/ 2 February 2006

Hammers heroes haunt Highbury

A heroic display by West Ham United produced a memorable 3-2 victory over Arsenal in the Premiership at Highbury on Tuesday night.

Weathering an early storm by the Gunners as Robin van Persie shot against the outside of the left-hand post on seven minutes, the Hammers took the lead against the run of play in the 25th minute. Hayden Mullins’s pass from the centre of midfield was latched on to by Nigel Reo-Coker, who took advantage of a slip by Sol Campbell as he raced away to drill the ball through the legs of Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann into the middle of the goal — much to the delight of an ecstatic West Ham bench.

This inspired the Hammers, who increased their lead in the 31st minute when Paul Konchesky’s long, looping pass left the Gunners’ defence stranded, and Bobby Zamora rifled his shot into the top right-hand corner of the net to continue the celebrations.

Arsenal pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time when Robert Pires’s low drive was deflected into the back of the net by the foot of Thierry Henry to mark Henry’s record of 151 league goals scored for Arsenal, taking him past the total of the legendary Cliff Bastin.

After Arsenal failed to capitalise on second-half chances that fell firstly to Freddie Ljungberg and then Henry, the Gunners were again punished in the 80th minute when Reo-Coker’s pass found Matthew Etherington unmarked and his instinctive strike deflected off Mathieu Flamini to leave Lehmann wrong-footed and Pires was unable to stop the ball hitting the right corner of the goal.

Arsenal rallied late, and Hislop was at full stretch to turn a Pires effort around the left-hand post. But the Gunners again reduced the goal deficit back to one in the 88th minute when, at close range, Pires slid his shot into the middle of the net after Dennis Bergkamp’s first-time effort had been blocked by Hislop. But despite another scare, the Hammers were rewarded for their efforts with three valuable away points.

”To win at a blue-ribbon club like this is fantastic for us, and we have to take some stuff from it because I felt, you know, we got a little bit naive at the end. This young team hasn’t won at one of these top clubs yet, so we got a little bit deep the midfield and we were exposing ourselves to pressure, so we need to learn that.

”We can win at big clubs now, so perhaps next time, we won’t do that,” reflected West Ham manager Alan Pardew.

”Everybody played a role tonight, and the subs all did well. Shaun Newton and Dean Ashton, when he came on, they all played the part, you have to. If you’re going to win at Arsenal Football Club, you have to ride your luck, you all have to dig in, you all have to play well,” concluded Pardew.

It was, however, a different picture for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who commented: ”Well, we lost, and it’s difficult to understand how we lost because their ‘keeper was very busy and our ‘keeper was very little busy.

”Overall, our commitment was right, the quality of our game was right, and we succumbed to basic mistakes that can, of course, happen in football.”