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Confirmed Arsenal team to take on West Ham in London Stadium derby match

Unai Emery has named his team for his first ever trip to the London Stadium as Arsenal boss.

The Gunners will be looking to build back to winning form after a tough December in which they failed to win three matches, and last week’s 4-1 win over Fulham may have been a little flattering.

The Hammers do not come here in the best of form, and we should be able to use this game to build back the kind of momentum which saw us go for months almost four months undefeated.

Looking at the line-ups Emery is keen to give his defence extra back-up, much like Antonio Conte did two seasons ago, and has opted for a back five, although the likes of Sead Kolasinac and Ashley Maitland-Niles will be expected to aid strongly in attack out wide as well as in defence.

Is this going to be Emery’s favoured formation or is this just the manager trying to make the most of an injury-ravaged, unfit squad after a tough festive period?

Does the teamsheet assure you that the result is going to go our way or does it appear too defensive to fill such confidence?

Pat J

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123 Comments

  1. Torreira on the bench for protection against yellow since our next match is Chelsea… I’d love him to get the yellow against Chelsea, Miss Cardiff game and come back with a clean slate against Manchester City.. Niles as WB again. I wonder if he’ll ever get the chance at his proper position. This Koscienly against Arnautovic scares me.
    I’m going for a 3-1 win to Arsenal

    1. Eddie I think you will find that all bookings were wiped off at the end of the year so Torreira has no bookings to worry about. Why the hell him and Mavrapanos are not playing is beyond me.

      1. Torreira I don’t know about the card being wiped off.. Mavropanos?? No way he should be thrown straight at the wolves after a long time on the sideline, he needs to be slowly integrated back into the team..I guess it would start with him playing for the under23 first

        1. Eddie can you imagine how we’ve played against West Ham, it is heart wrenching! There is no balance in the team, we have been outplayed in all departments. Am truly sad.

    1. Who needs Ozil when we have players who creates chances that ends up in the hand of the opposition goal keeper. We are loosing it gradually, no creativity, woeful conners, miserable defence. And we can only call on a player that is on his way out of the club. Shambles!!!

  4. We need to make the signings we need ASAP. also, how true are the rumours linking us to carrasco? We need to sign a top defender this January. And A player for the futur, Samuel Chukwueze from Villarreal. He is interesting.

      1. Weak ass looking bench aswell .
        So Ramsey’s off and he gets a place on the bench ,dosnet make sense to me and what’s happened to smith Rowe ?

        1. It is especially when I saw Lichtsteiner was sat on it!!
          He was injured, not sure if he’s returned to training… fancy Mesut being left out completely… what a joke…. no doubt it’ll be his fault if we do end up losing!!

      2. Emery confirmed to Press Association that Ozil is fit and well but left out for “tactical “ reasons.
        Perhaps he’s been urged to rest Torriera and just give him half hour or so if needed.

        1. He’s fit & well but left out for tactical reasons??? Oh Jesus Declan… just play him!!! Our highest paid player left out – what a joke

  7. xhaka the new ramsey … beginning to lose my patience with this guy … for sure kroenke is the biggest problem right now with AFC but Emery has yet to persuade me that he has a footballing philosophy that can take us beyond the lost decade of 2008 to 2018 … this is probably amongst the most plodding midfields i can remember in a long time … xhaka amn and gundozi would be hard pressed to finish ahead of a pack of turtles in a 100m dash … just hoping they dont show up and their strike force has other things on their mind

    1. Please gives AMN a chance.He hardly plays in his original position.Hes not a WB,RB,LB,RW or LW.He was the MOTM at Old Trafford playing in his original position.He’s a really talented player who’s being used all over the pitch due to versatility.Its annoying how such a powerful midfielder who has completely everything has not been partnered with Torreira.There is basically no significant weakness in his game.He is a truly possible world class player

      1. AMN said it himself that his position is a winger. Quote was him speaking to Skysports and article was on the Mirror. ?
        “I like to think of myself as a winger at 25-years-old, starting every week for Arsenal , scoring and assisting goals.”
        “I don’t feel like I’m there. I’m still young and I have a lot of learning to do.”

        1. No sign in this game that he is anything other than a very average player … Midfield has no creativity and with Iwobi as the creative attacker we just don’t look like a little top European side anymore

          2. Iwobi
            AMN
            Guendouzi
            Xhaka

            All lower to mid table players imho, but at
            least there collective talent is a more
            honest reflection of the clubs current and
            future ambition.

