Hammers hold firm as Gunners fire blanks

Well, it was heart stopping stuff at times, but West Ham got a decent result at the Emirates today, drawing 0-0.  Arsenal dominated in terms of possesion but there were only around four clear cut chances, as any home side is expected to have.  As ever, Arsenal passed and fizzed their way around the penalty box but the Hammers defence held firm.  Chances were few and far between for us though Cole could have taken his time instead of hitting the ball at Almunia late on.

There were four great performances in particular today.  Collins was just immense, this guy would make an excellent bodyguard because he throws himself in front of everything.  Parker was again sweeping up everything in front of the back four and was neat and tidy as ever.  Behrami was just full of running and energy.  And for me, Di Michele's performance was also very important as he exemplified defending from the front.  He chased down everything in the final thrid of the pitch and came back to fight battles when he was needed, a really good display.

Ratings;

Green - 6 - some good clearances but missed a couple, a clean sheet though

Illunga - 7 - Herita was excellent today, trying to create by making runs down the left and defending well

Upson - 6 - strong performance by Matt though got caught short once or twice against Adebayor and Van Persie

Collins - 8 - man of the match for the Hammers, immense

Neill - 7- very good performance from Skippy, coped with their pace surprisingly well though was supported by Behrami

Collison - 6 - couple of nice touches but probably found the level a bit too high to really make an impression

Parker - 8 - sweeped up nicely in front of the defence, excellent stuff

Noble - 5.5 - Noble was very quiet today, was slightly swamped and possibly just had too much to do and didn't quite know where to start!

Behrami - 7 - brilliant today, this guy is worth £10m+ easily

Cole - 6 - never really involved but put the effort in, ball never really came to him much today

Di Michele - 7 - was a real 'pest' and buzzed around the Arsenal back line ensuring they were never too comfortable, nice performance

Savio watch - came on with about 20 to go, certainly not scared to go up against some of the stronger Arsenal players and did not waste a pass, looks an interesting lad

Zola/Clarke - 8 - set the stall out for a defensive performance looking for the break and though the break did not come, the team worked so hard for each other, tactics just right

My only other thought of today was how we could have done with Mullins in the last 20 mins to sweep things up in the middle but guess we will see that from Kovac shortyl, apart from that, great stuff from the Hammers, come on you Irons!

Comments

[1979gooner]

Have to say Zola's done a very good job so far, you defended very well today and restricted us to only a few clear cut chances, having said that Adebayor really should have buried the one from Sagna's low cross.

As you say you defended very well as a team.

Interested to hear a Hammer opinion on Bendtner, does he look as crap to you as he does to us?

[West Ham Blog]

Thanks for your comments. As for Bendtner, hmmm, he is clearly no RVP or Adebayor, he probably belongs at West Brom or Hull and would do well there, but a true Arsenal player he aint

[1979gooner]

No worries.

Nice to read some a sensible match report for a change, there's just so much sensationalist stuff out there in blogs and in the media in general, it gets pretty tiresome.

Thinks have to be so black and white for some people, you have to be great or useless.

In reality a lot of football games come down to very marginal decisions or one or two key moments, despite what some people say.

Have linked you up to my blog, the first non Arsenal blog there!

[Jon]

West ham worked hard and probably deserved a draw, arsenal would say that they should of won it due to so much possession and to be fair they did create a few good chances.

but greeny kept another clean sheet which is turning into a nice reward for our solid defence, especially ginge who has been outstanding for the last few months!

parker again was my man of the match who breaks down almost every attack on his own.

Behrami worked his socks off and make it difficult for nasri and the right hand side.

i was impressed was di michele, he worked his socks off and was helping in defence and midfield.