West Ham 2-2 Arsenal – 25/10/09 – (Premier League) 26 October, 2009

Disappointing.

That’s pretty much just what yesterday was. We’ve been pretty good this season, but yesterday just brought me back down to earth and made me realise we really aren’t all that different from last year.

After dropping two points on Tuesday at AZ Alkmaar you’d think we’d have learned our lesson not to throw away leads. Well apparently not.

Just like I was on Tuesday night, I’m not angry that we’ve drew, it’s not the end of the world – I’m just disappointed.

We were cruising in the first half. After van Persie scored in the 16th minute it was all Arsenal. West Ham had their moments but we were by far the better team.

Gallas got the second in the 37th minute, he rose above the crowd to head home a corner. That was 2-0 and it pretty much looked game over; I hardly even celebrated the goal, well firstly because it took me aged to realize it went in, but secondly I thought there was more to come and we were now well in control.

At half time all the talk was about how many we could get and whether West Ham could hold up and save an embarrassing result. It seems like this was the talk in the dressing room too because we came out and never really got going in the second half.

It was just like last season; we just expected the goals to come without putting any effort in. Countless times our complacency has cost us points.

With 20 minutes to go it was still 2-0, I would never have thought that would still be the score after the first half… but it was though. I thought to myself, ‘Oh well, it’s still a fairly comfortable lead.’

2-1 isn’t though. In the 74th minute Cole got one back from the home side, a free kick was taken from outside the box and Vito Mannone made a fatal error blocking the ball back in front of the gaping goal mouth. Obviously it was going to be put away and it was Carlton Cole who reacted first. Why Mannone didn’t just put it round the post or at least away from goal is beyond me. It’s the type of basic goalkeeping error that could for example cost a rookie ‘keeper a place in the first team…

The home side and fans’ spirits were raised and somehow they were now in with a shot. They had nothing to lose and put the pressure on us. Before we had time to take possession of the ball, slow the pace down and control the game, we found ourselves level at 2-2.

West Ham had a penalty shout turned down just a few minutes after their goal, Parker went down in the box but it would’ve been very harsh to give them that after the minimal contact Gallas made. A couple of minutes after that there was another incident in the box, this time it was Song catching Cole who went down like a heap (as you would in the box, I’m not having a go). The referee decided two soft penalty decisions = a spot kick and Diamanti put it away.

We threw on Eduardo and Bendtner late on but it was to little to late. We waited until we’d lost a two-goal lead before actually trying to score.

Scott Parker was dismissed for a second yellow card after a deliberate hand ball but you couldn’t tell they were a man down.

Right at the end Robert Green made a fantastic close-range block with his leg from van Persie’s header. I would’ve been jumping on the ceiling if that’d gone in. But it didn’t, and it ended up 2-2.

If van Persie’s had scored then today we might’ve been talking about our ‘character’, ‘spirit’ and ‘mental strength’ that Wenger always goes on about but instead we’re talking about how we’ve thrown away a chance to make ground on Man United and City.

Next up we have Liverpool and Tottenham. We cannot afford to be so complacent in those games. Build up to those ones to come in the week. Thanks for reading.