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Confirmed Teams for tonight’s London derby between Arsenal & West Ham

The teams are out for tonight’s clash between Arsenal and West Ham, with the winner claiming fourth until the weekend.

The Gunners have had a major upturn in fortunes from the opening weeks of the campaign, when we were sat rock bottom after three matches, and could now move into the Champions League places just 14 matches later.

West Ham cannot be taken lightly however, representing the fourth best team in the league so far this season, and have proved in recent weeks that they can beat the best in the division, knocking Chelsea off top spot with a 3-2 win, whilst also beating Liverpool by the same scoreline just a month ago.

We will be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tonight, after he was dropped as captain, but we did just fine in his absence at the weekend, and want more of the same tonight.

Is this the ideal team to deal with West Ham? What score are you predicting after seeing the teams? Should Smith Rowe have walked back into the team?

Patrick

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Tags Arsenal v West Ham West Ham

100 Comments

  3. We are strong at home, it’s all about taking our chances tonight and we are going to have to score at least 2 goals…

  4. every time xhaka is in the lineup you’ve got to wonder if it’s this game, or the next game he’s gonna get a red card and cost us points

  6. Xhaka and Odergaard in the same team against an athletic WH, is hard to see working. Esr on bench is very strange and i will be interested to see how this team performs against a very strong WH. NOT hopeful but hey ho!!

  8. I’d prefer Tavares to start, because West Ham tend to score from set-pieces and Tavares’s height will be an asset in aerial duels

    I also wanted Smith-Rowe to start, because he is excellent in interception and good in the air as well

    But Tierney and Martinelli have to be rewarded since they produced assists against Soton

      1. Tierney played well as a CB in Scotland’s three-CB formation

        I’m not too worried about how he handles crosses during open play, but it would be nice if we have a six-footer in defending set-pieces

  10. Eddie has played 57 senior games 7 goals scored has had his chances balogun gets 2 1/2 games not good enough arteta pigheaded.. Xhaka to get cleaned out in midfield 2nite…COYG

  13. We could have put out a better line up, but I hope we win with it. To me Xhaka is a liability and Arteta keeps picking him even though Xhaka is one of the most one paced players we have. Lets hope Martinelli has a blinder and ESR comes on and has a blinder.

    1. Wow! You made an accurate “hoping” prediction in your last statement😀@Sean Williams Can you just hope we get a league title win this season or is it already beyond our reach??

      1. OTS, if Sean hopes it, it will happen.
        Maybe next season as the team gels playing together.
        Nice one Sean on your hopefulness. Keep it going.

      1. Doesn’t change the fact that Vieira is doing really well for a young manager with a low budget and relatively average squad….or do you think he’s been poor since taking over?

  15. Funny enough, we might win. And 90% will be Arteta in again. I’m not losing focus, I still do not believe Arteta is the right manager for this football club even if we win tonight. Period.

    1. The first part of what I predicted is happening. We’re leading. Just wait till we win and the Arteta in brigade kicks in full effects, despite that we still see the same poor football. They will tell us, we beat westham who beat man City, Liverpool and Chelsea.

  17. Really nice to see Ramsdale given the freedom to choose when he can play long based on the situation he sees.

    Still feel sorry for Leno that wasn’t granted that freedom, would’ve conceded a lot less.

      1. Do they call it the “”honest” category?🤣

        People are also quick to forget Leno had to do it with the likes of Holding, Bellerin, Mari, Cedric.

        Disclaimer for the emotional: I’m not saying Leno is better than Ramsdale

        1. Something like that mate 😂
          Apparently it’s an agenda if you talk against the magician manager .
          Like you said being honest is frowned upon on here .

  20. Tierney needs to come off for Tavares, you can see he’s not match fit at all.

    Is Xhaka playing? Invisible

      1. I will agree with you. The game against Spurs especially that first half was prolly the best of Artetaball till now, alongwith Man City semi of FA cup 2020.

  22. Some very good performances in the first half, from both sides though I think we edged it. Ødegaard is really growing into this team, him and Tomiyasu have been outstanding. Saka, Martinelli and Laca have also worked their socks off.

  23. Arsenal were too afraid to take risk in the first twenty minutes, then they took control. There were too many fake fouls from both teams, to earn free kicks

    I think our front three will produce at least one goal in the second half

  24. Some coherent action from our players. Saka seems to be on some good stuff, he has been good so far on that right flank along with Ode and Tomi. But I feel somehow as if this game needs ESR. Gabi also has done good work but should have buried that chance. Some good work by Partey too, and Xhaka seems to have taken a directive role. Hope everything clicks together in the second half.
    Before I forget, good showing by Laca too.

