Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was pleased with his sides performance overall after they defeated West Ham 3-1 at Upton Park and felt proud of his side. Carlton Cole gave West Ham the lead shortly after the restart but the Gunners managed to turn the game around, which pleased their manager. He said:
"I'm delighted. I feel that we controlled the game but we had a difficult period and that was in the first ten minutes of the second-half. They had another chance with a header and that was the turning point in the game." "I have confidence and I worry. It's the nature of the game but I'm proud of the character of this team as they are focused and try to do well."
The two sides had entered the break level after a goalless first 45 minutes but the visitors created many opportunities and should've put themselves in front. Wenger said:
"The positives is that we created chances, the negative is we didn't take them. When you don't take your chances you feel you deserved to be punished and we were. It shocked us as we felt we should've been two or three goals up."
The game marked the return of German international Lukas Podolski after four months out and he proved to be influential in Arsenal's victory, earning him praise from his manager. He said:
"Podolski made a huge difference. We had good width in our game and that gave West Ham problems. He's been out for four months and not played one game, he showed today what impact he can make."
Speaking shortly afterwards, West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce believed his team paid the price for not taking the chances they created after Carlton Cole had put them in front. He said:
"There's no doubt about it, today we've let it slip through our fingers. Three golden chances after we scored and we've paid the price. Great opportunity to win but we didn't take it. We paid the price today sadly."
However Allardyce didn't believe todays results around the country were as big an issue as it looked for his Hammers side. He said:
"It's not about results it's about points per game. We have to achieve the same points in the same number of games. We need to build on it, not play catch-up like we are now. We have to take a lot of positives from the way we played today."
West Ham United drop to 19th in the table following the loss while Arsenal leapfrog Liverpool and sit top-of-the-perch.
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
