Arsenal looked to be cruising to victory after Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez had given them a 2-0 lead after 35 minutes before Carroll’s acts of brilliance.
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The England striker then completed his remarkable hat-trick six minutes into the second half, rising to meet Michail Antonio’s back-post cross and putting the Hammers in front.
Carroll has scored seven goals in 25 outings this season, but has netted four in his past three matches against Chelsea and Arsenal.
“We’ve shown resilience and spirit to come back to 3-3”, the Frenchman said.
Laurent Koscielny rescued a point for Arsenal 20 minutes from the end but, in truth, a point does little for either team’s end of season aspirations.
Then Carroll happened. First a gorgeous delivery from Aaron Cresswell found the striker’s head before moments later, in first half stoppage time, he volleyed in a spectacular equaliser.
West Ham fell behind early, but managed to get a 2-1 lead before halftime via goals from Manuel Lanzini and an unstoppable free kick by Dimitri Payet.
“Do we still have an opportunity to win the title?”
“Over, no. But it makes it much more hard of course”, he said. “We have to wait for the [other] results and focus on the next game”.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand took to social networking site Twitter in order to praise Andy Carroll’s performance during West Ham United’s enthralling 3-3 draw with Arsenal.
“We have to keep going no matter what and hope”.
7min 14sec Andy Carroll’s hat-trick is the fastest in the Premier League this season.
Arsenal are five points ahead of Manchester City who play later and six clear of fifth-placed Manchester United who are in action at title-chasing Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
With Andy Carroll in ya team…don’t mess about…put the ball in the box and he will cause havoc.
Arsenal will host Crystal Palace in a home league clash next weekend.
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“Both of us give it about, I don’t think either of us are dirty players”.
