: "Really pleased with the performance, the quality, the energy, the passion, and the crowd. We had some really good moments. It was a really difficult team to play against. They have a lot of solutions and are a threat in many, many ways. I think we controlled them pretty well so credit to the boys.

"It was a great first goal. That's what Gabriel [Martinelli] can do. He is always a threat and this pace is really good for him to exploit. The second one was good on the counter-attack. It's a shame we miss a penalty in that moment as it would have given us more time to relax because you can't against this team. They can score a goal in any action.

"It was a big game for us to obviously have the capacity to go above them and move fourth. It was a statement. We had been pretty strong at home so we needed to put a good performance in against a good team and I think we did that."

On any distractions following Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being relieved of his duty as Arsenal captain this week, he said: "They were fully focused. They wanted to show how strong we are as a team. The performance, the attitude, and the commitment they showed today is exactly what we are as a club.

"I expect it from every player - to stick to our values. We will talk about that another day. Today I want to talk about the game."

When asked whether Aubameyang will be considered for the next game, the Spaniard replied: "He wasn't eligible for this game and that's it. This game is gone. We will discuss it in the near future."

The victory over David Moyes's team makes it five home wins on the bounce for the Gunners.

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