Arsenal Match Preview

West Ham United’s big week continues with an all Premier League Carabao Cup fourth-round tie as Arsenal visit Stratford tonight.

This is the first of two London derbies in the space of three days for the Hammers, who after this game, travel to The Gtech Community Stadium for a top-flight fixture on Saturday afternoon.

The Irons progressed to this stage after eventually getting past Sky Bet League One side Lincoln City just over a month ago. In contrast, Mikel Arteta’s men have already faced London opposition in the last round, as they won 1-0 away at Brentford.

Tonight’s hosts will just be glad to be in this round after being dumped out by Sky Bet Championship outfit Blackburn Rovers last season, thanks to a 9-10 defeat on penalties, following a 2-2 draw. Fingers crossed that history doesn’t repeat itself tonight.

David Moyes’ side may have lost their last two league matches but they will have fond memories of knocking both Manchester United and Manchester City out of this competition in the 2021/22 season. Whilst the Gunners will be favourites to move into round five, you can’t discount the East Londoners causing an upset in this one!!!

Last season’s Premier League fixture here ended in a 2-2 draw back on 16 April after West Ham had found themselves two goals behind. Here’s hoping that they don’t have to repeat those heroics this time around and perhaps edge ahead in the match if they can.

Mohammed Kudus may retain his place for this game, while Moyes will be without the suspended midfield duo of Edson Álvarez and Lucas Paquetá for the encounter against the Bees. With that in mind, he may give the pair a second successive start.

Aaron Cresswell filled in for the suspended Emmerson Palmieri on Sunday and will hope to be named as a starter again here, while Angelo Ogbonna, Pablo Fornals, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Danny Ings and Maxwel Cornet were all on the bench against the Toffees and will also want to be involved.

Tomáš Souček ensured his team’s place in round four and he was amongst the substitutes at the weekend so could return to the starting line-up. Ben Johnson was on the bench for the trip to Piraeus last Thursday and he could slot into the defence, while Łukasz Fabiański is likely to replace Alphonse Areola in goal.

Irons’ fans thought they wouldn’t have seen a return to Stratford for Declan Rice until the Gunners visit for the Premier League fixture in February. However, Arteta revealed in his pre-match news conference ahead of the game that the midfielder will be in contention to start this evening.

The match kicks off at the earlier time of 7:30pm and the Hammers will once again be live on Sky Sports. Coverage will begin at 7pm. The referee is Simon Hooper.