From the vault: Fine home wins against the Hammers

We round off 2023 with two more London derbies, the first of which sees West Ham United cross the capital for the latest chapter of our storied history together.

Our encounters with the east-enders have been packed with memorable moments, superb individual displays and some fine goals, and many of them have stood the test of time in the memories of all Gooners.

We’ve dipped into our archive to find five of our best home wins against the Hammers for you to enjoy again:

September 24, 1997
Arsenal 4-0 West Ham

The week after Ian Wright broke Cliff Bastin’s all-time goalscoring record, he would add to his haul against West Ham. It was Dennis Bergkamp who opened the scoring on 12 minutes when he latched onto a neat Emmanuel Petit pass, and then Marc Overmars added our second on 39 minutes when he flashed a shot past Ludek Miklosko.

We received a fortuitous penalty three minutes later when Ian Pearce was adjudged to have handled inside the box when replays suggested it was outside, but Wright made no mistake from 12 yards as he began to stretch his record-breaking tally. Overmars would slide in a fourth before half-time following a fantastic team move, making the second 45 redundant.

March 3, 2001
Arsenal 3-0 West Ham

Another excellent first-half display secured victory in this encounter, which would be an afternoon Sylvain Wiltord would never forget. We responded to our 6-1 thumping by Manchester United the previous week by starting on fire, and the Frenchman grabbed his first on six minutes when he latched onto a Robert Pires pass to tuck past Shaka Hislop.

He completed his brace seven minutes later when he brilliantly controlled a long Lee Dixon ball in the box and spun away from two defenders before finding the net, and on 39 minutes the matchball was Wiltord’s when he raced onto a Freddie Ljungberg delivery and made no mistake.

January 19, 2003
Arsenal 3-1 West Ham

Two years later another Frenchman ran riot against the Hammers, but this contest’s complexion changed on 12 minutes when Steve Lomas was shown a red card for pulling Pires back in the box, with the punishment piled on when Thierry Henry netted the penalty.

The visitors battled back and Glenn Roeder’s team equalised when Jermain Defoe arrowed a shot into the bottom corner on 40 minutes, but half an hour later a fine Bergkamp delivery to the back post was headed in by Henry, who then secured his hat-trick and the win four minutes from the end when he finished off a devastating counter-attack.

January 23, 2013
Arsenal 5-1 West Ham

We went goal crazy in this meeting by netting four in 11 minutes, but the first name on the scoresheet was Jack Collison after 18 minutes. However Lukas Podolski blasted home an excellent equaliser from 25 yards, before the floodgates opened after the restart.

90 seconds into the half Olivier Giroud headed in a corner, and then our two goalscorers linked up brilliantly to allow Santi Cazorla to nonchalantly flick the ball over the line. Theo Walcott then swiftly completed a sweeping move, before Giroud added his second to make it 5-1 with just 56 minutes on the clock, leaving the visitors shell-shocked.

April 22, 2018
Arsenal 4-1 West Ham

In the week that Arsene Wenger announced that he would be departing at the end of the season, his players put on a worthy performance to kick-start his long farewell. The opening half had little goalmouth action, but the game burst into life on 51 minutes when Nacho Monreal volleyed in Granit Xhaka’s corner.

Marko Arnautovic pulled the visitors level 13 minutes later, but we would step up a gear in the final 10 minutes to cruise to victory. Aaron Ramsey saw a cross creep past Joe Hart, and then Alexandre Lacazette helped himself to a couple of goals, firstly seeing a deflected effort beat the former England goalkeeper, and then sidefooting in our fourth to please his departing compatriot in the dugout.

You can see more memorable moments against West Ham in our playlist