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Confirmed Arsenal team to play West Ham – Kiwior and Trossard start

Arsenal must beat West Ham United this afternoon to stay close to Man City and Liverpool in the title race and this is the team Mikel Arteta has selected.

Both Liverpool and Man City won yesterday so the pressure is definitely on Arsenal to get the win over the Hammers this afternoon and while a loss or draw would not end their title hopes, it would certainly put a big dent in them.

West Ham have been a thorn in Arsenal’s side this season and they will certainly be tough opponents but we cannot be dropping any more points to David Moyes’s side if we want to lift the Premier League title at the end of the season.

The good news is that West Ham is not playing that well right now, whereas Arsenal are, the Gunners had their blip at the end of last year but they have bounced back into good form and as long as the lads play as they did against Liverpool they really should be picking up all three points today.

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      1. Unfortunate for Smith Rowe if that is the case, but it highlights just how difficult it is for Arteta to be able to rely on him at all. That said, there are other niggly injuries popping up with Zinchenko, Jesus and the longer term concern with Partey.

        2. You would think if a manager couldn’t trust a players fitness they’d be sold even at a reduced price?

          Strange……

          1. Who would buy a player who is virtually never fit enough to start? Let’s just give him away to anyone who will pay his wages

          2. Maybr because unlike what some here think he is actually trying hard to get a player he likes who’s had an injury plagued career fit and not getting rid of him quickly.

      1. In which Dreamland

        And under which Manager

        They will not enter even this game is played continuously till next week Sunday

  4. That bench is tough apart from jorginho and maybe nelson there nothing we can throw on if we need to chase a late winner. Nketiah has done a decent job but he’s pretty useless as a sub.

    Might see nwaneri or walters get some game time.

  5. We have to beat W.ham today, i had a look comparing results between City, Liv and us and came across a damning stat. 0 win away against the top 10. Thus far our home form is keeping us afloat but we need to find that last season away form.

    0W 1D 2L for us = 1 pt
    3W 3L for City = 9 pts
    2W 2D 2L for liv= 8 pts

    yes we’ve only played 3 matches compared to 6 for them but we need to start getting those pts on the board before the title race heats up in April and the pressure increases 10 folds. Especially when we have to go to Utd and Spurs in the last 4 matches and both would love nothing more than to ruin our chances.

    1. What is more worrying is that we played only 3 away games against the top 10 teams, Liverpool and City played 6. That alone is an advantage to our rivals.

  6. What a surprise, ESR injured again, yet some of our low IQ fans constantly have a go at MA for not playing him more!

    For the umpteenth time, how can MA risk wasting a starting spot on ESR if he’s forever injured?

    I really hope some club is stupid enough to offer some money for him in the summer

    1. I think if Timber hadn’t got injured and Tomi was fit then Zinch could have been useful in midfield and they could have sold ESR

      But I respect that they wanted to give him a chance coming back from injury …sad to see he just can’t seem to stay fit !

      So yes would make sense to try to sell him rather than he becomes another Diaby !

      Same for Partey

      I think Jesus does enough so they won’t get rid of him.

  7. I don’t like this line-up. Too light in the middle.
    Against a physical, counter-attacking opponent playing at home, I think Jorginho should have played in that midfield instead of Trossard
    I hope I’m wrong
    COYG!

  8. What a terrible line up. Our midfield will be overrun as Ode and Kai are too weak to tackle and easily pushed off the ball. I hope I’m wrong but cannot see us winning.

    1. Definitely time to get rid of
      1. Party
      2. Jesus
      3. ESR
      The 3rd one hurts but you can’t have a squad where players are always out injured. You wouldn’t have this in a pub side let alone a Premier league team

  9. Jorginho carrying an ‘issue’ for a long time if anyone read Artetas psot match interview after Liverpool match which is why he is not starting !

    Partly still out injured and ESR picked up another niggle.

    Zinch Tomi and Timber not available so Kiwior steps in

    So would be very interesting to know who our fans on here think should be playing with such a long injury list !?!?

    2. I actually don’t mind this lineup, Neil. Trossard is more useful in the middle as he is a good finisher and has no pace whatever. Although I’d love to see Havertz up front with Martinelli playing as two genuine strikers.

  10. I’m pleased to see Havertz continuing up front. Trossard in the middle is interesting. He’s technically proficient and has zero pace, so it probably makes more sense than playing him as a winger.

    It is clear though that for all the money that has been spent this team is still a few faces away from being a balanced, winning side. Midfield remains a concern and an area of weakness.

