The fact that Arsene Wenger spoke about his fellow countryman during the Arsenal press conference ahead of the match between Arsenal and Dimitri Payet’s West Ham just shows how much of a key player for Slaven Bilic is. It also tells you that Wenger sees Payet as one of the biggest obstacles between Arsenal and all three points in East London tomorrow.
So will the Gunners have a special plan to deal with the threat of the on fire attacking midfielder? Wenger would almost certainly say no, but then again he said the same about the Man City and Spain star David Silva last season and then we saw Francis Coquelin stick to the little man like a bad spell when Arsenal came up with a fantastic away win there.
I think you have to give Payet special attention, just as other clubs do with our own creative lynch pin Mesut Ozil. And I am pretty sure that it will be another Frenchman Coquelin who is given the job of keeping Payet from causing the Gunners too many problems.
With Elneny alongside Le Coq, assuming that Wenger does not have a brain freeze and start Ramsey, we should have plenty of defensive solidity to stop West Ham, but there is one more issue to consider and it is a big one. Every single Arsenal player must be keep in their minds the danger of giving away a free kick in and around the box.
Payet has been lethal from dead ball situations recently and you know that every West Ham player will be looking to get him a chance to do it again. So we need to be extra careful when they are in that sort of situation, as well as keeping Payet under wraps in open play.
Do that and Arsenal have a great chance of winning the match, but will Wenger make sure his players are switched on to this major danger? And will the players have the discipline and strength to snuff it out?
Well, it has come to this. Do we want to keep hopes (as small as they are) alive and give others something to think about? Now is the time. It will be the toughest test of the season, we have nothing to lose. Title is very far away, out of reach basically at this point. But at least go in style. Going against the team having the best form at home. But what a statement this can be. Yes, it is a game for qualifying in UCL and there will be no mercy in this one. I hope we will not give any because there will be none from the hosts. Everyone is buzzing about West Ham, Bilic and Payet but we have been there and we got the t-shirt already. Want to gain some respect (as little as it be) for crashing few months ago? Now’s the time. Show some grit, give some punches and come under the shield or prepare your bags for the holiday. Focus. Stand up. And kill when the chance comes. COYG!
The least we can expect from the team is to give it all in every PL match, now that it’s the only competition we’re still in. I’m actually feeling positive about this one. Sanchez seems to be regaining his good ol’ form, and Coq-Elneny seems to be a good fit.
Nevertheless – there are only two matches where I can accept a non-win, and that is versus West ham and City. ~75 points at the end of the season? Tottenham have tough matches to go (Stoke @Britannia, ManUtd, Chelsea @Stamford and Soton). I think they’ll lose one and draw one in this bundle of matches, making them lose 5 points. Interestingly they’re 4 points ahead of us with one less match to play – I say if we only care about winning our own matches – St. Totteringhams day may come this year as well (which, by the looks of it, will be our most likely achieveable goal this season)
Just think, West Ham should have beaten Chelsea and Palace in their last two games and could easily already be in fourth, they have been excellent this season. Leicester and West Ham in the Champions League would be so interesting to watch. Andy Carroll mixing it with Europe’s elite!
As long as it doesn’t affect Arsenals outcome in CL in the long run (by reducing the amount of english teams in CL to 3), I welcome Leicester and West ham with us to fight with the top of the pops in Europe. It is only spudz that can F off 😉