Source: Telegraph
West Ham United 1 Arsenal 2: match report
Two late goals preserved Arsene Wenger's record of never being knocked out of the FA Cup third round as Arsenal over-turned a first-half deficit to beat West Ham United. [LNB]An accomplished strike by the richly-promising Aaron Ramsey and an Eduardo header cancelled out Alessandro Diamanti's effort as West Ham's hopes of a little slice of history were dashed. [LNB]Low on quality and even more sparing on opportunities it had been a first-half not to be cherished until the second minute of injury-time when Valon Behrami's muscular persistence paid off. [LNB]The Swiss midfielder collected the ball, after a pass from his countryman Fabio Daprela, on his debut, had spun to him from Jack Wilshere and slid the ball through to Diamanti. [LNB]Arsenal, wrongly, called for off-side, William Gallas was playing Diamanti on, and the Italian ran through to squeeze his shot past Lukasz Fabianski. It wasn't the most convincing of finishes but West Ham had the lead. [LNB]Until then they had struggled with just the teenager Frank Nouble leading the attack although, twice, Wilshere had erred to present them with chances. [LNB]Both went begging with Junior Stanislas and Luis Jimenez unable to take advantage. Diamanti had forced Fabianski to tip his cross away for a corner, with Jimenez lurking, while the harrying of Behrami and Radoslav Kovac in midfield had given West Ham a little more bite. [LNB]Both sides were altered and although Arsene Wenger, pretty much, kept his first-choice defence intact, there was a lack of cutting edge further forward. Still Eduardo forced Green into a sharp low save after James [LNB]Tomkins had blundered in passing straight to the Croatian as he attempted to clear. The West Ham goalkeeper then made a hash of dealing with Wilshere's cross, pushing the ball away from Alex Song, but straight to Thomas Vermaelen who, however, skied his shot. [LNB]Confidence coursed through West Ham after the goal with Stanislas forcing a smart one-handed save from Fabianski and Nouble shooting weakly after a powerful run having already driven the ball wide with another half-chance. [LNB]For Arsenal and Eduardo turned and shot his effort skimming off Matthew Upson and clearing the bar while Aaron Ramsey tried to bend the ball around Green but lofted over. [LNB]Arsenal went closer. Song released Abou Diaby and he attempted to sweep the ball under Green, but the goalkeeper saved bravely and then prevented Song's follow-up. By now Wenger had thrown on two substitutes as the desperation grew to find away back into the contest. [LNB]Ramsey made the breakthrough as the pressure told. Song found Carlos Vela who flicked the ball to Ramsey who swivelled and drove a low left-foot shot across Green and into the net. [LNB]Suddenly West Ham crumbled. Song and Vela again combined with the latter crossing deep. Eduardo rose to head powerfully beyond Green and turn the contest upside down. Arsenal were rampant. Eduardo headed over and Vela had a shot hacked off the line by Diamanti. [LNB]
