The London derby.
Last updated: April 6, 2016 by Leon Marshal
Game details
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| Kick-off: | Saturday, 12:45pm |
| Venue: | Boleyn Ground |
| Coverage: | Sky Sports 1, BBC 5 Live |
| Home form: | DDDWW |
| Away form: | WWLLW |
| Last season: | 1-2 |
| Competition: | The Premier League |
West Ham United failed to beat Crystal Palace at The Boleyn Ground on Saturday and the meeting finished with a draw (2-2). The main reason for the missed opportunity, from the hosts point of view, will definitely be the decision of the referee Mark Clattenburg to send off C. Kouyate in the 68th minute of the match. The hero for The Hammers was again Dimitri Payet, who scored another brilliant free-kick.
On the other hand, Arsenal showed a great performance and achieved another 3 points after a convincing 4-0 victory over Watford last weekend. Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin and Theo Walcott found the net for The Gunners and helped their team collect 58 points. Arsenal are lying in 3rd place in The Premier League, eleven points behind the leaders Leicester City.
The Gunners have won on 3 consecutive visits to The Boleyn Ground. All of these games finished with the option of ‘both teams to score’. Arsenal have recorded 25 victories from 58 visits to West Ham United, while The Hammers have won 14 home games. However, Slaven Bilic’s players won the first match of the season between these two teams (2-0).
Team News
Cheikhou Kouyate is one of the key players for West Ham United, but the midfielder is going to miss the match against Arsenal through suspension.
There are no injured players in Slaven Bilic’s squad. The manager is expected to play Enner Valencia as a center forward and leave Andy Carroll on the bench.
Mathieu Flamini has a hamstring problem. The 32-year-old French midfielder has taken part in 16 games for The Gunners this season.
Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are both injured. The Englishman is suffering from a knee injury and is expected to resume full training within 10 days.
Quotes of the week
Slaven Bilic (West Ham) :
“Payet was always a confident player, he always wanted to take responsibility but now he must be in a state of mind where he believes he can do anything on the pitch — he’s like Superman.”
Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) :
“I feel we want to win our games and see what happens.”
Expected line-ups:
| . | |
| West Ham (4-3-3): | Adrian, Byram, Collins, Reid, Cresswell, Lanzini, Song, Noble, Payet, Valencia, Antonio. |
| Subs | Carroll, Emenike, Moses, Tomkins, Randolph, Obiang, Ogbonna. |
| Injured: | — |
| Doubtful: | — |
| Not available: | Kouyate |
| . | |
| Arsenal (4-2-3-1): | Cech, Bellerin, Monreal, Gabriel, Koscielny, El Nenny, Coquelin, Sanchez, Iwobi, Ozil, Welbeck. |
| Subs | Gibbs, Walcott, Mertesacker, Ospina, Campbell, Ramsey, Giroud. |
| Injured: | Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Flamini. |
| Doubtful: | — |
| Not available: | — |
So far this season
| . | . | . |
|---|---|---|
| West Ham this season | Arsenal this season | |
| 6 | League Position | 3 |
| 7 (6) | (at home) Wins (away) | 9 (8) |
| 3-0 vs. Liverpool | Biggest win | 4-0 vs. Watford |
| 6 (6) | (at home) Draws (away) | 3 (4) |
| 2 (4) | (at home) Losses (away) | 3 (4) |
| 1-4 to Tottenham | Biggest Defeat | 0-4 to Southampton |
| Payet (9) | Top scorer | Giroud (12) |
| Payet (8) | Assist Leader | Ozil (18) |
| Y48, R5 | Discipline | Y34, R4 |
| 5 | Failures to score | 7 |
| 10 | Clean Sheets | 14 |
| 19 | Both Teams to Score Games | 13 |
| 17 | Over 2.5 Games | 16 |
| 14 | Under 2.5 Games | 15 |
- West Ham United are undefeated in their last 13 Premier League matches at The Boleyn Ground. The Hammers have lost only 2 home matches this season.
- There has been the option of ‘over 2.5 goals scored’ in 5 of Arsenal’s last 6 Premier League games. The exception was against Everton two weeks ago (2-0).
- The Gunners have scored at least 2 goals in their last 4 away Premiership matches. Arsenal have won half of their away games this season (8 of 16).
- There has been ‘over 2.5 goals’ scored in the Hammers last 3 league matches. So, lots of goals are expected at The Boleyn Ground!
Head to Head
| Last 5 meetings between the two sides | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Competition | Game Result | First Goal-scorer |
| 09/08/15 | The Premier League | Arsenal 0-2 West Ham | C. Kouyaté 43′ |
| 14/03/15 | The Premier League | Arsenal 3-0 West Ham | O. Giroud 45′ |
| 28/12/14 | The Premier League | West Ham 1-2 Arsenal | Santi Cazorla (PG) 41′ |
| 15/04/14 | The Premier League | Arsenal 3-1 West Ham | M. Jarvis 40′ |
| 26/12/13 | The Premier League | West Ham 1-3 Arsenal | C. Cole 46′ |