West Ham will go into their league game against Arsenal for what will be their fourth London opponent in a row, as they look to amend their current poor run of form in which they are winless in eight. The Hammers recent performances have started to contain that end of the season feel to them, and they may go into this game at the Emirates with the intent of damage limitation, as opposed to playing for the three points.
The Irons have not won a game of football since their away win at Bristol earlier on in the Cup, but soon after that became overshadowed by the Sakho Saga and it has gone particularly downhill since then. The season feels deflated and over since the Cup exit to West Bromwich Albion, so the away fans will be hoping to have something to brag about come the final whistle.
Arsenal go into the game off the back of a massive away win at Old Trafford, and manager Arsene Wenger may have a lot of difficult decisions to make with there being a lot of competition for places in his squad. They have also enjoyed a fantastic run of form in the league, which has seen them fly up the standings into third position and not too far off a top two spot. Sam Allardyce will be wishing that his opponents will field a weakened eleven as the Gunners travel to Monaco in midweek in order to overturn their Champions League deficit.
Despite the arrival of Nene, we still face attacking problems up front with the squad beginning to massively be over-reliant on star performer Diafra Sakho. Andy Carroll is out for the season, and Enner Valencia has picked up a foot injury keeping him out of action for at least four weeks. Let us hope for a moment of magic from our boys in North London!
For more pre-game, we spoke with Alex Burns of Read Arsenal ahead of the game for his views on the upcoming game, as well as West Ham on the whole. Check it out.
