West Ham Review

Sorry for the no preview and late review, I've had a busy weekend.  Anyway, we faced West Ham yesterday in 4th place, Tottenham lost in front of us and so did Man U, a win would have put us in 3rd place, 1 point behind Man U and 3 behind Chelsea and off the top with a game in hand and a far superior goal difference. 

We started out well and could have been ahead in the 2nd minute when Song dinked a great little curler over the defense onto van Persie's head.  He flicked it on and Arshavin probably should have scored but only managed to poke the ball across goal.  van Persie could only back heel off his other shin for a goal kick. Then in another attack we flew forward down the left and after he was released, van Persie hammered a good shot from a tight angle but Green saved at his near post fairly easily. 

Before we get too far into the game, we had Bendtner back fit and Nasri on the bench for the first time this season, which was a great sign, particularly with the team struggling to find an urgent spark.  Mannone kept his place in goal and then the regular team we've been putting out was fielded with the preferred back four, Song, Cesc and Diaby in the middle and RvP, Arshavin and Eboue up front. 

So, moving back to the game, after our very bright start the game settled down and West Ham were keeping possession well, working hard throughout the game, while we defended rather well and took every chance we had to get going forward.  Cesc turned on the half way line around 3 defenders and played Song into the West Ham half, Arshavin joined in and van Persie shot from the edge of the area striking Upson's outstretched arm.  It was a good penalty shout but I guess it could have gone either way.  Neither team was really dominating but we looked the more likely to score.  And we did in the 15the minute.

A great 1-2 down the right saw Sagna put in a killer cross that would have found van Persie had Green not gone for it, so he did go for it and only pushed it onto RvP's left with the goal open wide.  1 nil to the Arsenal and 5 in 6 for van Persie. 

The rest of the half was reasonably the same, they possessed fairly well, we went forward and didn't quite break through.  We were a little more dominant towards the end of the half and kept possession very well, leaving them with very limited chances to get forward and around 35 minutes in Cesc won a corner with a shot from outside.  van Persie sent it to the far post and the French half of the most free scoring center back partnership of all time headed home.  2 nil and cruising. 

The 2nd half was a little frustrating early on.  Again, they possessed well but couldn't get near our final third and we pressed forward but could never quite break through.  Cesc fired a great shot from 30 yards that went just wide.  Then we started to dominate play but still we were missing that second to last ball and just couldn't do it.  Then West Ham were awarded a very soft free kick when Hines wrestled Diaby to the ground after he was tackled.  Diamante took it and Mannone made a fairly good save to his right but pushed the ball right into the middle of the goal mouth for Carlton Cole to finish.

2-1 down and they were right back in it and you just had that bad feeling.  6 minutes later it happened.  First Parker drove threw several of our defenders before he lost track of his dribble and went down a few feet before Gallas nearly touched him.  It was never a penalty but their shouts were huge.  Then from a throw in on their right side Carlton Cole controlled the ball and with absolutely minimal contact, this again, was never a penalty but the ref gave it and they scored. 

2-2 after we totally dominant and heading for 3 points.  We played narrow, keeping the game in the thick and dense of it where we seem to thrive at opening up defenses.  Even so we never let the game open up for them to get any clear cut chances and we took advantage of a couple of chances we had.  We could have pressed more and added a couple extra goals but didn't and they got back in the game and then equalized in the 80th. 

A few minutes later Scott Parker was sent off for a handball after he had tackled Cesc.  Shortly after we should have scored when Sagna's excellent cross found van Persie for a free header he headed too close to the middle of the goal and Green got a leg to it.  And that was all we had, we couldn't even go on to dominate the last 5 minutes of the game, they looked more likely to score.  It ended 2-2 and despite the bad luck on the penalty, we really just threw the game away. 

Wenger had this to say:

It is, of course, a major missed opportunity. In our job, you do not have this luxury.  You need to get points when you deserve to get points and sometimes when you don't deserve to get the points.  We never got them when we deserved them - and that means we have not made the maximum of what we should have done.

Can't argue with that, we really could have used the 3 points, with Man City drawing too, this would have been a great chance to push on and put ourselves right at the top.  Oh well.