Apologies for the lack of a West Ham match report – those who follow Third-Gen on Facebook will know I was suffering from a pretty bad fever over the course of Sunday and Monday, so the energy required to write a magnum opus was never there.

In short, a lot of players stepped up to the plate against West Ham – I’ll start with our regular boo-boys Denilson, Almunia and Eboue, who so often are victims of the fans’ ire. Denilson was everywhere against West Ham and his good performance as a shielding midfielder was capped by his opening goal. Eboue, another candidate for ‘Arsenal’s most improved player’ alongside Alex Song, gave the Hammers’ leftback hell as he tormented them with his sneaky dribbles throughout the match.

And Almunia was surely the toast of London with an emphatic penalty save off the usually-assured Diamanti.

Of course, there should never have been a penalty in the first place, when Franco went down easier than a starving call-girl while Vermaelen had eyes for nothing else than the ball. The inept linesman made the call with the referee a full 50 metres behind the ball, who could never have seen the ‘tackle’. Arsenal are appealing the incident, though despite Vermaelen’s innocence, it’s an uneasy course of action with the FA quite capable of labelling the appeal ‘frivolous’, and extending the ban.

But Vermaelen was professionalism personified as he walked off without any protestations (try that out sometime, John Terry), and it set up the platform for a man-of-the-match performance from Alex Song. Forced to deputise as a centreback, Song and Sol Campbell dealt with every West Ham attack comfortably, only letting one chance from Carlton Cole through, who hit the outside of the post.

With 10 men, Arsenal showed plenty of character to not only score a second goal (Fabregas from the penalty spot after Upson handballed), but to play West Ham off the park for the majority of the match. It was a top notch performance, and while Manchester United won their game against a pitiful Liverpool side, it shows how close the run-in is now, with us topping the table for 24 hours.

Chelsea are the first to have blinked, and if we can win all our games (which is pretty much what it will require to win this thing), Manchester United will be under all sorts of pressure to do the same.

Which brings me to the headline of today’s blog…

Manchester United’s next fixture is a tricky trip to a resurgant Bolton side who have demonstrated as much flair in attack as ugly aggression in the tackle. While their loss to Everton the other day will have done them no favours, they remain an uneasy fixture at the Reebok, and it will be interesting to see how the Trotters rock up to that match.

The big news, however, is Wayne Rooney’s niggly knee. He will surely be rested on Saturday and it will be interesting to see if his support act (aka, Manchester United) can cope without 70 per cent of their entire side.

While the absence of one Englishman will make the headlines, the inclusion of another could pose an Arsenal scriptwriter’s dream premise – little Jack Wilshere smacking one in to deny United the points.

Next season, we could see Wilshere sneak around 15 appearances for Arsenal as his burgeoning talent comes through. For now, he’s enjoying a productive loan spell for Bolton and has already gotten off the mark in the goals department.

We’ll have our eyes firmly fixed on how Arsenal handle a daunting trip to Birmingham ourselves.

But in an open plea to our on-loan boy wonder: Do us a favour, Jack!

Thoughts, well-wishes and job offers in the comments.

Filed under: Arsenal, Blogging, English Premier League