We will have to wait and see how things pan out in East London at the weekend, and Arsenal wwill need to play well to come back with all three points from our Premier League clash away to West Ham United, but I do have a feeling that, for a change, things are going our way ahead of this crucial game.
We need all the help we can get after Leicester City managed another narrow win over Southampton left no margin for error for Arsenal. Along with the penultimate game away to Man City this clash with the Hammers look like the two biggest obstacles and so it is a big help if we are facing a West Ham team that is not at it’s best.
And there are three big reasons to believe that will be the case. One is that they could be without one of their key players Cheikhou Kouyate who was sent off at the weekend and is set for a three match ban. He gives them energy and bite in central midfield and would surely be charged with stopping Mesut Ozil from running riot.
Another reason is that our opponents have just hit a sticky patch of form and results. The draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday was their third in a row and that has knocked their confidence as well as stopping their momentum at a key period.
The main reason, though, is the timing of the game for the early Saturday kick off when they have a massive FA cup replay against Man United on Wednesday. Obviously we want extra time and penalties and hopefully a loss to really knock them down and leave them deflated as well as tired. But even a win would see them face us on Saturday with weary legs and possibly not fully focused.
The perfect time to face West Ham? Only if Arsenal make the most of it?
Their FA Cup replay against Man Utd is on April 13, 2016 after their clash against Arsenal.So you should find another main reason Bob.
LOL Yeah, Bob! Do you job! lol
Bob you are a really gunner, a dreamer and good excuse finder , but like our great deluded manager you find perfect excuses why we should win and after why we lost, remember MU?,Swansea?
You can never tell what to expect with this Arsenal team, Westham can have all their best players, be on a solid run of wins and we turn them over easily, or they might be going through a bad patch and without a few of their best players and beat us so easily it will be embarrassing, the only thing consistent about us is our inconsistency, if am not mistaken they turned us over at home in the first game of the season, with a 17 year old boy in their first 11 and about 3/4 new to the country and the league….bottomline to me is the only match Arsenal can win is the match we have already won, no point raising one’s hope and expectations,just take each game one at a time and try and enjoy it…..
Football playing is said not to always conform to mathematical calculations. Therefore, let’s keep Cheikhou Kaouyate’s non-availability for this clash aside. And also forget about the impending Wembley FA Cup semis match between West Ham and Man Utd after the Hammers have hosted Arsenal at their Bolyn ground on Saturday.
I don’t want the Arsenal Gunners to start thinking of any disadvantage the Hammers might be into before they play us. Because I believe the Hammers have other players they can use in place of Kaouyate and we don’t know if the player used will play well or not.
And again West Hammers are still eyeing a 4th place finish in the table. We don’t know if they’ll play very well in pursuance of this their dreams.
The best thing for us to do, is for the Gunners to totally focus their minds on beating West Ham after a hard fought game at Bolyn ground on Saturday. For, I perceive the Hammers will not lay down easy for the Gunners to slay them because they are going to play against Man Utd in the FA Cup semis the following Wed after playing us on Saturday.
Nevertheless, I believe Arsenal will force the Hammers to submission at their Bolyn ground as they look to collect all the hammers in the hands of the West Hammers and hammer them thoroughly with them to leave them squarolling on the ground and thereafter the Gunners will capture 5 of them as spoils, and bring them to the Ems exhibition room for the Gooners to behold.
Final Score-line: WHFC 0-5 AFC @ FT 90m +.
L()L ………… Just L()L
Id actually prefer if they hadn’t hit a bit of a patch. Lei are playing them after we do and Lei are at home, so I’d like to see that wham of a while back. It’ll be tough but if we want to keep hopes alive we have to go into it with same sort of intensity with quick passing that we showed lately. Hopefully our players wont all of a sudden crop up with injury.
I would rather we looked at the positives from our side rather than West Ham’s negatives. Our most obvious positive is that our team is back to playing their best football with all faculties performing well. Also our positive attitude seems to have been regained according to the way our team is playing now. There is confidence, focus and purpose in the way our team is playing which is a cause for optimism. Perhaps the greatest argument should have been that had we faced West Ham at the time when our confidence was at its lowest we would more likely have lost the game. The timing of the game now is very favourable for Arsenal as long as we put in our best performance. As we saw from the game against C
Last sentence is incomplete. It should be” As we saw from the game against Crystal Palace, West Ham is beatable if we play our committed players and put in our best efforts.”
“if we play our committed players and put in our best efforts.” .. When we do this, we generally outclass teams like Bayern and Barca but the problem is the “IF” is a very big IF in case of Arsenal
Precisely that if should be erased and replaced by optimism every time we play. Obviously teams lose games but this is usually inevitable not due to lack of weak will or little effort. It is criminal for a team with quality players like Arsenal to lose games due to lack of will power or laxity! It is understandable when a team loses due to meeting a stronger team or external factors like poor refereeing or fatigue due to playing too many games. In Arsenal’s case profligacy in front of goal has been one of our greatest weaknesses. We need to take our chances and not squander them.