I watched the Man City game yesterday until Haaland scored his second goal, before switching off, so I saw Bernardo Silva hit Brentford defender Collins. I missed the DOGSO with Nunes on Schade, but I’m not surprised – PGMOL has consistently shown that some teams are hit by the green more than others. Let’s see what Chris Kavanagh can cook up with the help of Darren England on VAR today, shall we?
Arsenal must do their job though. It is still in our hands. A win today and we’ll feel like we’re almost there. But this one will be the toughest by far, I suspect, because West Ham are fighting for their lives, and when you look at their recent home form, it’s actually pretty good. They have two wins and three draws, their last outing being this late 2-1 win over Everton. Before that, they beat Wolves at home 4-0, and before that, they drew 1-1 with City, 0-0 with Bournemouth and 1-1 with Manchester United. So this is a West Ham team that rises for these big games on their own patch, and they certainly will today.
Mikel Arteta has several decisions to make, notably on composition and tactical approach. I have to say that the ‘discovery’ of Myles Lewis-Skelly in midfield seems to me to be an approach we should probably pursue today. The adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. » comes into play in my opinion; the system was set up to allow us to find players between the lines and when you need to break down a likely Nuno low-block West Ham team, you need to be able to have that ability to find players in tight spaces who can get themselves out of danger. Myles certainly has that, and so I would choose him today.
My starting XI for this afternoon’s match at the London Stadium is therefore:
Raya
Mosquera – Saliba – Gabriel – Calafiori
MLS – Rice
Odegaard
Saka – Havertz – Trossard
My thoughts on the selections are as follows:
- Mosquera for White – because I think there is a question about how much we can play against Ben White before he collapses. With Arteta confirming that it’s not a given that Timber will play again this season, we need to make sure we don’t overplay the Whites. I also think Mosquera has shown himself to be more than capable and as such it makes sense to use these players to maintain team harmony as well.
- Calafiori instead of Hincapie – I think the fact that West Ham will be sitting deeper in a lower block means we need a bit more chaos than Hincapie offers. Calafiori entering these areas that West Ham players are unsure whether to follow or not gives us another option in the attacking third, which I think we will need today.
- Odegaard instead of Eze – this is the one I wasn’t sure about the most, to be honest, because Eze has been playing well lately. He wasn’t amazing against Atletico, and Odegaard eventually came on, but I just wonder if Arteta will want a player who has a bit more dominance and ball control. However, I could happily see things another way, with Arteta favoring the sort of player who will manage to finish out of nowhere, At Newcastle at home a few weeks ago.
- Havertz for Gyokeres – again, this decision for me is based on the fact that we are facing a team who are going to sit a little deeper and I don’t think they will be looking to give us a lot of green grass to run in behind, so I want my striker to be a bit more of an ‘on the ball’ guy, because I think today will be more of an ‘on the ball’ game for Arsenal, rather than a game that will find us with a lot of space.
- Trossard and Saka remain – Saka was brought back into this team and only played 58 minutes against Atletico. One would hope that means he’s good for at least 70 today, and with Trossard also appearing to have regained some form, I think you need to start him. You could argue that Eze could play there, but I don’t think Martinelli gets the nod, for the same reason I wouldn’t play Big Vik.
The nerves are starting to show now. Finding out West Ham’s form at home is making me a little nervous now, and I’ve just had a look at the last time they tasted defeat on home soil – it was January 6 against Forest. They were knocked out on penalties against Leeds, but that match itself was a draw, so teams are struggling to beat West Ham in East London. We’re going to have to do something that only one team has done in 2026 so far.
It’s going to be edgy, it’s going to be tense, there are moments that neither of us will like, but I have hope that we’ll go over the top on this one. We must. A draw still leaves us with the option of winning it on goal difference with a big score against Burnley and then a win against a hopefully rotating Palace side preparing for the Europa Conference League final, but sending a message by winning this game could be absolutely huge.
Hopefully the boys are up for it.
I think we’re following the game straight after the game on the Same Old Arsenal podcast today, so if you’re around and want to dive into it – with pleasure or disdain depending on the result, subscribe to the pod channel here and you’ll get a notification when we’re live.
Otherwise, I’ll see you all tomorrow, with a debrief on what happened.
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