            SMMFH

          3. Youre judging him based on this match?Even against Livepool where he had the beating of the much praised Robertson I still maintain that the guy is not a winger.Put Guendouzi or Xhaka there and see how they fair.It is assumed that he has speed,power and dribbling ability so because of that it makes him versatile but they have not factored style of play into using him.I stick to my word he has no significant weakness to his game and shall be Torreira’s best partner if given the chance to prove himself at CM.You don’t dominate Pogba and Utd in a losing match and say it’s normal for a young player.

        2. That the fact that he sees himself as a winger does not mean he is or he will do well there.His best match has come at CM against Utd.He is not suited to play at the wings because his style of play is nothing like a winger.He can dribble and has speed but is nothing like a winger.Hes a young guy so he needs guidance.Clearly if even you watch him he looks absolutely nothing like a RB,LB,RW,LW or anything else of that form.He’s clearly a powerful box to box player who is very good at defending.

      2. Hope u r right certainly another player not given a consistent run … Not convinced that he has the full arsenal of skills for a top midfielder but could b wrong so Thought he should have been given a run at a top championship,side this season …

  8. The back three is fragile at best and the incomparable Lichsteiner is back up.The sooner young Mav is match fit the better. My back three would be Sokratis, Mav and Monreal.Scoring draw on the cards.

    1. Mav is unproven and far too risky
      Koscielny is former World Class defender but his experience is invaluable and more valuable than Mavs inexperience. Koscielny May not be world class anymore but he is FAR from terrible. Also he is 1 of 3 CB plus two wide backs plus Guendouzi and maybe Torreira later. Enough defenders out there. Koscielny should be fine

      Mustafi not sure about.

      1. Mavropanos is overrated. Last time he was on the pitch vs Leicester an inept, last-man challenge from him saw him receive a straight red for bringing down a player. Made a host of other blunders in that game as well so am not sure why guys trust him so much.

  9. Kolasinac has been a revelation in his new role.
    I just wonder what will become of Ozil – he has a great technical ability but there are issues there with his attitude.
    OK we cannot spend money this window – I would love to know why that is. I understand the whole January window is a madness with inflated price tags on players, but this does not send a good message out, especially to season ticket holders…
    I would love to see our youth players be played more often – Smith-Rowe, Saka, Sheaf and Nelson when he returns. Saka is being tased about as the next big thing…

    2. No…kola has been poor in most games this season, can’t defend and only good overlapping but many times, he slows the play down by going ba k. defensively, he is atrocious.

  10. Emery is becoming more annoying with his tactical reasons for not playing Ozil. It’s obvious to the blind that he doesn’t like him. If you won’t play a player like Ozil for tactical reasons, at worst you’ll put him on the bench, how do you know how things will turn out in the course of the match.

    Against Bournemouth that he didn’t play him at all, we could have used his creativity to create more chances to extend our lead, but we found ourselves defending a one goal lead against a small team like we’re on our with each other.

  13. I’ve said it before, in this present very physical league, a Manager who’s serious cannot have Ozil as a starter
    Even the most technical team in the league which is Man City, can u see the amount of pressing Guardiola demands of them
    He’s highly technical, but he won’t even fit into the most technical team
    But YES, at least he should be on the bench

  16. If Emery continues to start players like Iwolbi , AMN, Arsenal will soon drop to the mid table !

    1. Aubemayang has been utterly shite … But this is an empty team all round .. The only ones that deserve any mention are gundozi lacazette and sokratis … The rest can F off as far as I’m concerned average skill minimal effort

  18. Have u ever seen Iwolbi physically fight for the ball ? Or do a proper tackle ? Or intercept ? I haven’t !!!
    Is he more creative than Ozil ? Certainly not ! All I saw was him frequently losing possession, or standing there watching!
    So what bullshit tactical reason u r talking about ???

    1. He runs at the opposition then stops… tbh apart from Laca… all have been pretty poor.. not like we even have a game changer on the bench!

