The Brazilian striker Ilan followed up his point-saving goal at Everton last week by grabbing a second-half winner against Sunderland this afternoon to bolster West Ham’s hopes of avoiding relegation. Gianfranco Zola’s team climbed above Wigan and are now four points above the drop zone.

Throughout this campaign West Ham have tended to begin matches briskly before fading feebly but here it was the opposite as the visitors started the stronger. Timid West Ham defending allowed a Steed Malbranque corner to curl across the face of goal in the ninth minute, Frazier Campbell narrowly failing to apply a decisive touch. Six minutes later Darren Bent peeled off Manuel Da Costa to collect a Lee Cattermole pass but, mercifully for Rob Green, his lob over the keeper dropped on to the roof of the net.

Valon Behrami produced West Ham’s first effort of a guileless game a minute later, a snap shot from 25 yards that drew a solid one-handed save from Craig Gordon.

Gordon looked less clever in the 35th minute when he prevented Carlton Cole from tracking down a through ball by handling just outside the box. The goalkeeper then sabotaged West Ham’s attempt to take the free-kick quickly, yet still the referee, Mike Jones – the man who awarded Sunderland a goal against Liverpool earlier this season after Bent’s shot deflected off a beach ball – showed only a yellow card. Perhaps the sense of injustice rallied the hosts because moments later they forged their best chance so far. However, after strong work by Cole, Kieran Richardson blocked Ilan’s shot in extremis.

Gordon benefited from another dubious decision two minutes later when he rugby-tackled Cole after spilling the ball during an aerial challenge. The referee was seemingly one of the few people in the stadium who considered that the striker had fouled the goalkeeper first.

West Ham gained vengeance in the 51st minute. Manuel Da Costa launched a long diagonal free-kick into the box, Cole held off Michael Turner and nodded down to Ilan, who poked the ball past Gordon and into the net from seven yards.

Sunderland reacted well. The cutting move they pieced together in the 58th minute was the best of the match, Malbranque and Bent swapping passes before the latter laid the ball back to Cattermole, who arrived at speed but slammed wide from 14 yards.

Steve Bruce rejigged his team and introduced Kenwyne Jones in the 63rd minute and with his first touch the new arrival split the home defence and served a wonderful opportunity to Bent, who hardly embellished his England credentials by falling over as he wound up to shoot.

Green, by contrast, will hope Fabio Capello sees footage of his save in the 76th minute when he displayed rapid reflexes and strong wrists to beat away a free kick from Jordan Henderson, who had initially shaped to cross. In the dying minutes Bruce thrust another attacker, Benjani Mwaruwari, into the fray and switched to a two-men defence but West Ham held firm, and even thought they had enhanced their lead in the closing seconds when Guillermo Franco shot into the net from 12 yards but the referee – correctly – ruled that the striker had first controlled the ball with his arm.

Premier LeagueWest Ham UnitedSunderlandPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk

The B-word is seemingly off limits at Arsenal. Arsène Wenger was exasperated when his Friday conference became consumed by it and his worst fears were almost confirmed here at Emirates Stadium when his players looked distracted for sizeable spells and might have been made to pay by a more ruthless team than West Ham.

Cue Cesc Fábregas. If anyone was going to bring it up, it was surely he. And after scoring the late penalty which sealed these three points, the Arsenal captain jumped in and did it. “We are only thinking about Birmingham. Our first priority is Birmingham and that is the sign of champions, taking things game by game,” he said.

Fábregas did get around to Barcelona, however, the club Arsenal will face in a mouthwatering Champions League quarter-final, and the one currently casting long shadows over the red half of north London. The Barcelona youth set-up was where it all started for him and two of his friends from those days, Lionel Messi and Gerard Piqué, are now fixtures in Pep Guardiola’s team. Then there is Thierry Henry, the former Arsenal captain and another good friend.

“It is very exciting,” said Fábregas. “We are going to play against the best team in Europe, probably in the world. But we always go with the same mentality and that is to win. If you want to win the competition, you have to beat everyone who is coming. If we had been drawn against Bordeaux or Lyon, we would have taken it the same way.”

It is the Premier League trip to St Andrew’s on Saturday, however, which comes first and that is quickening the pulse of Fábregas and his team-mates. It was there two seasons ago that Arsenal’s title challenge started to unravel amid the catastrophic injury to Eduardo, but this time Wenger and his players sense a happier ending.

