West Ham vs Arsenal (A) Match Thread 22.04.2018

Yeoldhammer

Momentum Momentum Momentum. Up nice and Early

3 points against the Saints
1 point against the Blues
1 point against the Potters

Now West Ham travel to Arsenal who are all at sea in the league, with all of their hopes resting on the Europa League to grant them access to the exclusive Champions League Club.

Can West Ham grab the win to push us to safety and another season of premier league football.

There probably has not been a more opportune time for West Ham to play them.

MrsGrey

Which Arsenal will turn up? I hope we get the rubbish one.

PrestonHammer

The trouble is MrsGrey the equally rubbish West Ham is just as likely to turn up.

DJ Hammer

MrsGrey said:

Which Arsenal will turn up? I hope we get the rubbish one.

Hopefully Arsenal will have other priorities, but we’re still good enough to beat them.

Lukerz

Adrian
Rice - Ogbonna - Cresswell
Zabaleta - Noble - Kouyate - Masuaku
Lanzini - Mario
Arnautovic

Hart, Evra, Cullen, Fernandes, Carroll, Hernandez, Hugill

alderz

If we lose against Arsenal nobody is going to criticise Moyes. I think we should just go at them.

Adrian (or Nathan Trott for all I care); Rice Ogbonna Cresswell; Fernandes Kouyate Noble Masuaku; Lanzini; Arnie Hernandez

Adam

It’s Arsenal’s away form that’s rubbish, not their home form. They’ve only lost 2 all season at home compared to 9 away from home.

Guess who those two losses were against? Man City and Man Utd.

This will be very difficult to get anything from.

grey_til_I_dye

Adam

True, but as Alderz says, this is a game we can afford to risk going all out.

MarkNobleLocalHero

I hope Chicharito and Carroll get more time (than last night) as I find the Arsenal defence very unimpressive and those two could get something out of them (as well as Arnie). We have nothing to lose in this one so go for it.

Yeoldhammer

I reckon he will play cautious and play for the point which is the completely wrong thing you want to do against a Fragile Arsenal.

grey_til_I_dye

Arsenal have scored 16 goals in their last 5 home matches, conceding 4. In their last 5 PL games they have scored 18, conceding 7, and 3 of those were against Citeh.

With a lot of players rested, they managed to beat Soton, having fallen behind, and then been pegged back to 2-2.

They aren't really fragile at home

I think we can look to try to get the win, but if we do that by flying at them, leaving space behind, they will flatten us.

madridhammer

MarkNobleLocalHero said:

I hope Chicharito and Carroll get more time (than last night) as I find the Arsenal defence very unimpressive and those two could get something out of them (as well as Arnie). We have nothing to lose in this one so go for it.

I would go one better & even start with the pair of them & rest Arnie. I think Carroll would terrify them & Chicarito should have a game playing off a big striker. Arnie has been amazing but I thought he didn't have one of his better games last night. Him & Lanzini on the bench to bring on if it's not working out.

jay_in_cpt

Ref appointed:
Lee Mason ;doh

Yeoldhammer

Personally think if we don't come flying out the blocks from kickoff and we let Arsenal settle and dictate the game from the off they will just get more and more comfortable and will hit their rhythm.

Arsenal have had some woeful performances and I think if we want to capitalise on their poor form we need to hit them straight from the blocks and be relentless for the first 15-20 minutes, make the crowd edgy and force a few Arsenal mistakes. Out of the teams in the top 6 they are the team that fall apart completely if game plan A doesn't work for them.

grey_til_I_dye

Yeold

But as I said, the poor performances you are referring to relate to Arsenal away, not Arsenal at home.

I think they struggle now to break teams down when they are faced with 2 banks of 4.

I think if we allow them space behind, Aubameyang will think his birthday has come early.

As an alternative to your imagined scenario:

we are relentless for the first 20 minutes leave space behind and Arsenal go 1 up;

trying to chase the game, we leave further gaps, and Arsenal finish us off 3 or 4 - 0.

They went behind 0-1 in their last home game against Soton, and didn't fall apart. They took the lead 2-1, got pegged back to 2-2 and went on to win 3-2, and that was with a team where a lot of players were rested.

Yeoldhammer

Grey I don't think because they are suddenly playing at home their confidence does a 180. They were poor vs Southampton who were unlucky to not take some points, they were dreadful vs Newcastle and almost let a CSKA Moscow back in.

grey_til_I_dye

Well, it has so far this season for Arsenal.

