West Ham United vs. Arsenal: How the Gunners Should Line Up in London Derby

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have no time to think about their fingernail-killing 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers. They will get right back to action in a London derby against West Ham United.

Luckily, Arsenal do not have to travel much, which will hopefully make the quick bounce-back a bit easier. The New Year's period is the busiest of the season for any English club, and the Gunners are not in a good position to weather the storm.

They are still missing key players such as Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny and Mikel Arteta, while Olivier Giroud lost his mind against QPR so he will serve a three-match ban.

As a result, Wenger is somewhat hamstrung. He would obviously like to rotate his squad to prevent the sorts of mistakes that fatigued players make, but he has very few options.

All of the aforementioned players are due to return in the next couple of weeks or so, but only Koscielny has even the faintest chance of making the squad on Sunday.

Wenger has not yet given his pre-match press conference, so us laypeople do not know if there were any injuries against QPR or if anyone is suddenly ahead of schedule.

But we can still guess who the manager will start, based on his starting XI yesterday and overall patterns. Let's take a look at the possible lineup.

via lineupbuilder.com

One might notice that it is in many ways similar to the team Wenger fielded against QPR, but there are a few notable exceptions.

First, it is assumed that Koscielny will pass his fitness test and come back into the team. Even if the medical staff rules him to be more or less fit, barely capable of playing, at risk of getting re-injured or some other equivocation, Koscielny is likely to play because of the tremendous threat that Andy Carroll poses to Arsenal's fragile back line.

The defense has been immeasurably better with Koscielny in it, and Arsenal have looked dangerously vulnerable to tall physical center forwards with full-backs in the center of defense. Carroll is the epitome of the bullish English striker, and he could potentially shred the Gunners' back four.

If Koscielny returns, however, Arsenal will have their full first-choice defense for the first time in months.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

There probably will not be any changes in midfield, barring Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's return to fitness. He is not listed in the injury section of Arsenal's website, but he did not make the 18-man squad against QPR so one wonders if he will be healthy enough to start in a mere two days.

Mathieu Flamini and Santi Cazorla will be strained by the effort of playing so many games, but Wenger has little choice in playing them. Tomas Rosicky is 34 and just played in the QPR match, but he did not play the full 90 minutes and has barely seen action this season.

Wenger does have a bit of flexibility up front, though.

He could play Alexis Sanchez at striker and shunt Danny Welbeck to the left wing, as he appeared to do after Giroud was sent off. While the two can and will rotate throughout the match, Arsenal clearly operate better with a large focal point up front and Welbeck is better suited to that role.

At any rate, Alexis is a much better winger than Welbeck, and Arsenal would get the most out of both players by playing them at left wing and striker, respectively.

Giroud's absence opens a space in the team that has Theo Walcott's name all over it.

Only Wenger and his staff know whether the Englishman is ready to make his first start since tearing his ACL almost a year ago, but this seems like the perfect opportunity for him to return to the starting XI.

Everyone who might otherwise compete for a spot in midfield or on the wings is out, with the exception of Lukas Podolski. Walcott is not even that much of a defensive liability, and the pace of him and Alexis would allow the Gunners to sit back and counterattack much more effectively than they have.

It will be interesting to see what Wenger comes up with, and how much he rotates his squad (which he seemingly hates to do). He would do well to consider giving one of his most dynamic players at least an hour of action.

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