      1. To me Iwolbi is the pussy cat ! More easily bullied off the ball than Ozil ! Most frustrating watching him !

        2. wiser than most fans on this site who apparently cant see that and continue to call for selling ozil and playing this guy … just dont get some fans

        3. No you are all wrong. the coward is Dhaka, can’t defend, his silly wiz balls that invariably slows and puts his defence in trouble. And why the he’ll is merry getting the team to play out of defense? that’s how they scored…bloody xhaka, , that’s been my biggest disappointment with merry so far, he is like Wenger with his favourites…Dhaka, Iwobi now AMN

    2. only in our imaginations would ozil have changed this game. Neither of them are good enough or consistent enough so hardly worth debating.

  22. Iwobi isnt doing badly, stop moaning about this guy and lets support the players on d pitch. Ozil isnt playing doesnt mean he wouldnt play,if he isnt playing so be it, u guys arent coach.
    Our defendind tactics is out of play, we arent demanding for it westharm seems to want it more than us, hope for better 2nd half

    1. Neither r u the coach ! U have no right to stop other fans saying what they feel ! It’s becos of fans like u not being able to differentiate quality , accepting mediocrity, that’s why Arsenal continues to have played like Iwolbi !

    2. If the gready corporate predator who owns this club is not wiling to piggy out a slither of his billions this window fans really need to take a concerted stand against him

  26. Don’t need to watch Emery for another 18 months in hope he will turn things around … He is out of his depth in this company …. But does that go down as an assist to xhaka …this guy is among the worst players I remember at Arsenal among some horrendous options …

  28. What has Emery improved so far? New season starts in 6 months. Hes been here for 6 months and I cant honestly say which areas he has certainly improved. Matter of fact, he somehow has made our defense worse!

  31. No point in having players like Aubameyang and Lacazette or trying to sign new midfielders when we have the defensive calamity we have.
    Emery is blind, stupid or incompetent for not attempting to address these issues – even in the madness of the January window.
    If we lose this and Chelsea beat Newcastle this evening you can kiss the top four goodbye and within it any chance of signing decent players in the summer…
    This is a huge game for us…

    1. top four chances died a while ago. It was pretty obvious a month ago that even if Chelsea drop points, we will drop even more. We won’t be able to catch them, and it’s looking more likely we may end up 6th.

      1. Man Utd will overtake Arsenal.
        They are a good team just had no motivation under Mourinho.
        I would expect if that was the case that Emery should leave – the idea is to improve Arsenal and I have seen no evidence of that so far. In fact, just like previous posters on here we have said, we have actually got worse.
        I never had any faith in Emery – just seems hopelessly out of his depth with the challenge at Arsenal.
        We play like we played last season with no enthusiasm or drive. We would have been better served playing our younger players than this lot..

  35. And our response to going a goal down …..bring on a player who is leaving in the summer .
    Talk about planning for the future

  36. If Emery isn’t a clown I am imagine Ramsey our game changer his fight against Ozil will cost him to lose his job.

    1. Ozil is the problem Unai inherted from wenger and why should he loose his job?
      I am glad we lost today to westham probably we will be active in january, Banega, Suarez, Brahimi, Carrasco, and benatia those are must in this window – Ozil needs to go out even loan deal will be awesome.

  37. There a handful of teams much better than
    West Ham that Arsenal have to go through to
    lift the Europa League trophy.

    This is a soon to be a mid table club with the
    likes of Auba, Laca and Torreria inevitably
    moving on to BIGGER & BETTER clubs.

    Eat a D Silent Stan, you pornstache wearing
    Dbag!!

  39. What is Unai Emery doing with our young players putting them under stress imagine Iwobi,Gwend, and Niles ask to support the movement of lacazette and Auba confused

  40. Time to admit we have dropped out of top tier of Europe and EPL … Fault is the yank for sure but Emery won’t reverse that unfortunately … Fans will either have to accept that is what we have become and swallow the illusion of a big stadium club or work to remove the corporate predator who has brought this about

    1. Sadly a Wolves type response is the only thing
      that would seriously threaten Silent Stans
      current reign of terror at the club but I honestly
      just dont see that happening. AFC has quite
      frankly become an Amusement park type reality,
      where consumers spend an astronomical
      amount of money to be entertained for the day.
      Buying overpriced jerseys, inflated concessions,
      having there pictures taken next to the stadium
      statues has become the pathetic norm, while
      the dwindling army of true gunners wallow in
      seething contempt of there once proud futbol
      club.

      AFC is dead and buried, a shadow of its once
      glorious self and there is only one man to blame
      for it.

