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Date: Sat 20 March 2010
Teams: Arsenal v West Ham
Venue: Emirates Stadium

Arsenal: Almunia, Eboue, Vermaelen, Campbell, Clichy, Song, Denilson, Fabregas, Nasri, Arshavin, Bendtner

West Ham: Green, Spector, Tomkins, Upson, Daprela, Behrami, Kovac, Stanislas, Franco, Diamanti, Mido

Match Review:
Arsenal hosted West Ham in the Saturday’s late kick-off, although the fixture on every fan’s mind was the first leg of the Champions League Quarter Final against FC Barcelona. Arsenal were drawn against the holders and favourites on Friday morning – if that wasn’t difficult enough, the first leg was at the Emirates and Inter lay in wait in the semi-finals. There is no doubting the magnitude of the task – however:

1) Barcelona plays the same open, attacking football as Arsenal which gives us a chance to hurt them at the back.
2) This is not the Barcelona of last season.
3) It is a chance to see some of the best players in the world (in their prime) at the Emirates in a true “glamour tie”.
4) The return of King Henry and Cesc’s constant transfer link to Barcelona adds extra spice.
5) It is preferable to playing Manchester United.

Back to the race for the Premiership and a victory today would propel Arsenal a point clear at the top of the league, given that Manchester United and Chelsea both play tomorrow. Mark Lawrenson had forecast a routine 2-0 win for Arsenal on the BBC website – it was hard to disagree with him as Fabregas returned to the starting eleven, replacing Diaby in an otherwise unchanged midfield from the last-gasp victory at Hull. Eboue stepped into the right back slot ahead of Sagna in what is becoming a familiar pattern for home matches. West Ham lost the influential Scott Parker to injury, Carlton Cole was only fit enough for a spot on the bench although Franco managed to recover.

Surprisingly Denilson kept his place ahead of Diaby, however, no-one was complaining when gave Arsenal the lead after 4 minutes. The Brazilian played a neat one-two with Bendtner on the edge of the area and drilled low into the corner past Green’s outstretched arm. It was a scarcely deserved lead after a rather sluggish start, considering the team hadn’t played for a week. The remainder of the half was rather subdued – West Ham were disciplined but offered little going forward and Arsenal played some excellent free-flowing passing in patches, with Nasri and Fabregas both failing to convert chances.

However, the significant incident of the match came 1 minute before half time. Franco chased a long Diamanti pass and clashed with Vermaelen in the box. There was minimal contact – challenges of this nature seem to result in a penalty half the time and go unpunished the other half. The referee was fast to brandish a red card for the Belgian centre back, which was all the more frustrating given the lack of punishment for West Ham’s consistent niggling fouls. A straight red card was very harsh, although the nature of the challenge meant Vermaelen would miss one match, not the feared three. Franco struck the resulting penalty well but Almunia made a superb save to the delight of the Emirates, keeping Arsenal’s lead intact at half time.

West Ham had a good spell of possession in the first 10 minutes of the second half but failed to penetrate the Arsenal backline which now contained the excellent Song. Arsenal adapted well to the changes and made a surge for the crucial second goal midway through the second half. Eboue was causing problems down the right and almost set up Arshavin for the second. The introduction of Diaby gave the Arsenal midfield a lift although Cole’s introduction had the same effect for West Ham. The strong centre forward was causing problems and almost equalised as his low effort cannoned off the post. However, with 5 minutes remaining, Arsenal made the points safe. Fabregas’s chip into the box struck Upson’s arm and the captain showed Diamanti how it should be done by calmly converting the spot kick.

2-0 it finished. A perfect prediction from Lawrenson – although the victory did not come about in the routine manner he expected.

5′ [1 - 0] Denilson
83′ [2 - 0] C. Fabregas (pen.)

Player Ratings:
Almunia – 7.5
Didn’t have many saves to make on the night but saved the big penalty and that could yet turn out to be a huge moment for us this season. There will some people that commented that he was a couple yards off his line for the penalty but it was a well struck penalty by Diamanti and an even better save. Almunia has put a number of good performances in recently and you can see his confidence growing.

Eboue – 7.5
As often seems to be the case this season, Wenger opted to start Eboue over Sagna on the right. There is no question that Eboue offers something a little different going forward and his defensive presence seems to be getting even better as well. He drew a number of fouls in the second half to help us relieve the pressure of being a man down.

Campbell – 7
Campbell had a much better match today after a couple nervy performances recently. While his lack of pace can be worrying, his strength and positioning help to get him out of trouble at times. He was strong against Cole in the second half and is calm with the ball at his feet. He is also a useful target on free kicks and corners and nearly had a goal today with a crashing header that was saved by Green.

Vermaelen – 7
The Arsenal centreback was having another good match before seeing red just before the end of the first half. After a long ball came into the box, Vermaelen slightly misjudged the bounce and Franco slipped behind and as the two came together the West Ham player went down. It was a soft penalty and most people thought it was a tough red card. The only plus is that it looks like Vermaelen will only miss one match as it was a professional foul for preventing a goal scoring chance and not a dangerous play, which would have led to a three match ban.

