West Ham vs Arsenal | Sunday, 2pm - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

West Ham vs Arsenal | Sunday, 2pm

goon

Biggest game of the season since last week.

West Ham played away from home last night, seems like they rotated a fair bit but that doesn't always help much. Either way we should have too much for them going forward and I'm not too worried.

Lets be honest, this is as close to a must win as you can get. Was listening to Lee Dixon talk about how pressure impacts you at this stage of the season and it's probably something we all underestimate. But I'm hoping our ability to score goals will see us over the line here even if our defending has become wobbly.

Eddie is back, doesn't sound like Saliba is.

I'd go with an unchanged line-up from last week.

USArsenal

goon Yeah, i see this as a must win. All of them (besides Cty away) are basically a must win. If we do not get the win here, I truly believe our title chance is done. And we will already know what happened in the City game from Saturday. So either they win and we need to win to maintain our advantage, or they drop points (unlikely) and we will know we need to win to push our advantage further.

At least that's the theory I am going with. Hah.

Don Pacifico

Is Eddie back or is he just in training? Either way, I don't think it should change much about our approach but good to have him as an option.

Saliba not being back is a shame but probably for the best. Part of me doesn't want to risk him this season if the potential repercussions will heavily impact his future for us.

HomeSteak

This and Sotton are must win. We need to go into City with as many points as we can. I trust them to get the job done. Jesus to score again.

lorddulaarsenal

Win the next 3 and it’s looking good bruv

Tam

Nketiah's not got much of a look in for our run in unless someone is injured or seems tired, which we'll hopefully avoid with consistent five day breaks between games. I don't see that he offers us much beyond a squad place now with Trossard pushing Martinelli hard for a first team place and showing he's got Arteta's confidence.

You look at games like this one and on paper we should absolutely be winning them. But at this point in the season where the risk of relegation is starting to really bite for the likes of West Ham, Wolves and Southampton, it makes these games far more tricky than at the mid-point of the season.

Tam

Arteta on injuries

"William is still not available but he is progressing well. We hope to have him in the next couple of weeks, but we will see.

"He is not far off getting back to training on the grass. We need to be cautious because of the nature of the injury he has had, but he is evolving well."

On West Ham

"It's a very difficult game. We've been there a few times. We always find them to be tricky and difficult games. So it is going to be a fight and another big derby for us. We will need to be at our best to win."

On Moyes

"I think more than respect it’s admiration. I loved playing for him, I would go through a brick wall for him when he was my manager and i think everybody would in that squad. A really good coach. Exceptional at managing the group and dealing with individuals and then a very special person. A really special human being. Very trustworthy and a man who honours his word. He always did it and someone who I learned a lot from. He saw things in me I didn't know and asked me to play in positions I never played before in my life."

On Martinelli

"He’s playing more games that’s for sure. He’s got another year of experience, huge understanding with his team-mates. The way he approaches every single session. The way he approaches his training, his life.

"He strives to be the best. When that happens and you have the consistency that he has in how he deals with every situation every day, only good outcomes are going to be in front of him.

"I'm not surprised about that but still he has a lot of things to improve."

Qwiss

Having Eddie back is great news. We'll need him off the bench for the run in, his pace and directness can really hurt teams late on.

KingslandBarge

Qwiss fully agree, and he's back on the bench.

Burnwinter

Doesn't matter what they do really. Just win this and then on to the next.

Qwiss

We need to just quietly go about winning these next 2 because all the focus has shifted to City now after their big CL win. We can keep plugging away and let them deal with the pressure of people talking about trebles, etc.

Burnwinter

Qwiss Exactly. We win the next two they're under some pressure at the Etihad—the kind of pressure that could have an impact even if they were to beat us. If we're resilient and just do what we've been doing all season, we're in very good nick.

Lukazan

Qwiss Agree with that, win the next two and build that feeling that this is our trophy again. I'd actually fancy us to go to City and get a result (by that I mean not lose) if we win the next two. I think by the time we had kicked off against Liverpool we were expected to win by the majority and that piled the pressure on and ended up manifesting into the weird collapse and performance we saw. With City, we're expected to go there and get beat by most, the pressure will be on City.

goon

Qwiss I didn’t think City would be under any real pressure in the league. They’ve been there and done it several times. But you make a good point about the treble, the closer that comes to becoming a reality the more it will take it’s toll.

I really hope we can win the games we are expected to. Heard Dixon talking about the pressure of a run in today and I do worry about how this young squad will deal with it. Want to see a fast start on Sunday, need these guys to be flying from the get go.

Claudius

Annoying that we have a Sunday game because West Ham are playing the Intertoto Cup. I would play the same back 7. And then up front, I’m fine if Trossard comes in for one of the others, eg Saka who looked off last week. I’d rather get Saka back in shape for City

KingslandBarge

Sure some of you have been eyeing this up like me...but I believe a win tomorrow seals St. Totteringhams and CL qualification for the first time in 5 seasons. It's an enormous occasion!

HomeSteak

KingslandBarge Even a draw seals it, but we will win.

Claudius

KingslandBarge St Totts in mid April. Insane. More of this please

lorddulaarsenal

Long overdue!

goon

Sounds like Zinchenko could be out for this if you believe the rumours.

Panda

goon Tierney is more than able to slot in. We might even keep a clean sheet with him...

lorddulaarsenal

Think we’ll slice open West Ham today.

Sun’s out