West Ham 3 Arsenal 3: Five things we learned from draw at Upton Park

Dimitri Payet stands out once again while Andy Carroll reminds Roy Hodgson of his abilities

Payet skips past Francis Coquelin (Getty)

Payet's neat play outshines Ozil

Dimitri Payet (£10million) overshadowed Mesut Ozil (£42million) at Upton Park today and looks the more likely player to light up the Euros. Although Ozil scored the game’s opening goal with a fine finish, when the going got tasty in the second half as West Ham sought victory, the German faded from view - we know he thought Arsenal had mucked up their title challenge prior to kick-off so maybe the urgency had already waned.

Meanwhile, Payet kept demanding the ball, popping up in space, tormenting the Arsenal players and creating havoc in his opponents’ half. The Frenchman buzzed around in that gap between Arsenal’s central defenders and the holding midfielders.

His first touch, a delightful flick with the inside of his right foot behind his standing leg to set the full-back free, set the tone. A lovely nutmeg pass to Cresswell on the edge of the Arsenal box drew gasps of delight from the home fans at one point and a shot after giving David Ospina ‘the eyes’ nearly restored West Ham’s lead. He will surely add to his 17 caps in June.

Iwobi’s industry makes right-wing berth his own

Iwobi celebrates Arsenal's second with Alexis Sanchez (Getty)

Alex Iwobi (socks at half mast – kids, eh?) had another fine game on the Arsenal flank and is starting to make the position his own. There was plenty of industry and some sweet touches too - not least the two lovely passes that led to Arsenal's first two goals.

The first to Ozil set the ball rolling for Arsenal and the second was near identical for Sanchez who found the same corridor of space down the right hand side of the West Ham box. That’s two goals and two assists for Iwobi in four Premier League starts.

Elneny’s rise continues apace

Mohamed Elneny’s form is going to make it hard for Aaron Ramsey to win his place back in the Arsenal team.

Since Santi Cazorla’s early-season injury Ramsey had made that second central midfield spot alongside Francis Coquelin his own but since the Egyptian has come into the team, following Ramsey’s own injury, he looks the real deal.

With the Euros looming it could leave the Welshman heading to France short of match practice - or not drained by a long season, depending how you look at it.

Carroll one step closer to a summer in France?

Carroll turns away after scoring his second (Getty)

There’s a school of thought that Roy Hodgson should pop Andy Carroll in his luggage for France this summer. The England manager is pretty well stocked for striking options - not something his predecessors could boast about - with Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck all pretty much certain to travel.

But while all these front men offer different qualities (Kane his finishing, Vardy his pace, Rooney his vision and Welbeck his work-rate) none of them can provide the unique nuisance value that Carroll possesses.

He won the fight with Laurent Koscielny today. The Arsenal defender will in all likelihood line up at the heart of the France defence this summer and the hosts are among the favourites for the tournament. So if the duel was a Euro audition, Carroll can view his performance as a job well done.

The West Ham striker, fired up by an early clash with Koscielny - although in truth, there seemed to be very little contact in the challenge - showed the good, the bad and the ugly side of his game yesterday.

The good: the hat-trick, obviously; the bad: the odd piece of poor control or miss-hit shot; the ugly: the grim swipe down Koscielny’s Achilles in the first half that could have led to a red card before any of his game-changing heroics.

Upton Park will be missed

If the Olympic Stadium can create an atmosphere like the one at Upton Park today it will be some effort. The famous old ground will only host a few more matches before the posts are taken down and the nets rolled up.

It will be missed on days like today - the stands shook when Carroll scored the equaliser and the place was bouncing when he gave the Hammers the lead.

If you can’t get to one of the final Boleyn Ground (1904-2016) fixtures you could always do a stadium tour. Just £20 a pop, five of them a day and to think, they got their new gaff at a knockdown price too.