West Ham 2 Arsenal 2

But the gloss was taken off West Ham's performance when midfielder Scott Parker was harshly shown a second yellow card and was sent off for an innocuous handball towards the end of the game.

Gianfranco Zola rang the changes from the previous week's defeat at Stoke, handing Guillermo Franco his full debut and replacing Julien Faubert with Jonathan Spector at right back, while there was not even a place on the bench for Luis Jiminez.

Franco showed some nice touches but perhaps found the pace of the Premier League a bit much to get used to, particularly as Arsenal dominated the first half.

The visitors started the game in imperious form and made it count when Robin Van Persie opened the scoring in the 16th minute.

Alex Song was allowed to skip down the right with the ball and swung in a cross that Robert Green inexplicably chose to try and claim.

The England keeper could only get his fingertips to the ball and while he crashed into covering defender James Tomkins Van Persie had the easiest of tasks to volley home at the far post.

The goal silenced the home crowd, who had created an excellent atmosphere on a mild afternoon at Upton Park but they were soon fired up again when Carlton Cole played Mark Noble through and the midfielder's cross-shot was tipped onto the post by Vito Mannone.

Although West Ham huffed and puffed to try and get back into the game they were not really creating any clear-cut chances and were always liable to get caught on the break by Arsenal's pacy young side.

It took an excellent last ditch tackle by Matthew Upson to deny Van Persie after Andrey Arshavin played the Dutchman in after 24 minutes, while Van Persie was guilty of missing a clear headed chance three minutes later.

There was always the sense that Arsenal would add to their lead and so it proved when William Gallas rose unchallenged to power a header home from a Van Persie corner on 37 minutes.

The Gunners looked solid at the back and knocked the ball around comfortably, raising fears in the West Ham crowd that it might be a case of damage limitation in the second half.

Indeed, the half-time whistle was met with boos from sections of the crowd, so disappointed were they with their side's first half performance.

Zola needed to see some inspiration from his players in the second period but it was Arsenal who started brighter, with Cesc Fabregas playing Emmanuel Eboue in for a shot a minute after the restart.

Franco then showed the home fans what he was all about as he made a purposeful run with the ball from the halfway line, beating several defenders before being dispossessed.

It was an encouraging sign for the Hammers faithful but Arsenal still seemed to be controlling matters.

It took the 56th minute introduction of Alessandro Diamanti, newly-shaven of head, to inject some guile into the home side and he was to play a key role in the Hammers' revival.

The Italian saw a 30 yard shot flash wide, while he also began to link well with his team-mates, something previously missing from their play.

Fabregas almost put the game beyond West Ham when he shaved the outside of the post with a fulminating drive from distance that had Green beaten all ends up.

Diamanti was then involved in an unsavoury incident with Fabregas, elbowing the Spaniard in the throat in what appeared to be a pre-meditated action, somehow missed by the referee and his officials.

It would have been a straight red card had the offence been spotted but as it was the Italian stayed on the pitch.

Arsenal were still threatening, with Arshavin forcing an excellent diving save from Green, while Eboue almost scored when he skinned Herita Ilunga but shot wide.

West Ham pulled a goal back when they were awarded a soft free-kick when Hines was brought down outside the box on 74 minutes.

Diamanti fired the ball goalward and Mannone could only parry it back into the middle of the six yard box where Cole launched himself at it to head home.

The stadium erupted and confidence seemed to seep back into the home side, largely inspired by Diamanti.

He moved centre-stage again when Cole fell under a challenge from Song and the Irons were awarded a penalty.

Diamanti, who scored a spot-kick against Liverpool last month, kept his cool and blasted home from 12 yards to level the game with 10 minutes to go.

Controversy reared its head when Parker received his marching orders five minutes from time.

The ex-England man tackled Song halfway inside his own half and as he did so he fell over. In trying to reach the ball with his head Parker was pushed slightly and the ball brushed his arm before he used his head to knock it away and referee Chris Foy deemed it to be deliberate.

Parker had already been booked and the second yellow seemed harsh, and the player made his feelings known as he left the pitch.

Arsenal sensed this could be their chance to nick the game and poured forward searching for a winner.

Arshavin hit a drive from 25 yards but it went wide, while Eduardo looked threatening after being introduced as a late substitute.

Green made a vital intervention for West Ham when he produced a superb save with his left leg from Van Persie's point blank header in injury time.

Arsenal, despite a frenetic finish, sensed the game was up and the final result was met with a torrent of noise from the home supporters.

For Zola the second half performance was all down to the desire of the players.

He said: "I don't want to take any credit for that, it was down to the players. What we said to each other was that we must fight until the end, that is what we are here for, we do give everything and at the end of the game we see what happens.

"And that is what happened, we went there, we never gave up, the subs gave us something extra and we made it happen. This is the story of life, whatever difficulties you are going through, you fight until the end.

"We have the quality. I'm sure this team has the quality and we now just need a bit more confidence because right now it is not great because of our position. Every time we make a mistake, the opposition score, which doesn't help. We need to fight, fight, fight and then we will see at the end."

West Ham: Green, Spector, Ilunga, Upson, Tomkins, Noble (Diamanti, 56), Parker, Behrami (Kovac, 90+2), Collison, Franco (Hines, 64), Cole. Unused subs: Kurucz, Faubert, Da Costa, Stanislas.

Booked: Parker, Hines, Collison.

Sent off: Parker (second yellow)

Goals: Cole 74, Diamanti 80 (pen)

Arsenal: Mannone, Diaby (Eduardo, 88), Sagna, Vermaelen, Gallas, Fabregas, Song, Clichy, Van Persie, Arshavin, Eboue (Bendtner, 82). Unused subs: Almunia, Nasri, Ramsey, Silvestre, Gibbs.

Booked: Mannone, Eboue.

Goals: Van Persie 16, Gallas 37

Attendance: 34,442

Referee: Chris Foy