It was the latest in a wonderful run that had Arsenal at the top of the table, although the season ultimately faded and we ended up in third.

Prior to this match with West Ham, we had beaten Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth and Derby at home, and Tottenham away.  We’d drawn away with Blackburn.

The discussion in the build-up to the game concerned a revelation that the late Danny Fiszman had asked Arsène Wenger what he’d do if the club gave him £100 million to spend on players.

Mr Wenger supposedly replied, “I’d hand it back,” according to comments made in the pre-WHU press conference.  Arsenal.com quoted Mr Wenger as saying, “I said that because I think I would ruin the work I have done in the last five years.  You develop players and, just in the last minute, you put £30 million into a player who is not necessarily better than the ones you have, just to keep everybody saying ‘oh, have you seen Arsenal, they’ve bought a super player’.

“There might come a time when I need to put my hands on it and I say ‘listen we need to put the money in for one special player who could give us a plus’. But I don’t see this player at the moment anywhere.

“Take Ronaldinho, maybe one year ago he was the best player in the world. Is he today? No. What people have problems to accept in football, like tennis, you can be No 1 in March and No 10 in November.

“You have to trust your judgement knowing you will make mistakes. I always say you have to be relaxed about that and smiling, knowing that you have a bomb in your right hand and a hand grenade in your left and that it can explode in your face because you were wrong.”

So, with the claim that there was no one who was available could better his team Mr Wenger put out this side..

Almunia

Sagna  Senderos  Toure Clichy

Diaby Fabregas Flamini Hleb

van Persie Adebayor

The used subs were Eboue who replaced Hleb on the half hour plus Gilberto Silva and Bendtner.