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PREVIEW: West Ham v Arsenal, Team News, Starting XI & Prediction

By on December 27, 2014

Danny Welbeck

Arsenal get quickly back into action as we face a tricky trip to Upton Park to face West Ham on Sunday afternoon.

In true Arsenal-style, we made hard work of a very poor Queens Park Rangers side yesterday. We were in total control and a confidence-boosting 4-0 win was on the cards, but the turning point came with Giroud’s ludicrous red card and in the end we were hanging on.

The win sees us close to within just one point of West Ham and two of fourth-placed Southampton – who face Chelsea tomorrow – so we’ve got an excellent opportunity to climb back into the top four if we can pick up a win at Upton Park.

Team News

Giroud will now miss our next three games so Welbeck is likely to lead the line on Sunday.

Laurent Koscielny could make his comeback from a calf injury and start alongside Mertesacker at the back.

However, Arteta and Ramsey are still short of fitness so join Wilshere and Ozil on the sidelines.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is expected to be recalled in midfield after being left-out against QPR.

Preferred Line-Up

Debuchy should be given a rest as he’s started every game since returning from his ankle injury, so Chambers should come back in at right-back.

Hopefully The Ox is fit enough to start and I’d also like to see Walcott come back in. He’s been an unused sub in recent games so it’s about time he got some action. He won’t be fit enough to play the entire game but let’s give him 60 mins.

Wenger seems to be running Sanchez into the ground and while we’ll struggle without him, the last thing we want is the Chilean picking up an injury so I’d leave him on the bench tomorrow with Podolski coming in:

Predicted score

West Ham have played very well this season and will be a difficult side to beat on their own patch, but if we can keep Andy Carroll quiet we should have too much in attack for them to handle. It’s going to be another close game but I’m backing the boys to edge it.

West Ham 1-2 Arsenal

COYG!!!