Arsenal Match Preview

Following their upturn in form since the Emirates FA Cup third-round victory at home to Sky Bet Championship outfit Queens Park Rangers back on 11 January, West Ham United have picked up points against Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Manchester City. The expectation is that with league leaders Arsenal making the journey to Stratford this afternoon, it would honestly be a bonus for the Irons to take anything away here. However, as the results in the aforementioned fixtures have proved, it doesn’t always go according to plan!!!

Spurs’ surprise win over Aston Villa last weekend was bad news for the Hammers, as it meant that Nuno Espírito Santo’s men dropped back into the relegation zone and whilst the possibility of beating Mikel Arteta’s men is unlikely, they will harbour hope of bouncing back from the 3-0 defeat to Brentford at The Gtech Community Stadium, given that they have not suffered consecutive defeats since the opening two games of the year.

One factor that does swing in favour of the hosts here though is that their opponents booked their place in Budapest for the UEFA Champions League final against French club Paris Saint-Germain on 30 May after edging past La Liga side Atlético Madrid 2-1 on aggregate just five days ago.

Although the Gunners have lost out to both Manchester City and Liverpool for the past three seasons in the race for the title, it seems that they have finally found that cutting edge and barring a miracle, will get the chance to lift the trophy in just a fortnight’s time. They have spent most of the season being the hunted and given that Josep Guardiola’s side enjoyed a 3-0 triumph at home to Brentford on Saturday, the gap has now been closed to just two points, having played a game more.

They will want to maintain their winning habit here, especially with the Citizens playing host to Crystal Palace in midweek. Having said that though, the home fans are looking to go level on points with their fierce rivals and not to be on the end of another heavy defeat as they have been on the last two occasions in this fixture.

I mentioned in my preview to the game against City at The Etihad Stadium back on 20 December that it doesn’t matter how long that teams have to prepare for games and it might well be the same for today’s visitors, as the North Londoners have only had four days, whereas Espírito Santo has had longer to work with his players at Rush Green. The Portuguese had a fully fit squad available against the Bees last time out and even though he does so again, his preference may be to make changes to match up with Arteta’s side.

The match is a 4:30pm kick-off and live coverage is being screened by Sky Sports from 4pm. The referee is Christopher Kavanagh.