Zamora keeps Hammers hopes alive

12 April 2012

Arsenal lost their first match at Emirates Stadium as relegation battlers West Ham recorded a shock 1-0 win.

The Gunners had dominated for long spells and should have been out of sight, but the Hammers, inspired by goalkeeper Robert Green, went in front in first-half stoppage time through Bobby Zamora.

Arsenal almost took the lead within 90 seconds. A flick-on from Tomas Rosicky set Cesc Fabregas into the right side of the penalty area, but Green was out quickly and got enough on the ball to deflect it wide.

The Gunners continued to attack and Emmanuel Adebayor got away down the left before cutting inside and sending a low, angled shot goalwards which Green held well.

Freddie Ljungberg set up a chance on nine minutes. The Swede cut the ball back, only for Adebayor to get under his shot and send it high into the stands.

Emmanuel Eboue put Alexander Hleb away down the right and his cut-back to the penalty spot fell into the path of Rosicky, but the Czech midfielder shot wide.

Arsenal were made to pay in stoppage time when the Hammers snatched the lead.

A long ball from Lucas Neill bounced ahead of Kolo Toure and into the path of Zamora. Still 22 yards out, the striker stuck out a boot and sent the ball looping up over Jens Lehmann and into the net.

West Ham refused to lie down. On 53 minutes Zamora knocked the ball back for Lee Bowyer to strike from just outside the area and Lehmann made a crucial save.

Green then produced another great stop as he got down quickly to his right to tip an effort from Gilberto around the post. When Green was beaten by an 18-yard drive from Fabregas, the ball cannoned off the underside of the crossbar.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in