Premier League - Match #7

West Ham United 0
Arsenal 1 Van Persie

Arsenal maintained their lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League with after fighting hard against a determined West Ham side eager to continue their good start to the season. A 13th minute headed goal by Robin Van Persie was enough to seperate the two sides and gave the Gunners their eighth consecutive win in all competitions.

Manu Adebayor could have given the visitors the lead inside the first minute but he failed to find the target after a brilliant work by Vassiriki Abou Diaby down on the left flank to set him up.

As expected, Dean Ashton and Freddie Ljungberg proved to be a real nuisance for the Arsenal defence. Both of them had chances coming their way in the first ten minutes of the match but failed to breach the Arsenal back-line.

Then a quick counter-attack saw Kolo Toure finding Adebayor free just inside the West Ham area. The Togolese run brought him to the edge of the penalty area and he hold the ball well while waiting for support to arrive.

West Ham players began to regroup inside the penalty area but they failed to pick up Alex Hleb's run. Adebayor found him with a deft flick and despite the attention from Anton Ferdinand sent a wonderful flighted ball into the goal area.

Unlike seasons in the past when this kind of chance would be wasted, Van Persie attacked it with gutso. Aided by the static West Ham defence he diverted the ball towards goal and despite Robert Green managing to get his hand to it, the goalkeeper was beaten by the power of the header.

Hleb did very well on his return match after an injury but a terrible challenge by Mark Noble ended his afternoon. It was late and the England youngster left his knee on the Belarussian, an offence which I thought should have warranted a red card from referee Alan Wiley. But the official only showed the yellow variety and Hleb had to be stretchered off and Manu Eboue came on to replace him.

Robert Green kept the home side in the match with a string of saves, more or less the same like he had done during last season's matches. The former Norwich City goalkeeper denied Van Persie from a free kick and later tipped the Dutchman right foot effort onto the bar after he had side-stepped Danny Gabbidon.

Then Green pushed Adebayor's effort beyond the far post after Van Persie found him with a deft flick at the edge of the penalty area. Gael Clichy and Matthieu Flamini also saw their efforts saved by the goalkeeper who was hoping to win a spot in the England squad to face Russia in October.

West Ham also had their chances but the Ashton could only direct his header towards Manuel Almunia after Lee Bowyer had made a wonderful delivery from the right. The Spanish goalkeeper was beaten by Ljungberg but the Swedish captain's effort was ruled out due to offside.

Another Ashton header from a corner was cleared by Van Persie who had come down to help Arsenal defend a corner. Gilberto Silva came on for Adebayor who seemed to be struggling with a 'dead leg' and his presence helped Arsenal midfield to hold on.

In the end, Arsenal displayed their new found resilient to record their first victory at Upton Park since the year 2000.

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