- West Ham host Arsenal on Sunday at the London Stadium
- The Hammers are in the relegation zone and one point from safety
- The Gunners are closing in on the Premier League title
When it comes to West Ham United’s match against Arsenal on Sunday, there is no sugarcoating the challenge at hand. As Konstantinos Mavropanos has stated, there is just one viable option: survival is at stake, and there is no room for error.
The in-form defender issued a statement on the club’s official website that cuts through the clutter of pressure and permutations as the club enters the weekend in the relegation zone, one point from safety.
“We will go for it because that’s the only option,” he said, which sums up the atmosphere in the camp ahead of one of the pivotal games of the season.
“It’s a big game, but I think we are as hungry as they are, obviously for different things, but it’s a game that we have to go for it.
“It’s one positive and really important that we play two games at home because we need our fans and their energy in these moments as well to push us.
“Right now, I think it’s getting tough. It’s not in our hands, but the only thing that we have to do is to keep fighting, because it’s football; you never know what’s going to happen, and once we give everything we have and get the best out of these three games, then we will see where the table will be in the end.”
Arsenal reunion culminates defining season for Konstantinos Mavropanos
Sunday’s match has a personal edge for Mavropanos as well. The Greek defender is familiar with some members of the opposition as a former Arsenal player, spending two years at the club under Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta before being loaned out and sold, then rebuilding his career with VfB Stuttgart.
It was only at the start of the season, when Mavropanos didn’t play the first two games of the campaign under then-coach Graham Potter, that his future in East London looked in doubt. Now, after an April where he was nominated for the Premier League Player of the Month, he enters West Ham’s run-in as the in-form player in Nuno Espírito Santo’s squad.
“With these games, when you really show the effort to the fans and give back to them by winning games, then you can feel the energy from them, and the atmosphere at the London Stadium was incredible in the last couple of games as well,” said the 28-year-old.
“You feel the connection, and you’re just trying to give more and more to the team and to the fans because they deserve it as well.
“They’ve been there through the whole season, and they just try to help us from their side as well, so these moments are special.
Mavropanos will be tasked with handling the refined threat of striker Viktor Gyokeres, who has aided Arsenal’s charge for the Premier League title in recent weeks, but as he has gradually shown this season, the Greek relishes the battle.
