West Ham 2-2 Arsenal

By: Martin | October 26th, 2009

The dynamic duo of Carlton Cole and “future superstar” Alessandro Diamanti scored two amazing comeback goals for the Hammers and the Gunners once again fail to breakdown the boys in Claret and Blue.

To be fair, the Gunners shot out the gate and within a few minutes had a header and a shot from Van Persie close to putting them ahead. And it was a unfamiliar boob from Rob Green running into James Tomkins that allowed Van Persie to get the simpliest of goals. Before that the Hammers looked up to the task and that error seemed to bolster the confidence of the team. Mark Noble’s came close with a cross that really was a shot that missed by inches and a cross from Jonathan Spector was met by the goalscoring head of Cole, but was just wide.

However it was Van Persie that undid the Hammers for a second time after 36 minutes when his accurate corner was nodded in by Gallas after Herita Ilunga and James Tomkins were silver and bronze in the jumping competition.

After half-time, the game was back and forth until Zola decided to give the future superstar Alessandro Diamanti a chance to shine, by bringing off Mark Noble, who had a good game up to that point. Almost immediately Diamanti was making the most of his chance and started peppering the Arsenal goal. After 63 minutes, Zola decided to replace the debutant Guillermo Franco with the eager Zavon Hines. The two substitutes hooked up with Diamanti putting through Hines for a good chance. But with 15 minutes to go it was Hines who was fouled and a perfect curling free kick by Diamanti was pushed out by Gunners goalie Mannone right on to the head of Cole to give the Hammers a lifeline.

The goal sapped the confidence right out of the Gunners, and for the second time in a few days they could see a potential victory slipping from their grasp. With the Hammers sensing the Gunners frailty they pushed forward and Cole was brought down in the 80th minute. Diamanti stepped forward with total confidence to score from the penalty spot.

Although it wasn’t three points, we didn’t lose and we came back strong. Let’s hope we can do better in the North next week.