North London meets East London in this capital city derby as Arsenal hosts West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners have a proud recent home record against their cross-town rivals, as they have recorded victories in ten of their last eleven matches in front of home fans against the Hammers.
The reading doesn’t get any kinder for the Irons. Their manager, David Moyes, has never beaten Arsenal in seventeen attempts. It is the most consecutive matches that any one manager has gone against a specific team without a victory.
Arsenal FC vs West Ham United FYIs:
Kick-off time: 8 PM GMT, 15th December 2021
Team News: Arsenal West Ham
Starting XI Predictions: Arsenal West Ham
Premier League Preview Podcast: go here
Form Guide (All Competitions): Arsenal (LWLLW) West Ham (LDWLD)
Mostly, the Gunners don’t have a lot of injury concerns, but Sead Kolasinac and Bernd Leno remain long-term absentees.
The Bosnian, Kolasinac, is still recovering from the horrific injury he suffered whilst on international duty. The club has told media that the full-back is in the early stages of his rehab and his return to full training is penciled in for late January. German shot-stopper Bernd Leno is also out with the same groin issue that has seen him not fit enough to take his place on the bench for the last few matches.
Interestingly, the club is being not as transparent with the German’s injury.
The big news is about Gabonese striker and club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The club publicly dropped him from the side’s last game after being disciplined internally for breaking club rules.
It isn’t the first time they have found him guilty of breaking club rules and there is some speculation that he has done his dash at the club, with teammates and staff both fed up with his behavior. He’s already been stripped of the captain’s armband.
Sky Sports pundit Tim Sherwood unleashed on the striker calling him a ‘disgrace’ whilst also leading the calls for him to be stripped of the captaincy (prior to Mikel Arteta making it official on Tuesday). Whether Arsenal or their fans will pay any attention to a former Tottenham manager is a completely different story.
It remains very unlikely that he will return straight back to the starting XI and his best hope will be to be named on the bench. This could be the game of the round. Arsenal has been good at home and West Ham has been good every time they have stepped onto a pitch this season. These are two evenly matched sides, therefore I am predicting a score draw.