Wenger's view : Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Wenger: We knew we couldn't afford to drop points

Dear Supporter,

It was a big win for us at West Ham because if we had come out of that with a frustrating 0-0 draw, we would have felt that we had wasted an opportunity to get closer to the top of the table.

For us it was important not to make a mistake and to take one of our own chances. We gambled a lot and fortunately we had some strikers on the bench and in the end that made the difference.

We knew before the game that we couldn't afford to drop points at Upton Park but I must say that West Ham can feel frustrated because they defended very well and gave absolutely everything. In the end we got a little opening, maybe they got a little bit fatigued in the last 20 minutes.

It could have been one of those days. West Ham decided to frustrate us by defending very deep. They protected the centre very well and I thought in the first half we tried to go through the middle a little too much. We needed to stretch their defenders in the final third and we did that better in the second half.

West Ham had claims for a penalty and maybe they had a case with the deflected handball in the last five minutes but I did not see the other one. It was a guy who was protecting himself when it hit him.

However I felt that their keeper, Robert Green, was outside the box when he handled the ball in the first half and as a result they could have been playing with 10 men. Green always has the game of his life when he plays against us, and he repeats that every year.

Emmanuel Adebayor came off the bench with 25 minutes left and he fought very hard to make the difference. That shows how good he is. I took off Theo Walcott because I want to rotate my squad and keep players fresh, but we will see more from him. We have all been 19 and we were not all better at 21, but he will be better.

We face Tottenham on Wednesday and it will be Harry Redknapp's second game in charge after he left Portsmouth. It was a surprise for me to see him move from Portsmouth to Tottenham in October but football is full of surprises.

Thanks for your support.

Arsène Wenger