Arsenal-West Ham: Preview and Probable Team

It's been an eventful week for Arsenal on the pitch. First, they had a great 3-0 win away to Man City last Sunday to take second place from them in the league. Then they traveled to Newcastle on Wednesday night and beat them 4-0 in the Carling Cup with a team that had nine changes from the one that beat Man City.

There were a lot of positives to be drawn from those games, such as the return to fitness and goalscoring of both Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner.

We also saw very good performances from Lukasz Fabianski and Wojceich Szczesny in goals in both of those games and it's making most Arsenal fans feel a little better about the goalkeeping options.

With Manuel Almunia still out with his elbow injury, they are getting the feeling that Fabianski is eventually living up to the manager's opinion of him. We have also seen that his deputy is more than capable of filling in for him if needed.

West Ham are the visitors to the Emirates this afternoon, and with them sitting on the bottom of the league table, nothing short of a win will suffice.

There seems to be a pattern in Arsenal's home games whereby the opposition defends with every player and Arsenal misses a host of early chances before falling behind to the first decent effort on goal from the opponents.

It usually happens somewhere between 30 minutes and halftime and Arsenal then spends the rest of the afternoon trying to claw back that goal before looking for a winner. 

Wouldn't it be nice if Arsenal came flying out of the traps and banged-in two or three goals in the first 20 minutes like they did in seasons gone by? It would make the afternoon so much easier for the armchair supporter, or in my case, the supporter sitting in The Strand in Bray with the rest of the Wicklow Gunners.

They certainly have the ability to do that and I have a funny feeling that this could be the game where it happens.

West Ham have conceded 17 goals so far in the league this season and only scored seven and they are the type of team that should be handed a thrashing to. Their defense has looked very poor and Arsenal need to keep that defense under pressure all the time.

The manager will probably keep faith with most of the team that beat City 3-0 on Sunday with the possible exception of fit-again Laurent Koscielny for Johann Djourou. There is, of course, a case for including Theo Walcott as well as he looked so good on Wednesday night and he is scoring goals for fun this season when plays.

If Walcott were to play the most likely player to miss out would be either Denilson or Andrei Arshavin. If Arshavin doesn't play it would mean Nasri will play on the left with Walcott on the right, but if Denilson doesn't play I would imagine that Nasri would play alongside Cesc in the middle. 

Whichever team the boss picks, we all know that they have to play with the correct tempo and passion and go at West Ham as if their lives depended on it. I feel far more confident with Fabianski in goal than I did with Almunia after the Pole's recent performances. Sometimes in these games it's a matter of the goalkeeper keeping his concentration, as he has very little to do and, to me, it looks like Almunia drifts a little sometimes.

With Cesc Fabregas and Nasri pulling the strings, Arsenal have enough creativity in the team to carve open the West Ham defense and it's just a matter of putting some of those chances away.

They've already had nine penalties this season and that's a far cry from last season when they couldn't get a penalty at all after the controversy of the Eduardo "dive" against Celtic.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Arsenal get another penalty, and if we do it will be interesting to see who takes it. Cesc missed one last week and Arshavin is usually next in line after him but Nasri has taken a few already this season and dispatched them with ease.

Before last week's game Arsenal had only one clean sheet in eight league games, but if they can get another one today, it will be three in 10. That's not too bad, but it's still not good enough and they still have a lot of work to do on the defensive side.

With that in mind, I would imagine that Alex Song will continue his policy of pushing forward at every opportunity again today and that will leave our defense just a little bit exposed at times.

That's one of the reasons I think Koscielny will play as his anticipation is very good and they will need him to cut things out before they get a chance to develop too much.

I'm predicting a 3-0 win for Arsenal, and since it's a home game, I think Marouane Chamakh will notch a goal as well as Cesc. Cesc has come in for some rough treatment in the last couple of games and it will be interesting to see if West Ham decide to dish out some more to him today.

I've made Cesc the captain of my fantasy team and I hope I haven't jinxed him too much. If you're interested in my opinion on the outcome of all the Premier League games for this week you can see them here.

New Contracts?

In other news, it would appear that the club are in discussions with Szczesny over a new contract. His contract is up in the summer and the boss said that he wants to extend it and the club want him to sign up too, so hopefully it will all work out.

There are also stories of Jack Wilshere, who is still suspended today, being in discussions about a new five-year contract, too. Let's hope that Wilshere stays for those five years and many more to come as he has the potential to be a sensational player.

And Finally

For anyone going to the game, I hope you have a great time and realize how lucky you are to see our heroes in the flesh while the rest of us Arsenal fans are watching on the TV or tuned into an Internet stream that's a minute or so behind.

I'd love to be in one of the pubs in the streets around the stadium before and after the game, but the way things are going it doesn't look likely this season. That won't stop me from following Arsenal with everything I have and writing about them almost every single day.

It's not always an easy thing to do while trying to lead a normal life and the first thing to lose out is usually sleep. With that in mind, I'm looking forward to the arrival of official wintertime and a little extra sleep tomorrow morning.

I will of course have a full review of the game tomorrow and don't forget to tune in and see what you think of my opinions on the game. Finally for today, don't forget to make any changes you need to in your fantasy teams before the deadline this morning.

See you tomorrow.