Premier League: West Ham United v Arsenal full-time report

Arsene Wenger

Olivier Giroud scored his first Premier League goal for Arsenal as Arsene Wenger’s side came from 1-0 down to ease past West Ham 3-1.

The victory extends their unbeaten record against the Hammers to nine games and subsequently moved to fifth in the Premier League table.

West Ham took the lead against the run of play when Mohamed Diame scored a brilliant individual goal. Giroud’s major moment came just before the break when he turned home Lukas Podolski’s cross at the near post.

Theo Walcott came off the bench to make it 2-1 with Santi Cazorla hitting a third.

Arsenal started the brighter of the two sides and had already tested Jussi Jaaskelainen twice inside three minutes. Lukas Podolski first tested the Hammers keeper’ with a long range effort before Giroud forced a corner with a fierce strike that was turned away by the stopper. Arsenal continued to press at a quick tempo but the opening goal failed to materialise.

The Hammers started to find their stride after 10 minutes with the power of Carroll causing the Arsenal back-four plenty of problems and on 21 minutes they were in front. Diame has been a revelation since joining from Wigan and he gave the hosts the lead with a typical dynamic finish. He found space to wriggle past Aaron Ramsey and Carl Jenkinson, then fire a superb strike into the corner of the net.

West Ham were a tad fortunate to take the lead, and despite conceding Arsenal continued to press forward. Carzola was giving the West Ham midfield the run around and a goal was inevitable. It came before half-time and it was a typical flowing Arsenal move. Poldolski received the ball after a neat passing move and found Gervinho, who strode forward with great purpose. His cross was cleverly turned in by the French forward, who couldn’t really miss in truth.

West Ham nearly hit-back instantly as Kevin Nolan linked up well with Carroll but could only fire wide.

The Hammers, buoyed by that chance, came out more positive in the second half and looked very dangerous in the second period. Nolan again came close to scoring in the 71st minute but a great saving tackle by Per Mertesacker plugged the danger. That block laid the foundations for Arsenal to build a late surge on the West Ham goal.

They regained the lead in the 76th minute, courtesy of Walcott, who made a succesfull cameo from the bench. Giroud was the provider, playing the perfect through-ball for the England man, who ran through and applied a cool finish. West Ham tried to rally, but Arsenal kept possession very well for the remaining stages and Cazorla lashed home a third in the closing stages to rubber stamp the victory.

Lewis Jones

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