    2. You must be kidding me.. Calling that awful… One of best half so far this season… Everyone was up to it from the get go

      1. Very dirty 🤣 half of Brazil will consider this game won already just on that alone, regardless of the end score.

        1. Been saying it for 18 months about him sue ,love the player ,best youngster I’ve seen in 10-15 years at Arsenal ,should have been given more minutes before hand but we keeped hearing he was injured 😂
          Fair play to Emery and edu on this one .

  30. Laca acting like he got snipered, very embarrassing.

    Bit of a harsh penalty and def not a 2nd yellow even if deemed to be a foul.

  31. Let Martinelli take it FFS
    Defender took the ball so maybe that’s karma
    VAR is a joke let’s be honest .

  33. Antonio running hard at Martinelli, nervous for a possible red card coming for us….just 1 mistimed tackle.

    Possibly time for a change

  34. Has anyone else noticed that Xhaka doesn’t take long range shots anymore. Do you think we are moving into Arden’s walk the ball into the net territory.

  36. Anyone know why Eddie plays over Balogun?

    He said he wants to run his contract down and Flo signed a new one so cant quite figure it out.

    Even if Eddie impresses his value is so low with 6 months left on his contract that we might get 1mil more if he plays really well and sold in Jan

    1. Very good question!

      I also don’t understand why MA is playing Nketiah over Balogun as it doesn’t make sense in the long term to invest on Nketiah.

      The only explanation I can think of is that MA is in a short term “survival mode” as he knows a large enough section of fans want him sacked. If he doesn’t get results this month there will be enormous pressure on owners to get rid of him.

  43. That combination though. If they solidify this understanding and improve on many more things, teams will be in soup in a couple of years.

  45. I need to screenshot our top 4 on the table tonight
    I haven’t forgotten Everton but I’ll manage the win tonight

  47. Massive win. To be honest I was fearing this but it was a really good performance. Thought Antonio was going to cause us real problem, particularly for White, but we handled him well as a team.
    In Saka, ESR and martinelli we have three players right on the cusp of being top class.
    Shame about the red card – never a foul and shocking that still happens with VAR. I’d rather we’d have won it against 11.

    2. Why didn’t the referee go and have a look at the video?
      This is all on today’s referee and not VAR as a system.

  49. Great Martinelli goal. My internet went down in the middle of the second half, so had to listen on Talksport. The 3 musketeers Bukayu Saka, ESR and Martinelli must be starters. Saka MOM. Well done lads.

  50. No matter if you’re Arteta in or out, you gotta admit today Arsenal didn’t just win but played very good football.
    Lacazette was dribbling like he was on steroids today. But who’d like to bet he gets his new contract and then starts scoring own goals? Lol
    Why does Xhaka keep playing??

    1. Mate, even after that performance from everyone, you’re still picking on Xhaka?
      Why does Xhaka play?
      Since nobody will say it, Partey’s been playing much better since Xhaka came back

      1. He gave away the ball. He’s horrible at recovering the ball. He obviously doesn’t have pace to recover and provide protection in counter attacks. He can’t dribble. He can’t push forward with the ball. He can’t provide incisive passes.
        And no Partey hasn’t improved much either. Xhaka should not be starting.

  51. Shame Martinelli wasn’t given more minutes last season maybe we would have finished higher than 8th if the manager trusted him more rather than excuses we keep hearing about him being injured .
    Fair play to Emery and edu bringing this star through just a shame it wasn’t earlier .
    Even had fans on here saying maybe he is t as good as we think 🤔
    Klopp said it best when he spoke about him .
    2 matches in a row now MOTM .
    Shining light in a very bad team set up for me .

    1. For last season we can give Arteta the benefit of the doubt since Martinelli was injured and they didn’t want to take a risk.
      It’s a mystery why he didn’t slot into the team earlier this season.

    2. Dan
      He didn’t get a lot more minutes under his belt last season because he was fragile and injured.
      I am not interested about last season, its all about this season so let’s stay positive and hope we can carry tonights passion, performance and attitude in to the rest of the season

  52. *Weird, how when we lose everybody and their uncles barber comes out to take a dump on the manager and players. When we win, meh…IJS 🤔

  53. So u expect fans to worship the team when they lose winnable games. It is what it is, we won & every fan is happy. What else do you want?

  54. Loved the second goal – great work all round. Loved the first, too to be honest
    Thankfully no hangover from all the difficulties of the last couple of days.

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