West Ham United's magnificent 3-2 win at Arsenal was
undoubtedly our best away performance of the campaign. And it was
one of the highlights of Alan Pardew's managerial career,
too.
"I may have had one or two tricky games last season, but in
terms of prestige this is one of my best-ever results,"
revealed Pards after goals by Nigel Reo-Coker, Bobby Zamora and
Matthew Etherington silenced Arsene Wenger's Gunners.
"Arsenal may have rested some of their big names but they
still had some fantastic players on show and, remember, we had a
few selection problems of our own, too.
"To have won at a Blue Riband club is just fantastic for us.
Arsenal's start rocked us back on our heels and we rode our
luck early on, but after that we started to get a foothold in the
game and we threatened them a little bit.
"That unnerved their two centre-backs and, once we got our two
quick goals, we were suddenly in the driving seat.
"Looking back, the game just seemed to evolve for us because
we had to keep mixing our formation up and it all became a bit of a
juggling act at times.
"You all have to dig in, ride your luck and play well if
you're going to win at Highbury, and we were asking Arsenal
different questions.
[quote]"The one thing that you cannot deny this West Ham team is its exuberance. I think the Premiership is enjoying us and long may that continue." Alan Pardew [/quote]
"Everyone knows that Nigel Reo-Coker has fantastic
potential but Hayden Mullins has been greatly under-rated this
year. All the little things that he does for us, though, certainly
don't go unnoticed by the squad and the management.
"Shaka made some great saves, too, but everyone - including
the substitutes - played a role tonight.
"I told the guys at half-time that we needed to score a third
goal because we were never going to hold on at 2-1 and,
fortunately, Matthew Etherington got it.
"From where I was standing, I thought that we might even have
hurt Arsenal a bit more. In terms of our threat, we look like we
can score goals and, at any level of football, that gives you a big
advantage.
"The one thing that you cannot deny this West Ham team is its
exuberance. I think the Premiership is enjoying us and long may
that continue," added Pards, who had to survive a few anxious
moments after Robert Pires' 89th-minute strike gave Arsenal a
late glimmer of hope.
"We've also got to learn from this result, too, because
this young team has never won at a big club before and towards the
end we exposed ourselves to some unwanted pressure.
"But this victory means that we've won five games on the
trot with two home matches now to play.
"Every time we win, I tell the lads to look up the table and
whenever we lose, I tell them to look down.
"Right now, we can look up and, suddenly, as a squad we've
now got an opportunity to re-assess our goals for the remainder of
the season."