6 October 2012 West Ham 1 Arsenal 3
Here are two reviews written at the time. The first is from Gf60 and the second from Untold Arsenal.
Gf60…
A lot of firsts in this game. The first respectable goal we’ve conceded this year. It would be harsh to condemn Rambo, Per and the I.S for their minor contributions . It was a very good goal, well against the run of play at the time but credit where credit’s due.
Another first…Ollie’s first league goal to equalize. And what a pleasing goal it was. Arteta, Pod and Ollie combining to cut the Hammers apart. Not as good as our two second half goals in terms of beauty maybe, but Oh so important in Ollie’s life.
He’s a really good player and was possibly denied an earlier goal by Andy Carroll’s defensive work. Carroll was a headache for us throughout the game and in fairness didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. It’s a feeling many Gooners know so well. It will be interesting to see if he overcomes the ‘andicap of playing for the ‘ammers who wasted more than a few chances.
Yet another first for the season was the instant justice ‘anded out by ‘im upstairs when VazTe left his leg trailing deliberately to give the Italian Stallion the benefit of a boot in the head. Tripping himself by so doing, he dislocated his shoulder. Even though I had to wash my pants from laughing, I did enjoy that. Indeed I can’t remember a similar incident since Gascoigne crippled himself in that Cup Final some 20 years ago.
Aside from the firsts, we played some very good football. Santi and Mikel were at the heart of most good things but far too much good lead up work was wasted, by Kieran in particular, overhitting crosses into empty space. I’m not sure if that’s an improvement on crossing straight at a defender which he has been doing far too frequently.
And just when he looked as though he was getting ready to get the crossing right, he injured himself. Pity for his England hopes, but at least he has two weeks to repair with an Interbloodynational break here again.
For me, the goal of the day came after Theo came on. Again he looked very lively…perhaps he does want to carry on playing for the Arsenal… and there was definitely an improvement when he came on for Vinho. Vinho hadn’t done much wrong or right but was nowhere near his best. Theo was and his goal, beautifully set up by Ollie, was taken with aplomb. Truly it was a Thierry like finish.
And then the icing on the cake, Santi at long last kept the ball between the posts and got the goal he really deserved.
The 3-1 wasn’t as easy as it sounds…Wham created more than a few chances which could well have been put away… but Vito kept well and they didn’t finish too well…Nolan in particular being at fault.
But all in all a solid enough performance with some very memorable moments.
Only just spotted…A memorable line from an SA Sportswriter wearing his Olympic Press Pass and getting chatted up by a young lass on the tube.
“I’ve been in London for two hours and some Yank thinks I’m a paedophile. Could be worse. He could have mistaken me for a Manchester United fan.”
Untold Arsenal…
Ref disaster, ESPN laughable, Arsenal magnificent
By Tony Attwood
I normally hold back for Walter to make his comments on matches – and he may well by typing away as I type this, but I am going to stick my neck out and say that I thought the ref made one atrocious decision today.
Vaz Tê signed for West Ham in the Championship in January this year, and maybe he is not used to the laws of the game in England, but leaving your foot in so that it contacts with a goalkeepers’ head is not normally part of our game. In my view that should have been an immediate sending off.
Maybe the ref saw this differently, maybe Walter will tell me that I am wrong on this, but it looked like the player left his foot in so that it would take Mannone’s head, and that is a sending off offence. Perhaps the ref thought that the player’s attempt to get the ball was a mistake, maybe he was influenced by the large number of medics on the pitch, but all things considered I still think that Vaz Te should have gone off, and WHU played with ten men thereafter.
As for ESPN, the Mickey Mouse channel of football, they came up with this wonderful statement about Theo. “Among Arsenal’s English contingent only Ian Wright has scored more.” I rather think Cliff Bastin scored more than Theo in one season, and actually scored 150 goals for Arsenal. And as for his Englishness, he was born in Devon.
There are of course a lot of Englishmen who have scored more goals for Arsenal, but hey, this is ESPN.
ESPN had one commentary woman talking about Arsenal being fourth in the league, and the team of experts talking about being 5th. But well, who cares after a performance like that.
A wonderful goal by Theo, a wonderful goal by Cazorla, and the first for Giroud in the league – which makes two in a week I think.
A great return to life after the sadness of last weekend. Thank you Arsenal, I enjoyed that. And at least this is the last season of ESPN.
(Sadly of course at that time we had never heard of BT Sprout)
- The Anniversary Files: January to June
- The Anniversary Files: July to September
- The Anniversary Files: October to December
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
