Joe Cole taken down by Ashley Cole--kinda questionable for me. Vieira booked for dissent. A bit of pushing between Cole and Lauren when the teams line up for the penalty... Kanoute to take...
Wiltord makes it 2-2. Kanu proves his "usefulness" by shielding off a defender just inside the box, then steps out of the way for the onrushing Wiltord to shoot low past James.
Cisse fouls about 25 yards out, centrally located. 3 minutes extra. Henry's free deflected, James has to tip it over the bar, was dipping and would have gone in.
Toure just misses a chance after Breen tries to dive and head away, right to Toure, but James dives at his feet and saves. In the dying seconds...
Of course Wiltord makes it 2-2. A big goal by a clutch goal scorer - just like we've become accustomed to. It absolutely boggles my mind that people (you know who you are) still have doubts about him. Without having seen the match I'd say this is one point gained, not two lost.
Buf, thanks for the updates. The tracker I was using died about 20 minutes ago and I would've pulled my hair out if it wasn't for you.
Arsenal puts Hammers under pressure late, but game ends 2-2. A good effort by the Gunners, who come back after going down 2-0 in the 53rd minute. West Ham had a chance to make it 3-0, but Kanoute's penalty was well-saved by Seaman. Henry's late effort from free kick could have given the points to Arsenal, but as it is the Gunners take a well-deserved point from their trip to Upton Park. Joe Cole 44 Kanoute 53 Henry 65 Wiltord 87
You betcha--the Henry goal was pure individual brilliance, and the Wiltord goal was nice buildup and Kanu's only contribution in his 45 minutes. And you're welcome, fox. Even though I'm an evil intruder, happy to help.
Thanks for the updates Buff. Good deeds like this from a ManUre fan makes it hard to hate your team so much. Good thing Fergie's still around to balance things out.
Mr. Thierry Henry, purveyor of fine goals to the Highbury faithful is once again open for business. Fantastic goal! I was a bit disappointed that we didn't compete with the West Ham midfield for large parts of the match and some slack defending as well as very high quality finishing from Cole and Kanoute allowed West Ham into a 2-0 lead. I have seen the penalty decision several times and I still think the ref got it wrong. It wasn't the best struck penalty I've ever seen, but Seaman still did well to get to it. However, the team showed great determination and resilience to come back from two down to salvage a draw, it does help when your centre forward magics up a wonderful goal out of nowhere to get the team back into it. After the first hour's performance, I see this as a point gained rather than two lost.
MIchaec, you mention the contributions of Henry and Wenger, rightly so, but did anyone else impress you?
Ill answer that! Remember when Buddy Ryan, when describing Chris Carter, States "he only catches Touchdowns". Change TDS to goals and you have a good description of Monsieur Wiltord. Amazing! Sounds like we were taking a royal a** whipping and couldnt control anything. Last year we spoke of the resilience and heart that the team possessed and it looks as if we may still have it.
Not really, Keown had a bit of a bad game giving away the ball for their second goal and Vieira didn't really impose himself on the midfield like we know he can. Edu was pretty anonymous too. Pennant came on for the last thirty minutes or so and looked confident. It was good to have a wide player who tries to run his full-back. He put in one great cross that had the West Ham defence all over the place, Toure nearly scored the winner from it. The brightest spot we can take from this game is that Wenger seems to be willing to give the younger players such as Pennant and Toure their chance, let's hope they can take it.