  41. Wenger era totally screwed the team. Mishandled contracts, and now we have overpaid clowns like Ozil, Mikhataryan. Other high end purchases like Xhaka and Mustafi. While Ramsey is not great it’s a farce that he is being allowed to leave for free. In today’s market he should have easily sold for at least 25-30m.

    Dark days ahead for Arsenal.

    1. Dark days are already here.
      But there are some on here who believe Arsenal are the force we once were.
      But the results show otherwise.
      Sixth place beckons…

    2. You must be out of depth. Wenger responsible for contracts negotiations? Wenger has since been gone and we couldn’t even sort out Ramsey and he is gone on a free and you are sitting here blaming Wenger. The day you wake up from your slumber you will realize it goes beyond a coach ,,,Wenger in particular, I thought you guys had always said a better coach will get a better out of the players.

  42. What a wonderful season this is turning out to be.
    It is like Wenger has never left.
    You want to be positive about this team.
    You want them to compete and win things but you know that deep down there are only one or two quality players and the rest are just plain average or just journeymen looking for a last big payout.
    Sell or release the dross we have, give youth a chance and spend some money.
    DO SOMETHING.
    I can see this season becoming as toxic and nasty as last season.

  46. I don’t recall a team I’ve watched this season who works less than our lot … Shocking shocking shocking …

  47. Look at the amount of touches Ramsey had to make before he could pass the ball to Kol. That’s why he’s not world class he simply need too much time to make it happen hence the Tank was off side

    1. He’s another average product of wenger era … In just can’t see a solution to this I really can’t … We r trapped in limbo with no way out unless the club is sold

  48. I hope that Emery leaves in the summer.
    This clearly has not worked out at all.
    Arsenal simply do not have the time to see if he can change things around. It needs to be instant and progressive. Arsenal are in decline.
    Nothing has changed…

    2. I personally dont think Emery should be
      exonerated from some esponsibility for the
      current mess that is AFC but what exactly can
      be expected from the man considering the lack
      of ownership support and quite frankly a side
      sans a few players that is Bang on Average in
      talent.

      Which of these current players are honestly good enough to play meaningful minutes for a top
      legitimate top 4 side.

      Boss
      Mustafi
      Xhaka
      Iwobi
      Guendouzi
      AMN
      Lichsteiner
      Monreal

      That’s a third of your first team players that
      AREN’T FREAKING GOOD ENOUGH to be
      playing at a club that supposedly has EPL and
      CL aspirations. A mid table existence and
      Thursday night futbol is the ceiling of the
      current collective talent at the club and the
      sooner passionate Gunners wordwide embrace
      this existing reality the better.

      Emery may not be the answer but he certainly
      isnt the Elephant in the room when it comes to
      Arsenal’s transparent issues.

  49. Truth about Kronke finally being printed, vetted, and fact checked. He’s never been ambitious, even said not interested in titles, never put a penny into the club.

    Simply amazing how one man buys sports clubs yet doesn’t care about sports, and sucks the money and life out of millions of supporters world-wide.

    The transfer budgets he makes available are an embarrassing shambles. I have no confidence in his son Josh either. Same type of bullshit salesman. Stan Kronke more than willing to lie and mislead fans to get their money.

    Our future is dependent on our youth and their development, cause owner is allergic to ambition. Disgusting and so disheartening to be limited by such an miserly owner who considers “ambition” an anathema to his self serving self sustaining bullshit.

    A billionaire wringing hands over millions. That is what we have become. Now we haggle over potential loans for weeks rather than buys.

    1. Not to mention how sheepish we are today. Getting dragged around by West Ham, and looking outclassed to speak honestly. Deserve noting for this game because put in nothing.

      1. The slow passing especially in that second half, that pissed me off more than anything else. And the amount of time we spend passing it about at the back, only one or two players to bypass, but you’d think they needed to thread a needle with how cautionary they are. WHam definitely deserved it, but we didn’t try to force things enough, we made it a little too easy for themselves to hold onto a one goal lead.

  51. Comes to something when with the odd exception WH have a better team than us! We desperately need some more creativity in the team.
    What are we doing as a club? Moving forward? Not so sure.

  52. I’ll leave it to others to talk about the many negatives on today’s match ( although to be fair I thought West Ham to a man put in a shift). Two silver linings for me were Iwobi’s play both on attack and defending (needs to stI’ll improve his final ball) and the first game in awhile that Koscie6looked like he still belongs.

