Noble assault is a Hammers horror show

Arsenal's victory keeps them clear at the top of the Premier League but that was the only standard which they maintained, as they failed to hit the heights of previous performances.

In a game which failed to live up to its billing, despite a rash of chances in the second half, the main talking point was how Noble stayed on the field rather than the quality of Robin van Persie's 13th-minute goal.

Arsene Wenger was pleased to overcome opponents who had achieved an unlikely double over his team last season and did his best to be charitable about Noble's two-footed scything down of Hleb, which forced the Belarus international off on a stretcher.

Wenger said: "To me, it looked very nasty. If it is an accident, it is a very bad accident.If you see Hleb's leg, it's unbelievable. From the knee down to the toes is red, is bruised.

"We are quite optimistic because Noble is usually a fair player."

For his part, West Ham manager Alan Curbishley, in classic Wenger style, did not see the incident and urged everyone instead to look at the replay of a foul on Scott Parker by Mathieu Flamini, which prevented Parker from emerging for the second half of his first league game for West Ham after a knee injury.

Curbishley also bemoaned a second-half Freddie Ljungberg 'goal' which was ruled out for offside and Dean Ashton's failure to convert a free header, but he admitted his team had been second best, particularly in the first half.

Curbishley said: "Arsenal were the better side and got their goal, and if they score away from home it's difficult for anyone who plays them.

"I told the players in my half-time team talk that I thought we had given Arsenal too much respect. We could have scored two goals, but had one taken away from us and didn't take the other chance."

Despite some improvement in the second half, it says everything about West Ham that their outstanding player was goalkeeper Robert Green, just as he had been in their crucial victory at the Emirates Stadium earlier this year.

Without creating a huge number of clear-cut chances, Arsenal controlled much of the the game, thanks mainly to the central midfield pairing of Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas. That said, this was not one of the Spaniard's better days and it was Van Persie, similarly emerging from Thierry Henry's shadow to become Arsenal's deputy talisman, who decided the game, with considerable help from some poor West Ham defending.

Emmanuel Adebayor outpaced Anton Ferdinand,and given time to pick the best option, the Togo forward touched the ball to Hleb, whose cross was headed home by Van Persie, untroubled by a halfhearted challenge from Lucas Neill.

Thereafter Arsenal rarely got out of second gear, but they had little need to do so against a West Ham side who were particularly lacklustre in the first half.

Ashton was caught offside so often that his team had little opportunity to build a platform.

Add a lack of decent movement off the ball and poor passing, and it became a frustrating afternoon.

Noble took it out on Hleb in the 29th minute. In the match programme, Noble had said his idol was his predecessor as Upton Park's great white hope, Joe Cole, and he certainly seemed to have absorbed a lesson from his hero about the darker arts of football.

Noble's two-footed lunge, which first caught Hleb at knee height and then every point downwards, was every bit as bad as Cole's spiteful chopping down of Cristiano Ronaldo last weekend, and equally deserving of a straight dismissal.

But like Mike Dean before him, referee Alan Wiley produced only the yellow card.

The second half approached a contest,with chances at either end. Although Green did well to push Van Persie's shot on to the post and to keep out efforts from Adebayor and Gael Clichy, the best chance fell to Ashton shortly before Ljungberg's disallowed goal.

But the would-be England centreforward, unmarked and eight yards out, headed Lee Bowyer's perfect cross straight at Manuel Almunia.

Van Persie blocked Ashton's late goalbound header, but even with four minutes of stoppage-time, the late West Ham surge never came.

The Arsenal fans made the most noise of the afternoon when the final whistle confirmed their first win at Upton Park since 2000.

WEST HAM (4-4-2): Green; Neill, Ferdinand (Gabbidon 48min), Upson, McCartney; Bowyer (Boa Morte 83), Noble, Parker (Mullins 46), Ljungberg; Ashton, Camara. Subs (not used):Wright, Cole. Booked: Bowyer, Noble.

ARSENAL (4-4-2): Almunia; Sagna, Toure, Senderos, Clichy; Hleb (Eboue 31), Fabregas, Flamini, Diaby; Van Persie (Bendtner 88), Adebayor (Da Silva 79). Subs (not used): Fabianski, Denilson. Booked: Flamini, Eboue.

Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).