West Ham United kicked off the new season in style, winning 2-0 at Arsenal thanks to goals from Cheikhou Kouyate and Mauro Zarate.
Slaven Bilic could not have asked for a better to start to life as a Barclays Premier League manager, orchestrating the Hammers' first win at Emirates Stadium since 2007 and arresting a run of ten straight defeats to the Gunners.
The 3,000 travelling fans were in dreamland when Kouyate rose to head their side into a 43rd minute lead, and it got better soon after the restart as Mauro Zarate fired home from long range.
Arsenal huffed and puffed but struggled to break a resilientr Hammers side down as the east Londoners claimed the derby bragging rights.
The big pre-match news was that the Hammers handed a league debut to Reece Oxford, making the Academy product the youngest ever Hammer to play in the Premier League.
The 16-year-old made a composed start too, as West Ham made an early chance, Tomkins bursting forward from right back to knock across looking for Diafra Sakho, but Per Mertesacker was well positioned to stick a giant limb out and conced a corner.
After Mark Noble and Angelo Ogbonna picked up early bookings, Arsenal's first opportunity came with eleven minutes on the clock when Winston Reid's clearance was picked up by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who crashed a volley over.
Dimitri Payet gave a glimpse of his considerable talent when he took an Aaron Cresswell crossfield ball out of the sky and crossed to Sakho, but Laurent Koscielny got across to ensure the ball would squirt through to Petr Cech.
Ogbonna was impressing on debut and he showed sharp reactions to block from Olivier Giroud after the Frenchman controlled a Francis Coquelin cross on his chest.
On the half hour the Gunners came close to taking a fortunate lead when Aaron Ramsey's shot from outside the box took a massive deflection off Aaron Cresswell, looped up and struck the top of the crossbar with Adrian backpedalling.
Ramsey and Payet then exchanged off-target shots, and just as it looked as though the interval would be reached the the scoresheet blank, Kouyate sent the away end into raptures.
Oxford was fouled by Ramsey, giving the Hammers a free-kick in a dangerous position and Kouyate was sharpest to it, beating Cech to Payet's delivery to nod into a gaping net.
If the 3,000 travelling fans thought that was good, it got even better twelve minutes after the interval when Zarate, back from a loan spell at Queens Park Rangers, made it 2-0.
Again, Cech would have been disappointed with his contribution as Zarate picked up on a loose clearance, spotted the shooting chance 25 yards out and beat the goalkeeper low to his right.
Arsene Wenger reacted by introducing Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez from the bench, but still the Hammers stood firm to restrict the home side's chances.
Arsenal enjoyed more and more possession as the game went on, but West Ham defended strongly to frustrate the home crowd.
Adrian was sharp to deny Sanchez on a couple of occasions but he was not overworked as Bilic made the perfect start to life in the hotseat.
Slaven Bilic could not have asked for a better to start to life as a Barclays Premier League manager, orchestrating the Hammers' first win at Emirates Stadium since 2007 and arresting a run of ten straight defeats to the Gunners.
The 3,000 travelling fans were in dreamland when Kouyate rose to head their side into a 43rd minute lead, and it got better soon after the restart as Mauro Zarate fired home from long range.
Arsenal huffed and puffed but struggled to break a resilientr Hammers side down as the east Londoners claimed the derby bragging rights.
The big pre-match news was that the Hammers handed a league debut to Reece Oxford, making the Academy product the youngest ever Hammer to play in the Premier League.
The 16-year-old made a composed start too, as West Ham made an early chance, Tomkins bursting forward from right back to knock across looking for Diafra Sakho, but Per Mertesacker was well positioned to stick a giant limb out and conced a corner.
After Mark Noble and Angelo Ogbonna picked up early bookings, Arsenal's first opportunity came with eleven minutes on the clock when Winston Reid's clearance was picked up by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who crashed a volley over.
Dimitri Payet gave a glimpse of his considerable talent when he took an Aaron Cresswell crossfield ball out of the sky and crossed to Sakho, but Laurent Koscielny got across to ensure the ball would squirt through to Petr Cech.
Ogbonna was impressing on debut and he showed sharp reactions to block from Olivier Giroud after the Frenchman controlled a Francis Coquelin cross on his chest.
On the half hour the Gunners came close to taking a fortunate lead when Aaron Ramsey's shot from outside the box took a massive deflection off Aaron Cresswell, looped up and struck the top of the crossbar with Adrian backpedalling.
Ramsey and Payet then exchanged off-target shots, and just as it looked as though the interval would be reached the the scoresheet blank, Kouyate sent the away end into raptures.
Oxford was fouled by Ramsey, giving the Hammers a free-kick in a dangerous position and Kouyate was sharpest to it, beating Cech to Payet's delivery to nod into a gaping net.
If the 3,000 travelling fans thought that was good, it got even better twelve minutes after the interval when Zarate, back from a loan spell at Queens Park Rangers, made it 2-0.
Again, Cech would have been disappointed with his contribution as Zarate picked up on a loose clearance, spotted the shooting chance 25 yards out and beat the goalkeeper low to his right.
Arsene Wenger reacted by introducing Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez from the bench, but still the Hammers stood firm to restrict the home side's chances.
Arsenal enjoyed more and more possession as the game went on, but West Ham defended strongly to frustrate the home crowd.
Adrian was sharp to deny Sanchez on a couple of occasions but he was not overworked as Bilic made the perfect start to life in the hotseat.