    1. Clutching at straws. .l. Iwobi is no better at defending than ozil … And will never come close on assists … Chickens out of tackles and ambles back which makes it look like he’s working but he doesn’t … If that’s the future of the club we will be playing at Bolton shortly …

  53. Brilliant win for West Ham – thoroughly deserved.
    I just find it very difficult to find anything positive to say about Arsenal – I don’t want to either.
    The premiership season is over now as it has been for the last thirteen years.
    Time to drop the rubbish that consistently let us down and play the youngsters. Give them some playing time. It doesn’t matter now – our season is finished
    At least Emery can do something now that makes sense. Sell Iwobi, Xhaka, Mustafi, Koscelny, Socrates, Lichsteiner and Ozil and play the youngsters.
    Emery is an incompetent liability…
    Well done to West Ham.
    A better managed club than Arsenal…

    1. I agree with your assessment of Emery, he got the job with the promise the board will not spend much, now we are as crappy as Emery. West Ham worked very hard. We couldn’t even play a good Conner.

  54. We are a crap team and crap club now. We must face the reality.
    As long as kronkoe will still in the club we will never win anything or play champion league football.
    THE ONLY ANSWER EMPTY SEATS

  55. Not saying we attack the players but what about a sporting lisbon, or blackpool response? Owen Oystons side as well.

  58. is it the manager or the players?
    I would say, the manager. You have below average players who cannot and will not tackle yet continue to play them Dhaka, mikhi, holding, Ramsey, Iwobi, auba, amn, kola…You chop and change the team, and have not played the same 11 two games in a row. Your tactics are poor yet you do not change them. I said we were lucky in some games at the start but the cracks always appear. We can’t tackle, play 10 passes to move 1 yard AND please with this bunch of defensive players and midfielf, stop playing out of defence.

  60. This season was always going to be tough. 70M spent, sure that gets other teams one player. Emery has to go through the season to find out, if, any are going to be useful in whatever way, or be sold. We aren’t spending in this window, but that is mainly because the better players aren’t for sale, unless you pay over the asking price.

    So the summer we have to wait. We’re trying to be smart about what money we do have. No point bringing in more players who you wouldn’t necessarily want if you had more choice, it will just add to the pile. Fans need to try to ignore the most pessimistic of online users, they simply aren’t real. Yes this hurts, yes it’s a long road, but nothing good will happen if we don’t put in the hard work. I look forward to see what change is made during the summer, our transfer team will have a plan, and I see the Europa as a glimmer of hope for this season.

  61. No coach can do anything at arsenal with such average players. Xhaka again doing what he does every match day,letting us concede stupid goals.
    If Emery doesn’t want to play Ozil,buy another creative player.There is no where we can go as long as we still dependent on Guendozi(very inexperienced) and the mighty Iwobi .
    We either sign new players or else I see another 8 – 0 very soon.

  62. Are you people saying its our owner’s fault we lost today, if the set of players we paraded arent good enough to get a goal against this westharm then they arent worthy of payment of this week wages.
    Arsenal fans luke to find scapegoats especially when they dont like a player, it used to be Giroud d lamp post, now its either ozil or iwobi, am not saying iwobi is wc but if u guys must blame his , you have to blame, lacca, Auba, AMN, kola and especially Gueden ,i believe ,iwobi wastnt worst than the aforementioned.
    UE needs to look for a way to accomodate ozil in the team set up, Gueden cant carry this team, today he put the creative hope on the young man and he mess up, its so frustration, having ozil and iwobi on today would have done us a great deal

  63. Arsenal fans are a biased lot .
    Its like people intentionally skip passed the performances of Aubameyang.
    i dont want to sound cynical but we have been conned by Dortmund once again (Sokratis,Eisfield).Please what are the strengths of Auba because i don’t even see the speed he is claimed to possess . He cant play with his back to goal, he cant hold up play, he doesn’t make runs, he is a bad header of the ball and he is not a good finisher.Yet he is on high wages and cost almost 60 mill. Arsenal lack creativity and leadership . this lot of players wont do it . i hope they can be a summer clear out . Players like Iwobi,AMN,etc have to be surrounded by better players not looked upon to create magic . However juvenile Iwobi’s football is it is direct at least . I tire of the side and back passes .As for Emery i am not a fan but i hve to be hopefully because i am yet to see a style of play or improvements .

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