Arsenal vs West Ham United - Emirates Stadium, London - Tuesday 1st January 2008

Thanks to a nice slip up by Manchester United a few days previously (at West Ham, amusingly enough), Arsenal started the New Year at the top of the Premier League. There are stats aplenty about how often the team that is top on New Years Day goes on to win the League (for the last 3 years in a row it has been the case), but I am still not expecting that Arsenal will win the title - and nor are many Arsenal fans I know. As time passes and we stay top, we may get slightly more optimistic, but it is very cautious optimism. Manchester United have to remain the favourites, they are the reigning champions, they have a far bigger and more experienced squad, and we have yet to really see Arsenal on a bad run of results - which we are surely due. So, we are in a great position now, but I still don't expect any trophies at the end of the season.

With Manchester United losing to West Ham on Saturday, and our 2 losses to West Ham last season, there was some trepidation that we would be in for a tough game. West Ham always seem to do OK against the big 4, and have a great record against Arsenal in the last few seasons. It being the last League game for a while, as FA and Carling Cup games now take over the calendar, it was also important to go into the break with the lead in the League (so to speak).

So, there was great delight in the first 20 minutes of the game, as Arsenal did an extremely professional job to win the game with the minimum of fuss. We were ahead within 5 minutes, Eduardo following up his 2 fantastic finishes against Everton on Saturday, with another one here - looking every inch the perfect penalty box predator. Coming so early in the game, the goal kind of knocked the stuffing out of West Ham. They were getting back on their feet, and starting to come back into the game, when a second goal killed them off completely - and all before 20 minutes had passed. Adebayor ran through, got to the goal line, and clipped the ball back from a seemingly impossible angle to score.

So, after 20 minutes, the game was over. Of course, excellent news for Arsenal, and a part of me wishes that we could win every game like that. But, it did mean that the rest of the match was something of a non event. West Ham were on damage limitation mode, just trying not to get hammered, and showing no attacking ambition whatsoever as a result. The game seemed to drag as it went on, and this, combined with the blearly hungover heads of a majority of the crowd, meant that the atmosphere was not the greatest for most of the game. Still, it seems like it was crap at Manchester United as well, so all the attention is at least on somebody else's atmosphere problem.

But, in truth, it would be foolish to complain - Arsenal won the game at a canter, and were a class above West Ham today. We have had 6 points from them this season, and seen them beat Manchester United - so this season at least, they have been the perfect opponents. The BBC match report has all the stats - Arsenal made it look easy today, not the most exciting 70 minutes of football once the match was won, but the 3 points (and the energy saved as we switched back down into 2nd gear) is the most important result of the day.