Only seven league games are left. If Arsenal can win them all, as they have their previous six and as they believe they can, then they would only need the merest of slips from Manchester United and Chelsea.

Wenger will be without both of his first-choice central defenders against Birmingham. Thomas Vermaelen is suspended, having been harshly dismissed for what was adjudged a professional foul on the West Ham striker Guillermo Franco – Manuel Almunia made a crucial save from the resultant 45th-minute Alessandro Diamanti penalty – and William Gallas remains a serious injury concern.

But given the seamless fashion in which Alex Song dropped back from midfield to deputise for Vermaelen, Wenger will not worry. He described Song as perhaps the most improved player in the Premier League. “When we lost at home to Chelsea and Man United, and I must say it was in a convincing way, everybody got a little bit carried away and you have to go a bit overboard,” he said.

“Nobody takes you seriously after that. But I believe we can go and win the next games. To have a chance, we absolutely have to win all of our games.”

Wenger paraphrased Rhett Butler when he was asked whether it would bother him, in the event of Arsenal winning the title, that they had failed to take a point from United or Chelsea. “Frankly, no,” he said, as he pointed out that United had won last season’s championship with a haul of only five points from their encounters with the other three Champions League qualifiers. “Yes, there is a point of view there but I tell you, I would still take the title.”

West Ham were left to lament not only Diamanti’s penalty miss but the way that, against 10 men, they went close to equalising Denílson’s low drive only once, when the substitute Carlton Cole hit a post on 78 minutes.

Arsenal knew that they had been in a game and West Ham moved the ball pleasingly at times but, in the crucial six-pointer at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow – a point and a place above them in 16th position – Gianfranco Zola’s side need to be much sharper in front of goal.

“In these moments, you have to keep your composure,” said Zola, a comment directed at everyone at the club, from the new owners down. “You have to do the right things and not get emotional because you don’t improve the situation.”

Premier LeagueArsenalWest Ham UnitedDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk

Before the game, one of the televisions in the press room was unplugged because Bolton’s team of match analysts needed the scart lead. It was an easy enough problem to fix. West Ham had a collective screw loose, and that proved somewhat more problematic.

This was always supposed to be a one-sided game, but the surprising thing was the identity of the one side. West Ham had kept four successive clean sheets at home in the league, while Bolton had not scored in their last five away, but the visitors were, in their own way, magnificent. On this evidence, Owen Coyle has not transformed their playing style, rather he seems to have supercharged it. We all know what Bolton do well, but they did it better. Much, much better.

West Ham were two down at half-time, and it could have been four or more. The goals came in the opening 16 minutes, from attacks down the right wing. Both were embarrassingly easy, the second particularly so.

In the 10th minute, Fabrice Muamba challenged Alessandro Diamanti in the centre circle, winning the ball. The Italian fell to the ground, clutching his leg, as play continued via Gretar Steinsson to Lee Chung-Yong. The Korean’s cross from the right curled back towards goal and landed on the head of the onrushing Kevin Davies, six yards out. Diamanti was barely back on his feet by the time the ball hit the back of the net.

Six minutes later, Steinsson chipped the ball down the inside-right channel, James Tomkins attempted to usher it out of play and Davies stole in to poke the ball towards the centre. Had the attack ended there it would have been embarrassing enough. It did not. To their credit, Bolton had two men in the box, gambling on Davies winning the ball. One of them, Tamir Cohen, headed the ball down and the other, Jack Wilshere, volleyed into the net.

It was a humiliating goal to concede, but there could have been more: Johan Elmander was allowed a free header from a long throw, and missed an easy chance in first-half stoppage time. From a Lee cross, Wilshere had a free header; if he had been any taller than 5ft 8in he would surely have scored. All of this before half-time.

Bolton could not keep up that level of intensity, and once Cohen was given a second yellow card with 20 minutes to play, their task became one of containment. West Ham threw on attacking players, but still they could not attack with conviction. With less than two minutes to go, Diamanti picked up a loose ball on the right wing, cut inside and shot inside the far post. He celebrated almost apologetically, as well he might. After a recent improvement, the shadow of relegation hangs over his side once again.

West Ham UnitedBolton WanderersPremier LeagueSimon Burntonguardian.co.uk