West Ham United: David Moyes hailed his West Ham United side as they finished a memorable 2023 with a 2-0 away win against an Arsenal side who were seeking to go top of the Premier League.
Goals from Tomas Soucek and Konstantinos Mavropanos earned Moyes his first ever away win against Arsenal in all competitions.
"What about 2023 for us as a club? It’s been fantastic. And thankfully we’ve finished it off in great fashion today," Moyes told the club’s official website as quoted by Premier League.
"We’ve lost a couple of games conceding five in recent weeks, which I’ve hated. I try not to get my teams to do that, but tonight we’ve defended really well," he added.
West Ham were dealt a blow just after the half-hour mark when playmaker Lucas Paqueta, who had appeared to be injured during the warm-up, was eventually forced off and replaced by Said Benrahma.
"We had two different centre-halves tonight, we lost [Lucas] Paqueta [during the first half], after he picked up an injury in the warm-up.
"So there were lots of things going against us, but I have to say it was a brilliant resolute performance.
"They did everything together, they worked so hard together and we could have even got another right at the end there from the penalty," Moyes added.
Victory in north London was the West Ham's third league success in a row, and closed a month which has seen successes against top-six staples Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and now Arsenal.