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West Ham vs Arsenal 29th September 2007 - Premier League - Upton Park I’m watching today’s match on the internet courtesy of Star Sports (an English language sports show for Asia). There’s about a 5-10 min delay in the coverage so I turn off my phone (in case of text messages) and close my internet browser. It’s a good picture and the commentary comes from Trevor Francis and Tony Mowbray? There are two changes to the Arsenal starting line up to the side that started against Derby last weekend with Eduardo and Theo being replaced by Hleb and Van Persie, while ex-Gunners Freddy and Matthew Upson start for West Ham. The match starts with Arsenal wearing white and the Hammers in their usual home strip of claret and blue. After only 1 minute there’s a fierce strike by Adebayor that goes just wide and then it’s end to end for the next few minutes. On the 4 minute mark Freddy is through on the Arsenal goal but is given off-side by the linesman, he takes a shot anyway but it’s saved by Almunia. The ball is then knocked up the other end as Arsenal are on the attack but Adebayor is unable to get a shot in and the ball then gets cleared long to Ashton who is through on goal but once again Arsenal are saved by the Assistant Referee. The replay shows that he was on-side so that was a bit of luck and hopefully a good omen! It’s end to end stuff, excellent to watch. Ashton is very dangerous but Toure keeps a close track on him and is doing a good job in defence. GOAL! It takes 13 minutes for the first goal of the game (I’m sure there will be more if it stays like this). After some good holding play by Adebayor, the ball is passed to Hleb who puts in a great cross which RVP heads into the top left hand corner. It’s a powerful header and even though Robert Green gets a hand on it he is unable to keep it out. The first yellow card of the match is for Lee Bowyer (surprise, surprise) after he takes out Flammers. Cesc launches the free kick into the West Ham box and it is cleared for a corner to Arsenal. RVP takes it but it’s too deep and it’s cleared which sends West Ham on the attack but nothing comes from it as the ball is knocked out of play by Camara. There are chants of “Your supposed to be at Home” and “You’re support is fucking shit” from the Arsenal fans and West Ham respond with the popular children’s song “I’m forever blowing bubbles” (which is also a Michael Jackson joke!). There’s good play from both sides both no chances of note. Freddy is playing very well and desperate to score against us. He makes a good run and is fouled by Clichy but Almunia is able it save the subsequent free kick. On 28 minutes there’s a bad tackle on Hleb by Noble. A late tackle, which is also high and with no intent to play the ball earns him a yellow card but it could quite easily have been a red. Hleb is given treatment on the pitch and this gives the West Ham fans a chance to sing “Arsene Wenger is a cunt” and “Sit down you paedophile”. The ironic thing is that they would love to have him as there manager. Eboue comes on for Hleb. Ashton makes a couple of good runs but luckily for Arsenal he is off-side every time. A couple of minutes later Flamini makes a late tackle on Scott Parker and more treatment is required as play stops for a few minutes. Once more the fans are in good voice, if not poor taste. “It’s so quite, it’s so quite, It’s so quite, Upton Park” is sung by the Gooners and West Ham reply with the classic “Eng-ger-land, Eng-ger-land, Eng-ger-land”. Fuck that I’d rather watch Arsenal than England. I don’t think that there is one England player that would get into the Arsenal side, let alone any of the English West Ham players. I’d rather be top of the league playing excellent football with no English players than be bottom of the table with a team full of mediocre Englishmen. I’m sure Hammers fans would too. On 40 minutes there’s an Arsenal free kick outside of the box after Lee Bowyer handballs RVP’s corner kick. RVP has a shot on goal but it’s saved at the near post by Green. West Ham have not really done anything since the first 10 minutes and Arsenal finish the half dominating possession. There’s 5 minutes of stoppage time added on because of the earlier injuries to Hleb and Parker and Arsenal control this until the last few seconds when a West Ham corner is cleared by Sagna. During Half-Time, the channel that I’m watching shows all the goals from the other games too which is quite cool and saves me having to wait for MOTD to see them later this evening. West Ham look a livelier in the second half but still there are not many chances until the 53rd minute when a brilliant RVP shot from the edge of the box goes just over. The replay shows that it was actually a fingertip save from Robert Green, but this was missed by the Ref and a goal kick is given. On 56 minutes a Bowyer makes a very good cross to Ashton who heads the ball straight to Almunia. They messed that up. It really should have been 1-1 there but it’s not. Ha! Flammers is then booked for a late tackle on Bowyer, but I guess it was worth it! It’s a good spell for the Hammers and it results in Freddy scoring a goal. Luckily for Arsenal it was ruled out as off-side but the replay shows that it wasn’t and that the ball came off Kolo Toure. A few minutes later there’s a penalty shout from West Ham as Senderos appears to pus Bowyer but it’s not given and the replay was inconclusive. Just after the hour mark Sagna clashes with Flamini near the half way line when they both jump for the same ball. It looks quite bad but players walk away without injury. It looks like 2-nil to the Arsenal when Adebayor is put through by a clever Van Persie pass but Green manages to get a touch on the ball to deflect it wide for a corner. Ashton has another shot on 65 minutes from around 15 yards but it goes wide and Almunia had it covered anyway. Play then evens out again. Diaby has a good shot saved a couple of minutes later after some good ball play and movement around the area. We dominate the next 5 minutes or so but lose possession when Flamini jumps over Dean Ashton to give away a free kick on the half way line. He has been booked already so needs to be careful. A good shot from Clichy is also saved by Green after a good run from Sagna (although the ball might have gone out of play). In the 75th minute the ball is played to Ashton, no off-side give this time, but Senderos makes a great run and is able to intercept the ball before the shot is made on goal. There are chances at both ends as the game opens up. It’s a very entertaining match for the neutral, but not for me as I have no nails left! Adebayor limps of after a knock to be replaced by Gilberto with around 10 minutes left. Some good Arsenal passing around the box ends up with a Flamini shot from 30 yards out! Frustrating, what a waste. Diaby is frustrating too because he only has one foot and as a result is very easy to defend against. At the other end a Freddy corner is cleared by the left foot of RVP. Lee Bowyer is replaced by Boa Morte who played 39 times for Arsenal before leaving to go to Fulham before signing for the Hammers in the summer. RVP loses the ball outside of the West Ham penalty area after holding on to the ball for too long. The ball is launched forward for a West Ham attack which ends up in an off-side being given. Arsene Wenger is furious with Robin for losing the ball and immediately replaces him with Bendtner. It’s a very tense finale with West Ham pressing for the equaliser. The 4 minutes of added time don’t help but we manage to hold on for the victory. A very hard match against a strong, resilient West Ham side but I guess Quality always rises to the top . Seriously though, this was an important game for Arsenal having slipped up here so many times before. Last season we lost to a late goal in a game where a draw would have been fair. Today we won a game which perhaps again a draw would have been fair. If these things even themselves out, then I guess that makes us even. The Gunners Express keeps rolling. |
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