It was honours even in the London derby, as Holly Davies reports.
West Ham U-21s’ five-match winning streak came to an end as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Arsenal.
A first half strike from Alex Pike gave the home side the lead, but the visitors earned a deserved point thanks to an equaliser from Chris Willock 10 minutes from time.
After an impressive win last week against a previously undefeated West Bromwich Albion side, West Ham were confident of extending the run against their North London counterparts.
They were going to have to do so without their strongest team. Under 21s Regular Marcus Browne was left out of the squad on Monday night due to his involvement in the FA Youth Cup this coming Friday, with manager Steve Potts unwilling to risk an injury to the attacking midfielder.
The inclusion of first team player Pedro Obiang gave the team more stability in midfield, but Reece Oxford was without his familiar centre-back partner Leo Chambers, who was replaced by Stephen Hendrie. Martin Samuelsen was unavailable due to his loan spell at Peterborough United
It was the visitors who were on top in the early stages of the first half. After a smartly taken free-kick, Dan Crowley dribbled his way into the box and fed Donyell Malen but his shot from close range was straight at Raphael Spiegel in the Hammers goal.
West Ham found their rhythm and following a good spell of pressure were denied an opening goal by the offside flag as Jaanai Gordon chipped the ball over Matt Macey in the Arsenal goal,
Gordon once again put the ball in the back of the net for West Ham but strayed offside. This was a feature of the half, as West Ham became frustrated by repeated failures to beat the offside trap.
Scare
At the other end Crowley continued to cause problems. He was pulled back just outside the box in on attack but thankfully for West Ham was denied a free kick by the referee.
Another scare for the Hammers came when Jeff Adelaide took a strike from the edge of the box that looked to be heading into the top corner but Spiegel did well to get a strong hand on it and send it out for a corner.
West Ham took the lead with under 10 minutes to go in the half, with a goal that came against the run of play. Pike capitalised on some sloppy Arsenal defending to flick the ball into the bottom corner.
Having taken an unlikely lead, West Ham started the second half full of purpose, creating chances but only to be denied by some great goalkeeping from Macey.
West Ham thought they had doubled their lead through Djair Parfitt-Williams but his close range shot was deemed offside by the assistant referee.
Spiegel then denied Arsenal the equaliser, stopping an effort from Malen as he slipped through the defence and poked his shot towards goal. Willock also went close with an ambitious 20 yard chip, but the ball went over the cross bar.
It was a mistake by Hammers’ captain Oxford that eventually led to The Gunners’ equaliser. Oxford was favourite to the loose ball in midfield but he tried to pass instead of clearing it. This enabled Willock to gain possession down the left. He cut inside and fired the ball into the bottom corner.
Mistakes by both defences presented further opportunities but the game ended 1-1. In the circumstances it was a positive result for the Hammers but after leading for the majority of the game they will be disappointed to have conceded so late on. However they go into the New Year having only lost once in their last eight games.