Arsène Wenger praises Arsenal after win in 'battle' against West Ham

While it may be too early to consider seriously either the possibility of Arsenal winning the Premier League or the likelihood of West Ham United staying in it, the unexpectedly close encounter on Saturday added some weight to both propositions. Arsenal, although below their best, showed the hunger they will need to maintain if they are to keep Chelsea in sight at the top and West Ham the organisation and resilience which will eventually take them off the bottom provided they can produce these qualities in the less glamorous fixtures.

For the moment the ambitions of each are trapped by the statistics. Arsenal are still running to stand still, five points behind Chelsea, and West Ham, now three points below the 19th-placed Wolves, remain in danger of being cast adrift. A scoreless draw, which would have brought West Ham a glimmer of hope and left their opponents in a shadow of doubt, seemed increasingly likely until Alex Song met Gaël Clichy's canny cross in the 88th minute with a diving header at the far post that had the Emirates roaring as much in relief as exaltation.

So far none of the championship contenders has matched Chelsea's remorseless accumulation of wins and Arsène Wenger is not kidding himself that Arsenal are there yet. "We have a good chance for the title, yes, but we want to show consistency first," he said. "We go step by step and we still need to step up a gear. On the other hand you feel there is more to come. This team has good potential and if we can keep a good injury record then we have a chance."

Two seasons ago Arsenal might have come away from a match of this kind frustrated and dissatisfied with a 0-0 draw. The performance on Saturday, which picked up after a sluggish start, bore signs of the maturity that should maintain the strength of the team's challenge in both the Premier League and the Champions League. This week's trek to the Ukraine to play Shakhtar Donetsk was probably the reason why it took Arsenal a while to get out of second gear against West Ham but once they had upped the pace the relentless pressure they applied after half-time was impressive.

"We need to show we can handle every single game in a different aspect," said Wenger. "Today we played against a team bottom of the league and it was a real battle. We have to show we can compete like that in every game."

If a team's points total is a single figure when they have reached double figures in games played then they are usually in for a hard winter. West Ham have taken six from 10, which is one point fewer than they had at the same stage last season when they were only kept off the bottom by Portsmouth, then about to be managed by Avram Grant. Now Grant finds himself back in familiar territory making familiar noises.

"We defended well and played well," he said, "so we are very disappointed. We can take a lot of positive things from this but we need to win and will try to do it in the next game. We have time to do it. Even if we were in this situation in April I would not think it was the end of the world." Maybe not, although his employers might think it was the end of Grant. Nevertheless, "I really believe we can do it because the team have a good spirit and it was an heroic performance today."

Stirring words, yet the lugubrious Grant could make Henry V's speech at Agincourt sound like the shipping forecast. And his claim that Arsenal had not created many chances was at odds with the excellent saves made by Robert Green in West Ham's goal, not to mention Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott hitting bar and post.

The winning goal was partly down to Grant bringing on Julien Faubert in the 87th minute when West Ham were under a particularly heavy siege. The Frenchman was too slow getting across to close down Clichy and Song did the rest. As foot-shooting goes this substitution would have won a prize at Bisley.

Source: David Lacey, The Guardian on 1 Nov 10