West Ham United

This game took place at Highbury, on Sunday 19th January at 2pm. Attendance was 38,053.

Final result was 3-1. Arsenal's goalscorer was Thierry Henry (3)

Here's the official report from Arsenal.com: "At Birmingham last Sunday, Thierry Henry made history by hitting his 100th goal for Arsenal. Seven days later he made a significant step towards the next hundred with a hat-trick in the 3-1 victory over West Ham at Highbury. The Frenchman began the afternoon by stroking home a 13th minute penalty. It should have irreversibly pushed the game our way, we were playing on the top of our form and West Ham's Steve Lomas was sent off for fouling on Robert Pires as he seemed set to shoot. But, despite our domination, the 10-man visitors conjured up an equaliser thanks to the persistence of Jermain Defoe. Predictably the second half was controlled by the home side but tension was already building in the 70th minute when Henry rose majestically at the far post to power home his first headed goal in a Premiership match. Then in the final minutes, he finished off a flowing move to complete another wonderful weekend. The victory restores our five-point lead over Manchester United at the top of the Premiership. The name of Nigel Winterburn rang around Highbury as the two teams warmed up. All four corners of the ground sang in appreciation of the left back who made 584 appearances for Arsenal but today was wearing a West Ham shirt. Ironically, the only change in the home side came in Winterburn's old position. Ashley Cole's suspension meant Giovanni van Bronckhorst filled in. Our opening was as bright as the watery sun filtering down onto the pitch. Henry was heavily involved. He bustled his way into the area on a couple of occasions, much to the consternation of the West Ham defence. In the ninth minute, Henry found space on the left and his chip sailed over the floundering Gary Breen but Dennis Bergkamp's outstretched boot just failed to connect at the far post. The respite was short. In the 13th minute, Lauren's through-pass was touched on by Bergkamp to the scuttling Robert Pires. He was tripped by Lomas inside the area as he looked set to shoot. The Irishman was dismissed and Henry coolly slotted home his 15th of the season from the spot. West Ham were rattled and only a smart stop from David James prevented them conceding again straight away. Breen's back-pass failed to reach the England keeper and Henry nipped in. However, James stretched his large frame well to parry the effort and the chance eventually was cleared. The game settled down after that. Joe Cole's tame effort from distance was West Ham's first shot on target. Just before the half-hour, Henry put in a harder effort from the same distance. Both were easily saved by the respective keepers. The Frenchman should have scored in the 32nd minute. Christian Dailly's poor back header presented Henry with a clear run on goal but his shot was well-saved by James, who was starting to have a busy afternoon. And, by the same token, Henry was becoming the main tormentor. He wriggled clear of a couple of challenges before spraying a pass across the edge of the area to Bergkamp, who tested James at the near post. Inbetween those chances, Lee Bowyer sent a free-kick into the side-netting of David Seaman's goal. We appeared to be cruising with everything going our way. Even Winterburn's attempted clearance ricocheted off Sylvain Wiltord and nearly lobbed James. Then, out of nothing, West Ham levelled. Edu attempted to pass back to Seaman from the left-hand touchline. However, Defoe latched onto the ball and steered his shot past our keeper. A true sucker-punch. Wiltord nearly restored our advantage before the interval but dallied too long. Gilberto made the same mistake a few minutes after the break. After collecting the ball in the area after Henry's burst, his eventual shot was charged down by Ian Pearce. It was starting to become one-way traffic with West Ham rarely threatening even when they could get out of their half. But the visitors were defending stoutly. Our next real chance came just after the hour when Van Bronckhorst's rising drive stung the hands of James at the near post. A few minutes later the Dutchman swung over a free-kick from the right and in the melée that followed Sol Campbell's overhead kick was nodded goalward by a grounded Martin Keown. We were starting to turn up the heat now and the flying Henry just failed to nod home Lauren's driven cross. Twenty minutes from time he went one better, a classic downward header as he stole in at the far post to meet Bergkamp's pin-point cross. Henry might have added a third, for himself and the team, seven minutes from time but his touch deserted him as he and Bergkamp were set free with only one defender to beat. In the end Henry had to have a little help from his friends. Bergkamp and Pires carved out a simple opportunity that our top scorer finished off with relish. Substitute Francis Jeffers had a couple of opportunities to add to our advantage in the dying minutes but, by then, the job had been well and truly done."