H 2-2 Chelsea - A lost 2-1 Bournemouth
H 4-1 Palace - A L 3-1 Swansea
H 5-1 Everton - A L 1-0 Spurs
H 0-3 Citeh - A L Brighton 2-1
H 3-0 Watford - H 3-0 Stoke
H 3-2 Soton - A L 2-1 Newcastle

Last 5 away PL games, scored 4, conceded 10

Last 5 home PL games, scored 14 conceded 6 (3 to Citeh)

7 home games in 2018 W 5 D 1 L 1

5 away games in 2018 L 5

BubblesNeverDies

That's some prediction Grey, losing 5 away in 2081 ;wink

grey_til_I_dye

I'm sure I don't know what you mean... ;whistle

#ninjaedit

Pearces_Left_Foot

Arsenal are very good at home if you give them an open game I can only see them beating us . Some of our best away performances come from sitting back and counter attacking , also our away form is pretty poor I can only hope they field a weakened team and have a bit of an off day. I have a feeling we battle to and get a draw.

baracks_a_hammer

Well it’s all well and good sitting back and countering them but you only have to look back at December’s effort from us at the Emirates to see that it doesn’t always work in practice. On that day Arsenal made a host of changes, didn’t play well at all, yet we barely laid a glove on them, even after falling behind. It was a truly wretched effort from us - 1 shot all game (off target)

I’m hoping Moyes has a different approach in mind this time round

grey_til_I_dye

baracks

But it worked a week earlier, with a much stronger Arsenal team, who had 70% of the possession and 22 shots, without scoring, and it finished 0-0.

Clearly, there is a balance to be struck, but given how prolific Arsenal have been at home, I think opening the game up would be a recipe for disaster.

baracks_a_hammer

Grey

Whilst I agree that throwing the kitchen sink at them from the off would probably be foolhardy, it should also be noted that virtually every opponent they have faced in 2018 has shown them to have a soft defensive underbelly. I would hate for them to suddenly show they have an iron clad defence the moment we show up.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Can only see us countering, it's how moyes prefers us to lineup...especially at home

Tbf it would be foolish to attack arsenal

Think a big game is needed of Arnie as he will need to get us up the pitch and hold the ball up because I doubt he will have much support for large periods of the game. It's important whoever plays behind him, Lanzini and Mario probably get up and support him when we break

grey_til_I_dye

virtually every opponent they have faced in 2018 has shown them to have a soft defensive underbelly

Tell that to Watford, AC Milan, Stoke or CSKA Moscow.

The differences between their home and away performances are stark, and imo we have to assume they will show their home form, and play them accordingly.

jay_in_cpt

IMO call it blind faith , but it's a " decent " time to face them regardless of their home form.
A few days b4 Europa game can only help us , I'd like to think we could nick a point 1-1

grey_til_I_dye

When we beat them 0-2, we only had 38% possession, and 8 shots to their 22.

Tellingly, we kept them down to 6 shots on target, while we managed 4.

They've lost 2 PL home games all season- Man U and Citeh. They've drawn 2 - Chelsea and Liverpool.

jay, I agree that the likelihood of them resting players gives us a bit more hope, but this is not an Arsenal team 'on the ropes' (at least not when they play at home.)

baracks_a_hammer

Whether it be home or away, those teams prepared to ask questions of arsenal, esp the 2018 version, can have a chance.

Arsenal will be for sure vastly changed for sure with the Europa cup in mind, so I don’t believe our (with Payet) 0-2 is terribly relevant personally

This is more akin to the carabao defeat which was disappointing mainly because it seemed like we couldn’t be bothered to give it a good go

grey_til_I_dye

baracks

Which teams, at Arsenal, in 2018, have asked questions and had a chance?

baracks_a_hammer

Southampton and osterluns?

Lucky no-one told West Brom not to give it a bit of a go at Man Utd because historical stats were against them?

There’s a chance of something v arsenal IMO but not with a carabao approach.

This arsenal side is not in a particularly great place right now (compared to previously)

grey_til_I_dye

baracks

Who said anything about 'not giving it a go?'

I have consistently said simply that I don't think playing an open game will be of any use to us.

And who is using 'historical stats'?

If you can claim that Arsenal are vulnerable in 2018, you can hardly complain if I use the same set of statistics, can you?

And if you are referring to me mentioning our last win there, the point is that we had much less possession, and far fewer shots, but still won.

West Brom had 30% possession, so if they gave it a go, they did it from a position of defensive stabiltiy, and playing conservatively, which is what I am advocating we do against Arsenal.

For me, a draw would be a great result.