Arsenal and West Ham clash in a London Derby on Tuesday, the two sides will compete for a place in the League Cup semi-finals at the Emirates Stadium. The two teams have met just two weeks ago in the Premier League and West Ham managed to hold out for a goalless draw at the Olympic Stadium. Last season Arsenal defeated the Hammers quite clearly in both league matches, 5-1 away and 3-0 at home, but West Ham have managed to beat the Gunners 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in 2015.
Arsenal squeezed past Newcastle last weekend, they needed a special goal from Mesut Ozil to clinch a 1-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium. That was their first victory in the last four league matches and the Gunners are no less than nineteen points behind leaders Manchester City. It is quite clear that a title challenge is out of the question this season, but it's also clear that winning the League Cup wouldn't provide much consolation to the disappointed fans. Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Shkodran Mustafi are injured and will miss out, while Arsene Wenger will probably rest a few players ahead of the busy festive period.
West Ham are doing a lot better lately, after a terrible start to the season and the sacking of manager Slaven Bilic they seem to have found the right tempo under new boss David Moyes. They are unbeaten in their last three league matches and that record is quite impressive considering that they started the run with a victory over Chelsea, then drew with Arsenal and won 3-0 at Stoke last weekend. Joe Hart will probably have a chance to play after being dropped for Premier League matches, while Mark Noble, Cheikhou Kouyate, Edimilson Fernandes, Jose Fonte and Sam Byram are injured.
Probable line-ups:
Arsenal: Ospina - Debuchy, Mertesacker, Holding - Nelson, Coquelin, Elneny, Kolasinac - Iwobi, Welbeck - Giroud
West Ham: Hart - Collins, Reid, Cresswell - Zabaleta, Rice, Obiang, Masuaku - Sakho, Ayew - Carroll
My prediction: Arsenal to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Arsenal win - 1.53
Draw - 4.33
West Ham win - 7.00
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Comments (1)
sharpe
12/19/17, 05:12:43 PM
Like Johnny drop a hint above this is maybe not the most important game for Arsenal this season, so that being said I think it's an excellent chance for the Hammers...
Like Johnny drop a hint above this is maybe not the most important game for Arsenal this season, so that being said I think it's an excellent chance for the Hammers to reach the semis of this cup. Main priority for West Ham is of course avoiding relegation in the PL but that doesn't mean they couldn't fight hard in this competition too. 2-1 West Ham.
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