Hammers Hold Gunners at Bay at the Emirates

A blustery day at the Emirates saw Zola's Hammers come in to town with defense on their mind, and defend they did. Arsenal applied pressure all afternoon, but the Hammers defense would not be denied on this day. West Ham came for a point away from home, and they got it.

Arsenal on the other hand produced a lot of chances, with many opportunities for crosses in to the box for Adebayor and Bendtner to get to. However, the crosses were either too high, too far, or off the mark to be effective.

With Vela coming in in place of Eboue, there was hope to see the Gunners open up the West Ham defense. However, the 4-3-3 formation was not working. Nasri seemed to disappear off the pitch as Vela replaced him on the left flank, and Bendtner also seemed ineffective by not being the front striker.

He was later replaced by Van Persie, but the result was still the same. Arsenal missed the mark as much as they got a shot on goal, but Green was never troubled. The brightest point came when Toure flicked an over shoulder shot at the Hammers goal, with Collins clearing off the line.

After 94 minutes, the home crowd were not impressed. The only solace came from knowing the Villa had also tied their game as well.

Fan talk quickly turned to Arshavin, and you could see from today's game the kind of difference he could of made. Arsenal's running at players was fairly poor, and the passing was less than adequate. Balls were delivered at players feet with their back to the goal, and there were hardly any balls played behind the Hammers back line for players to run on to.

We could see how, from this game, Arsene does have a point about needing a player like Arshavin. Fans still have a point about needing a good solid central defensive pairing, like West Ham does.

Because on this day, good defending, prevailed.