Mark Lawrenson has tipped West Ham to land a surprise blow on Premier League leaders Arsenal on Boxing Day, claiming the loss of Gabriel Jesus will prove vital.
The Gunners currently sit five points clear of Manchester City at the head of the table, and have looked thoroughly impressive domestically so far, but they will need to deal with their return to action after a break without their main attacking outlet in Jesus.
The Brazilian suffered an injury in training whilst at the World Cup in Qatar, and has no return date pencilled in at present, which is a cause for concern for the home side. Lawrenson goes as far as to claim that they could suffer their first home defeat since New Years Day.
“Gabriel Jesus is out for a while and that will be a big loss for Arsenal,” he told PP News.
“I’m going to go for an upset here and go 2-1 to West Ham. All that momentum that Arsenal built up before the World Cup counts for nothing now because of the layoff.
“I just think that David Moyes would have taken the break as a pre season and he will have worked them really hard so I’ll go with the upset.”
I’m not quite sure how much thought he has put into this decision, but given that West Ham have their own injury issues to deal with, on top of the fact that they have struggled to win many games throughout the campaign thus far. We have won without Jesus however, and I would be surprised if we was to suffer such an untimely defeat.
Is anyone else overly worried about the Boxing Day clash?
Patrick