West Ham United travel across the capital to face league leaders Arsenal on Thursday evening, hoping to make it three consecutive Premier League victories.
The Irons registered a fine 2-0 win over Manchester United at the London Stadium last weekend, thereby, managing to immediately bounce back from the embarrassing Carabao Cup elimination at the hands of Liverpool. Following the win against Man United, they climbed up to sixth in the table.
David Moyes and Co. will be looking to stage an upset in north London against Arsenal, who drew 1-1 with Liverpool at Anfield in their last league fixture.
West Ham Team News
Michail Antonio is the only player out injured for West Ham, after sustaining an injury while on international duty with Jamaica in early November. Nayef Aguerd and Maxwel Cornet missed the win over Manchester United due to illness but the duo could be back for the trip to Arsenal.
Predicted West Ham lineup vs Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper
Alphonse Areola started in goal and kept a clean sheet against Man United, justifying David Moyes’ decision to start him ahead of Lukasz Fabianski. The Frenchman will be hoping to shut the shop as quickly as possible at the Emirates Stadium.
Defence
Emerson Palmieri and Vladimir Coufal will continue as the full-backs, trying to provide both defensive stability and attacking flair to the team. Nayef Aguerd walks into the first XI, provided he recovers from illness in time. If not, Konstantinos Mavropanos will line up alongside Kurt Zouma in central defence once again.
The West Ham defence have to be extremely alert and disciplined to stop a formidable Arsenal attack from scoring.
Midfield
Edson Alvarez and Tomas Soucek are best placed to take control of the West Ham midfield as they must perform well against Declan Rice and Co. on Thursday evening.
James Ward-Prowse will operate in an advanced midfield role again for the visitors. The Englishman has to bear the responsibility of linking the midfield with attack and creating opportunities in the final third. Meanwhile, Pablo Fornals must again take up a spot on the bench.
Attack
Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta have formed a lethal partnership in attack this season, and the duo combined again to help West Ham beat Man United on Saturday. They should be the two wide attackers, aiming to pin back the Arsenal full-backs with their imagination, speed and directness.
Joining Kudus and Paqueta in the West Ham attack will be none other than Jarrod Bowen, who scored against Man United to take his tally to 11 league goals in 17 games for the season.