We have a bit of a chequered recent history against West Ham.
Sometimes, we will turn up there and blow them off the park, making them look every inch the average team they are. Take last season’s 6-0 demolition at the London Stadium for example.
That result came in February this year, at the height of our challenge for the Premier League title, and was a contest so one-sided it was basically settled within the opening 20 minutes.
However, go back barely six weeks prior to that win – to December 2023, and you find that same West Ham side managed to take all three points away from the Emirates in a 2-0 win that really soured our Christmas period. And, just a month prior to that, the Hammers took a 3-1 win back to east London in the Carabao Cup.
That run of three matches, despite taking place over such a short period, really sums up our recent relationship with West Ham. They are an enigma of a side, spectacularly inconsistent, but sometimes capable of producing a result from seemingly nowhere.
There is no room for the banana skin this time around. We need to be the version of Arsenal that brings out the version of West Ham that utterly capitulates.
The baffling thing about that is, it really shouldn’t be hard. They are a squad that is all over the place this season again, languishing down in 14th with just four wins from 12 matches played.
At the same time, they are so inconsistent, you can’t reliably predict what sort of West Ham you’re going to face. Within the last month, the Hammers were taken apart by Nottingham Forest and scraped a draw at relegation-threatened Everton, only to then go up to Newcastle (a place where we constantly toil) and collect three points and a clean sheet.
Just being an onlooker is frustrating enough, I can’t image what it’s like being a fan.
The reality is, however, we need the best version of Arsenal to turn up because, with an eight-point gap to Premier League leaders Liverpool, we can’t afford to slip up.
Thankfully, we find ourselves in good form at the moment, coming into the match on the back of dominant wins over both Nottingham Forest and Sporting CP, games which we really did look like a team that is pushing at the top end of the table.
If – and it is a sizeable ‘if’ – we play anywhere near as well as we have done in those two matches, there really shouldn’t be much of an argument. We’re simply a better side than West Ham.
On if it will be an impossible battle to catch Liverpool this season, Mikel Arteta said:
Well if they continue that way, that’s for sure. The numbers they’re producing, the number of games they’re winning. But again, it’s just the focus is on us and maintaining the consistency, especially in performances that’s going to give us the right to win a lot of games, keep the availability in the squad, keep everybody together and this is a long run.
As the manager alludes to here, it’s clear from now that we’re going to need a little luck. Not just with results but also with injuries because we’re coming off the back of a tricky spell in which players have been in and out of the side. That has undoubtedly impacted us.
Now, if we can keep a settled squad over a busy Christmas period, we stand a good chance of at the very least staying in contention, if not making up a little ground.
Nothing can be taken for granted, though, especially not the next game. We have to beat the teams put in front of us and that starts with West Ham today. Our margin for error is razor thin.
A word on team selection, I wouldn’t expect to see anything different from the side that started against Sporting. The manager would be bold to opt for rotation given how well the squad performed but, any injuries notwithstanding, I don’t think there’s too much cause for change. That said, the games start coming thick and fast now, roughly once every three days from here, so perhaps the manager will find cause to tweak one or two things tonight.
As ever with Mikel, we won’t know for certain until the team sheet is published!
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