    With the players we have I would like to see us adopt a good old fashioned 442 with Rice and Odegaard in the middle and Havertz up front with Martinelli or Nketiah. Saka on the left and Jesus on the right.

    Bring on the distribution dissenting voices telling me it isn’t 1994 anymore lol

      1. Honestly, I have no idea! I love the work he gets through though. Did you see him Ben Johnson so he played everyone on side for the first goal? Or the chest bump that led to Trossard’s goal. It’s little things like that that seem to go unnoticed by the fans who don’t like him. He could and absolutely should score more goals but he does a lot for the team and probably only Rice, Odegaard, and Jesus actually work harder.

  12. West Ham were poor for conceding that goal. I hope Saliba doesn’t get a rocket for over celebrating what was a free header

  13. Amazing and unamazing! Amazing that White took a throw in, in ONE SECOND!!! Unamazing, that we are one nil up, deservedly!

  14. Now if that ball wasn’t offside then a penalty must be given and a red card given to the GJ – not a yellow

    2. Is the double jeopardy rule still in effect – I hope it is, and it was rightly not a red card if so. Great play to get saka through

    3. They rarely give a red to Gk if the foul is in the box. It’s red if it’s outside the box but yellow and a penalty inside

    4. Not so Sue. SAKA was running away from the goal sideways and that is a yellow and of course the correctlly given pen too!

      Best perf for God knows how many years past!!

  16. Always great to see a CB scoring! Well done Saliba!

    We were struggling again with the low block so needed that!

    Saka needs to really work on heading, missed a few easy chances in the last couple of weeks, it will really help him being better rounded.

  19. West Hams marking in their box is some of the worst I’ve seen in year….great to see us making it count!

  20. West Ham have hardly offered any resistance at all. I’m not complaining of course!
    And another one from Trossard after Gabriel scored. At this rate we may catch City to go second on goal difference 😊

  21. West ham haven’t looked great, but this was a fixture that concerned me still as they’ve had the upper hand recently and they’re one of those sides who can make home advantage count. Really good scoreline so far

  23. A highly entertaining game and Arsenal trashed West Ham, but they missed four clear-cut chances

    Trossard’s long passes were very accurate and incisive. It was like watching Xabi Alonso playing false-nine

  24. We could’ve easily been 0-7 up by now, if we’d taken all our chances. Hope we don’t ease off in the second half.

  27. Sweet revenge, I wouldn’t mind more Arsenal goals in the second half.

    And don’t tell me West Ham has been poor, that’s absolute bullshit! And I don’t give a f**k

      2. And who made West poor? I guess WHU weren’t poor in the last few meetings against Arsenal when they were scoring against us for fun, but have suddenly become poor against us all of a sudden. By your logic, opposition teams must play poorly, while we must be brilliant to win.

  28. And to think some thought we’d miss Jorginho today πŸ™‚

    As Davi says, Rice’s set pieces have been brilliant…top quality!

    No excuse to not give some other players game time in this kind of match, especially Nwaneri! Should hopefully be getting minimum of 30 mins

    1. We should go for the jugular, 3 more goals and we go above City on GD. Could be important later in the season and dead the blunt attack narrative.

      1. Think 4 goals is more than enough to blunt that narrative.

        Better to have a well rested squad and to keep your whole squad match fit.

        1. Maybe think there is a psychological and narrative from media/rivals aspect that means getting to 7-0 or ideally 8-0 would be preferable. Nwaneri is on so hopefully he gets one of them. Be our highest away win in history too.

  29. We are trashing them … They are not poor… We are far far far superior. Give this coach and this team their flowers.

    3. Liverpool were made to look average last game, now West ham are made to look relegation fodder when they are 8th and would of been 6th with a win. Credit where credit is due

      1. Are you whining about whining? 🀣 your attitude to our Arsenal academy is disgusting

        Imagine being an Arsenal fan, being 5-0 up, and not wanting to see a player like Nwaneri getting 30 mins….pathetic!

    2. Maybe 1 of the youngsters but usually the team should stay the same or with the first team players.

      If we would blood in 3 youngsters and we would concede few goals, it would shatter their confidence.

      I want to see Nwaneri please!

    3. Couldn’t say who deserves it the most – a number of candidates. Saka for his two goals or rice for his goal and two set piece assists probably, but odegaard, trossard and havertz were all excellent.

  38. This was an absolute dismantling. If someone says the opposition was poor then they should just quit supporting this team. We have been putting some high numbers the whole season but no goals. A lot of our matches should have ended like this … This kind of result is inevitable, was a matter of when not if it would ever. So happy so so happy 😊

    1. exactly it was long coming given how much we have battered some teams this season only our terrible finishing preventing it

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