Football review: Arsenal slip past West Ham

Robin van Persie scored twice for Arsenal as the Gunners eased past West Ham yesterday in a match that was dominated by the uncertainty surrounding Avram Grant's future. The Hammers' boss is rumoured to be on his way out of West Ham, with Martin O'Neill lined up as his replacement, but no formal decision has yet to be announced.

Arsenal took full advantage of the shambles to consolidate third spot in the table, one point behind Manchester City and two behind Manchester United, who travel to Tottenham this afternoon. Having lost to Championship side Ipswich in their Carling Cup semi-final on Wednesday, Arsenal were in need of a morale-boosting win and that they got it was largely due to the excellence of van Persie and the errors of Wayne Bridge.

The former Manchester City defender was making his first appearance for West Ham, having signed earlier in the week, but Bridge had a shocker of a debut with his gaffes responsible for all three Arsenal goals.

Bridge was given the runaround by Theo Walcott from the start and on 13 minutes the Gunner capitalised on the left-back's lethargy by firing in a cross from the right that was hammered into the net by van Persie for the opening goal.

Walcott and van Persie combined again on 41 minutes for Arsenal's second. Bridge played Van Persie onside and the Dutchman teed up Walcott with a neat pass that was dispatched past Robert Green.

Bridge then rounded off his nightmare performance by upending Walcott in the Hammers box on 77 minutes for a penalty that was slotted home by Van Persie. "It's the sharpest I've seen him for a while," Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said of his Dutch striker later, adding: "From game to game he gets stronger and he enjoys to play with our midfield and overall I think it was a convincing performance...

"In fact we are on a convincing run in the Premier League having beat Chelsea, won 3-0 away from home twice and got a convincing 0-0 draw at home to Man City."

Wenger said he was looking forward to putting his feet up on Sunday and watching Tottenham take on Manchester United, a match that could have a significant bearing on the title race.

Regardless of the outcome, however, Wenger believes that Arsenal are well placed to win their first Premier League crown since 2004. "I think it is in our hands in the fact that we play all the strong teams at home and have a strong run at home after playing away games so it is down to us," he explained.

"If you look at our results away from home, they are of course a lot better than our results last year and that's a sign of maturity."

The defeat leaves West Ham propping at the table and as Grant left the pitch he threw his claret and blue scarf into the crowd, a gesture he was later asked to explain. "I have done this at the last few games, thrown my scarf to the children who are there," he said.

"Today it was emotional to see the reaction of the supporters after the game, we had lost 3-0 and they were so supportive. It was touching to see this, so I did what I did. You need to respect the supporters, that is what I did."

Asked if he was happy with the respect he was being shown by the West Ham board, Grant replied: "I am prepared to answer questions about football. Not about things around it."

Manchester City survived a second-half scare against visitors Wolves to maintain the pressure on Manchester United. Wolves took the lead on 12 minutes through Nenad Milijas but City equalised through Kolo Toure just before half-time. After the break the Sky Blues ran riot, with two goals from Carlos Tevez and a strike from Yaya Toure all in the space of fifteen minutes.

But Wolves refused to slink off and die, and after Kevin Doyle had pulled one back from the penalty spot, Ronald Zubar's header made it 4-3 on 86 minutes. City withstood five minutes of Wolves pressure in injury time to hold on and move within one point of United, albeit having played two games more.

Reigning champions Chelsea continued to get their season back on track with a 2-0 win at home to Blackburn, a victory that moves the Blues over Spurs into fourth spot. It was a scrappy first half display by Chelsea but they improved after the break and goals from Branislav Ivanovic and Nicolas Anelka put a smile back on the face of manager Carlo Ancelotti.

"It was a big win and a good performance," he said later. "The difficult moment is gone. It was very important to show the quality we used to show in the past. We are working hard, we are able to move on and we will be stronger."

In other results, Wigan and Fulham drew 1-1, while Stoke saw off Bolton 2-0 to move into eighth spot. West Bromwich Albion ended their run of five consecutive league defeats with a 3-2 defeat of visitors Blackpool. Peter Odemwingie was the hero for the Baggies, scoring twice with his winning second goal coming three minutes from the end. ·