Clichy – 7.5
Another great performance on both ends of the pitch from Clichy, who seems to be back to his best now. He had a couple fantastic individual runs going forward and kept his positioning well at left back.

Denilson – 6.5
Denilson does provide a threat with his ability to shoot outside the box but he continues to raise a lot of questions with his defense and frequent comprimising turnovers. I thought he was a really important player for us last year and at the beginning of this year but something is missing from him recently. His goal was timely and well taken though to give him credit.

Song Billong – 8.5 (Man of the Match)
One of the best performances I have seen from Song in an Arsenal jersey. In the first half he commanded the middle of the park well and was very tidy with his passing and as always was strong in the tackle. In the second half, he showed his versality by shifting to the back to cover for Vermaelen. His presence there was reassuring and he deputised very well. A well deserved man of the match performance today.

Fabregas – 8
Excellent to see the Arsenal captain back on the pitch today. He had a pretty indifferent first half performance for the high standards he sets himself but was pure class in the second half. He really has become an outstanding captain leading by example and through communication. A well struck penalty to put the game beyond doubt and you can see how much it meant to him in his celebration.

Nasri – 7.5
His game does change when Cesc is on the pitch but he still provided his usual spark and creativity. He was at the wrong end of a couple strong challenges and I was fearful that his match would end early today from a couple of them. I think he will be an important player for us for the rest of the season.

Arshavin – 7
Arshavin failed to really stamp his mark on the match today. He seems to have lost a little bit of the pace he displayed last year as he had a couple one on ones that he didn’t really take advantage of. He is still a threat at any time and that keeps defender honest. He struggled a bit in the second half when he was the lone man upfront when Bendtner went off.

Bendtner – 7.5
A great pass back to Denilson to set up the first goal. You can see that Bendtner is more confident now after his recent performances. He does hold the ball up well but he didn’t really threaten to score today. He also doesn’t track back as well as some of the other forwards in the league, such as Rooney, and this was probably one of the reasons he came off when we were a man down.

Substitutes:
Diaby – 8.5
Came on for Bendtner. Diaby was immense today and really put in a good shift when he came on. He was very strong on the ball and really helped to open up the middle of the park with his streaking runs. I was surprised that he didn’t start today, but he was a very important reason to why we were able to get three points today.

Sagna – 7
Came on for Nasri. Provided some much needed defensive support on the right and pushed Eboue forward.

Eduardo – n/a
Came on for Arshavin. Didn’t have much time on the pitch but had a couple chances to test Green and wasn’t able to get his shot off. He still doesn’t seem to be back to his former self yet.

Supporter’s Review:
It was sort of a tale of two halves for the Arsenal supporters at the Emirates today. Following the early Arsenal goal, there was a sense of inevitability and there was a very relaxed feeling around the Emirates, and this seemed to transfer to the players on the pitch as well. This changed quickly when Vermaelen was shown red and Franco stepped up to take the penalty. I think a lot of supporters started to wonder whether this was going to be the match when it all came undone for Arsenal this year. When Almunia saved the penalty there was an all-mighty roar around the Emirates but the sense of urgency and nervousness was evident in the second half until the Fabregas penalty. After that second goal, however, the Emirates was absolutely rocking and the familiar chants of “we are top of the league” rang around the stadium. I think a lot of supporters are hoping to see that same atmosphere as there was against Manchester last year in the Champions League when we host Barca in a couple weeks, although let’s also hope for a different result this time.

Manager’s Review:
I was a little surprised by some of the choices today in the starting line-up, mainly Denilson over Diaby. I do think Arsene helped to reshape the squad well after the Vermealen sending off and credit to the players for adapting so well.

As has been the case a couple times so far this season when we scored first, I felt we lacked a little bit of urgency when we scored early. As Wenger said after the match, “I must say we lost our urgency. I think they were a bit distracted by all the fuss about the draw yesterday. We had not the right urgency. When we were down to 10 men we became more urgent in the second half.”

Wenger was also quick to heap praise on his side for their gritty performance after the match. “I believe we had an outstanding game. We played with class and spirit and we kept our nerve when the situation became difficult. So overall we have shown a good attitude, good maturity, and in the important moments in any department we were decisive. I think about the goalkeeper, I think about when we had to move Alex Song to centre back, everybody adapted very well to the situation and technically I believe we were outstanding today.”

Conclusion/Final Thoughts:
A very satisfactory win, all things considered. The match turned on two penalties and justice, in the end, prevailed. Arsenal were made to work hard in the second half given their one man disadvantage but showed admirable character and resolve to keep a clean sheet and restrict West Ham to a handful of half chances. Once again, Captain Cesc stepped forward and made the victory safe. Thankfully Vermaelen’s challenge will only be punished with a one match ban – he will probably benefit from a rest before the Barcelona game anyway given the number of minutes he has played this season.

It’s very difficult not to start thinking of the Barcelona match but next up is a tough trip to St Andrew’s to face this season’s overachievers – Birmingham City. Birmingham are one of the few teams who are safe from relegation yet unable to realistically challenge for a European place – fingers crossed this results in a slightly easier ride, particularly without the suspended Vermaelen.

Here’s hoping for resounding Blackburn and Liverpool victories tomorrow.

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