The Barclaycard Premiership may be a two-horse race but there is still one
clear leader, even if West Ham will be demanding a steward's inquiry after their
controversial defeat at Highbury.
Thierry Henry was yet again the Arsenal match-winner, striking his second
hat-trick of the season to restore the Gunners' five-point lead ahead of
Manchester United.
The prolific Frenchman - who scored his 100th goal for the club last weekend -
is already en route to the next century target.
However, that was not half of the story of an incident-packed match in which
Arsenal stumbled before finally picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Sir Alex
Ferguson after his side's victory against Chelsea yesterday.
West Ham, for whom keeper David James was in brilliant form, left Highbury
with grievances aplenty as the fates conspired to undermine their own hopes of
staying up.
The Hammers were distinctly unimpressed when an early penalty was awarded
against them for Steve Lomas' brush with Robert Pires.
They were then bristling with indignation when Lomas was sent off for the
offence.
And they were absolutely furious when, after Jermain Defoe had cancelled out
Henry's penalty, an apparent elbow by Dennis Bergkamp on Lee Bowyer went
unpunished as he crossed for Henry to head his second on 71 minutes.
There will soon come a time when the Football Association send their own video
technicians to film Arsenal's games. It would at least save them postage.
This time - and for the second time this season, in his case - it is Bergkamp
who will surely be investigated for the clash that left Bowyer clutching his
head.
However, Henry then struck his third in the closing stages and West Ham were
left to rue an afternoon on which nothing went their way.
Glenn Roeder's side had come agonisingly close to defeating Arsenal at Upton
Park earlier this season, only for Sylvain Wiltord to complete a two-goal
recovery with two minutes left.
They made a similarly confident start to this game, with Joe Cole especially
tenacious, but Arsenal have the ability to break at frightening speed at any
time.
On one of those lightning raids, Bergkamp flicked the ball for Pires to chase
onto and the Frenchman cut across Lomas before plunging to the ground when his
shirt was lightly tugged.
While the penalty, from which Henry sent James the wrong way, was just about
understandable, the red card which harshly followed for Lomas rather stretched
the point.
West Ham were understandably shaken and they almost gifted Arsenal a second
goal within a minute as Henry capitalised on a weak back pass only to be denied
by David James on this occasion.
As a result of Lomas' dismissal, however, it was almost completely one-way
traffic as, every time West Ham's defence managed to regain possession, they
promptly gave the ball away again.
At least James rose to the occasion in superbly denying Henry after Christian
Dailly's awful backpass presented the striker with the ball on the edge of the
penalty area.
He also dived full-length to tip Bergkamp's sharp effort round the post and
then grasped a freak deflection that threatened to lob him.
For all of that pressure, however, West Ham were not the only side at Highbury
capable of defensive suicide.
Just five minutes before half-time, Edu was harried out wide and mishit a
backpass towards David Seaman which was intercepted by Defoe, who took full
advantage to slip his shot under the Arsenal goalkeeper's body.
Arsenal's pressure resumed after the break, but again James was equal to the
challenge, while Gilberto's shot was also blocked by Dailly and Edu headed
wide.
Cue the 68th-minute arrival of Parlour, brought on to reenergise Arsenal's
midfield at the expense of Edu, and finally the breakthrough came.
But if Arsenal's first goal had an element of controversy about it, their
second was positively overflowing with it.
Bergkamp seemingly floored Bowyer with his elbow as he held the midfielder at
bay in controlling a throw-in before crossing for Henry to head home - for the
first time in the Premiership.
With Bowyer still lying prone on the floor and clutching his head, West Ham
angrily lobbied Dean but the referee remained unmoved.
Arsenal were not finished yet, with Parlour and Pires combining to send Henry
through and the Frenchman finished with his normal finesse to seal Arsenal's
win.
The glory was deservedly his. The grievances, however, were all West Ham's.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook