Arsenal 1-0 v West Ham United: Alex Song’s 88th minute goal wins it for the Gunners; Robert Green real hero
The Cameroonian midfielder Alex Song's 88th minute header gave Barclays Premier League title chasers Arsenal a narrow victory over West Ham to deny the bottom of the League club a deserved point at the Emirates Stadium. The win kept the pressure on league leaders Chelsea who have been flying high after their 2-1 win at Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn Rovers. In the match, The Hammers keeper Robert Green made a string of fine saves to keep the Gunners at bay. Arsenal continued their impressive run of form, after a 5-1 Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, a 3-0 victory at Manchester City, and after moving into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup after beating Newcastle United (4-0).
The Gunners started brightly, with Andrey Arshavin looking particularly dangerous and creating a few chances from the left side, but the former Zenit St. Petersburg player was unable to make the most of the openings.
The 1st chance of the game fell to Scott Parker in the 9th minute. The former Chelsea and Newcastle midfielder whipped in and the Polish keeper punched it clear. Arshavin was busy at the other end; the Russian’s deflected cross flew through the West Ham six-yard box but Song’s header went over the crossbar.
Frederic Piquionne looked sharp from the right wing, but after getting to the box, the Frenchman seemed to run out of ideas and gave Arsenal time to clear. Former Gunner Luis Boa-Morte also came close to put the Hammers in the lead at one stage, but drove a 20-yard effort over.
In the 24th minute of the match, Robert Green gave a heroic performance when he produced a superb reflex action save to deny the Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas’ goal-bound effort.
Avram Grant’s West Ham remained positive, as Mark Noble, 23, who has been a West Ham player since the beginning of his career, was the main threat for the Arsenal defence; his 22-yard strike was saved by Fabianski.
Gunners’ fans were starting to get little anxious as half-time approached and found the scoreline 0-0; West Ham (specifically their goalkeeper Robert Green) kept frustrating the home side.
Green was the wall between Arsenal and goal; he made another save when he kept out Song's angled drive from the resulting corner.
Andrey Arshavin broke clear and darted to the edge of the West Ham penalty area, but missed the target; The French midfielder Samir Nasri also came close to scoring but crashed the ball against the crossbar.
With 23 minutes left, Wenger made some changes and called upon the services of Theo Walcott, who has been in superb form lately, scoring twice in the midweek Carling Cup win at Newcastle. He came in place of Denilson Pereira.
He got into the box and created a few chances at either side of Robert Green. Green again came to the Hammers’ rescue after Theo Walcott’s shot was deflected.
After much pressing by Arsenal, the Irons keeper was finally beaten with a Song header from Clichy's cross at the 88th minute of the match and broke the hearts of the Hammers. Arsenal took all the three vital points they desperately needed to mount the title challenge.
Manager Arsene Wenger was delighted with the win.
He said, “When you win with two minutes to go, it is always a relief. We needed to be patient, intelligent and not to make a mistake at the back against a team who had a strong spirit and were well organised. We did not do anything stupid, kept trying to be intelligent and that got us the goal.
"It is too early in the season, but I have belief. We need to show from game to game we can handle every single game with a different aspect which the Premier League has - today we played against the team bottom of the league and it was a real battle. We have to show can compete like that in every game,” added Wenger.
Arsenal next host Newcastle United on 7th November; they already beat them in the Carling Cup so they will be very confident for that game.
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