If Arsenal’s wait for the Premier League title is to extend beyond the end of the season, this will go down as the day when their challenge faltered. After the 2-2 draw at Liverpool last Sunday, Mikel Arteta and his coaches were happy with the point, even if they accepted that the game management had to improve. There were not so many ‘what ifs?’ – even though they led 2-0.

It was an entirely different feeling here. This was a game that Arsenal held in their palms, initially after they surged into an early 2-0 lead. At that point the West Ham natives were restless, Arsenal’s superiority pronounced to an almost excruciating degree.

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Then, at 2-1 early in the second half, Arsenal did so again as Bukayo Saka stood over a penalty. The club’s player of the season had not missed from the spot since his notorious fail for England in the Euro 2020 final shootout defeat against Italy but his nerve deserted him, his kick pushed past Lukasz Fabianski’s right‑hand post.

How West Ham made him and Arsenal pay. David Moyes’s team – for whom the point and overall performance was huge in their relegation battle – had turned the game on its head when Saïd Benrahma scored for 2-1 from the penalty spot on 33 minutes.

Thereafter, Arsenal lost their way; the control surrendered, the creativity absent. It is difficult to remember them playing so listlessly over a period for as long as 60 minutes or so and West Ham were full value for the draw, their midfield trio of Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paquetá outstanding to a man.

Jarrod Bowen’s side-on volley secured the point for them and they might have nicked all three late on only for Michail Antonio – who was immense as the lone front‑runner – to head against the outside of post and crossbar.

Arsenal had waltzed into their two‑goal advantage, their pass‑and‑move football on point, simply too much for West Ham. It looked easy and that was surely Arsenal’s mistake. They thought the game was done; they lacked the ruthlessness to ensure it was. The difference between early-game Arsenal and the team after the Benrahma penalty was extraordinary.

Moyes had lost the left-sided centre-halves, Angelo Ogbonna and Nayef Aguerd, to injury – Thilo Kehrer stepped in – and, after the Europa Conference League draw at Gent on Thursday night, they had little time to prepare. The strange thing was that they started well, winning a number of one-on-one duels, Rice particularly prominent. And then they conceded two.

The first was a move from Arsenal’s training ground, Thomas Partey cutting right to left, popping the ball off to Martin Ødegaard, who made the incisive pass to Ben White. The right‑back’s low cross from the byline gave Gabriel Jesus a tap-in.

Moyes wore a thunderous expression when the second went in, presumably directed at Benrahma, who did not fancy tracking Ødegaard’s run. Gabriel Martinelli had crossed once and saw nothing come of it. But when he tried again, Ødegaard – wide open at the far post – got his body into position to volley home.

Moyes had ditched his two-striker experiment from the win at Fulham last weekend, recalling the fit-again Paquetá on the left of the midfield three and Benrahma ahead of him. It all looked to be going wrong for West Ham and there were boos from the home crowd when a long ball forward to nobody on 27 minutes ran through to Aaron Ramsdale.

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The mood would change sharply when Rice pressed Partey to win the ball high up. Did Rice handle? The VAR would say no. Rice passed into the area to Paquetá and Arsenal were stretched, Gabriel Magalhães going to ground and Paquetá seeing him coming. Gabriel tried to pull out of the challenge but he could not, Paquetá feeling the contact and going down. Benrahma sent Ramsdale the wrong way from the spot.

Suddenly, Arsenal were rattled. Previously, they had enjoyed time and space on the ball; so much, at times, that the sighs from the West Ham support were audible. Now West Ham were tighter and they pushed, Partey and Jesus both booked for fouls to prevent the counterattack. Moyes’s team were also dangerous on set pieces; Antonio might have done better with one header following a free-kick as half-time approached.

Arsenal had the chance to reassert themselves. When Martinelli’s hooked shot hit Antonio’s slightly outstretched arm inside the area after West Ham had half-cleared a corner, it was as if the air had been sucked from the stadium.

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It blew back like a hurricane when Saka flunked the penalty and there was delirium when Bowen found the equaliser almost immediately after Kehrer collected a clearing header from Magalhães and lobbed forward. It was a difficult skill for Bowen to execute, the ball dropping over his shoulder, but the connection was true and the power too much for Ramsdale’s fingertips.

Arsenal groped for the answers and it was easy to feel that it was not their day when Ødegaard sent a straightforward pass into touch on the hour. Arteta made changes, withdrawing all of his attacking players apart from Saka, but what did his team create after the penalty miss?

A stretching Jesus could not reach a low Kieran Tierney cross, Saka shot tamely at Fabianski on the break and it was West Ham who looked the more threatening. For Arsenal, there would only be soul-searching.