West Ham Utd 0 Arsenal 1 (29/09/07)

[Hammer Laffers]

We will most probably lose to Plymouth and then beat Arsenal. It's the west ham way....

[Jigga]

Really tough game. We won't keep a clean sheet and I doubt we will score so I predict 0-2 to Arsenal.

I feel annoyed with myself for writing the above...

[Puff Daddy]

2-2

[vdm]

If Bellamy's not fit then it has to be Ashton as lone striker - Mullins , Noble and Bowyer in the middle - Ethers and Ljugberg wide men, making 4-3-3 when (if) we attack

[Dublin Iron]

We need Bellamy for this one.
Anyway, Blackburn held them to a draw and Fulham almost did them.
I can see us raising our game and sneaking a 4-3 win.

Either that or losing 3 - 0.
Or maybe 4 - 0.
The swines.

[homebrew]

Not sure what I would do if I were Curbishley but...

Get Bowyer off the wing and into central midfield along with Noble or Parker (IMHO Noble was pretty ordinary against the Barcodes - gave away a lot of possession with misplaced passes). Replace him with Freddy (Bowyer on the wing that is).

Put Cole on the bench and start with Camara and Ashton.

So my starting line up -

Green
Linda
Upson
Ferdinand
Neill

Ethers
Noble ( or Parker)
Bowyer
Freddie (although he looked pretty ordinary as well last game)

Camara
Ashton

Happy with a draw in this one.

Your joking he must be the slowest player we've got.

Well Bowyer is more of a central mid, and freddie a wigner - yes I know he is slow, but it once again highlights our lack of strenght in depth

Any other suggestions would be welcome - LBM = slow as **** as well.

[rendog2]

We're going to get beaten. No doubt about that... Can anyone seriously see us beating Arsenal for a FOURTH successive game? The team we used to beat about once a decade? No chance.

[Sam West Ham]

What about our unsung hero mullins ? he surley shud be a ded cert starter, need him on cesc. also freddie must start, surley he'd wanna put one over le arse

and bellamy, hope he's back

[prophet:marginal]

The thing about L'Arse is that they're a team of 10 (plus a keeper) great athletes, who use every inch of the pitch.

Its a testament to Fabregas' game that, even though every team must devise a plan to contain him, he always seems to find the bit of space in the attack - from which to shoot or play the killer pass (some of his assists / through balls against Derby were sublime).

The only weak spots are

1. Slightly moody keepers
2. Wenger not having Gallas in CD.

Our wingers will be fully pushed into defensive duties, because the Arse full backs will press from start to finish.

Bellamy could cause them a few problems, but this is clearly the best team of the season so far coming to UP.

I think we'll lose - possibly by 2 goals.

[Countryboy]

We're going to get beaten. No doubt about that... Can anyone seriously see us beating Arsenal for a FOURTH successive game? The team we used to beat about once a decade? No chance.

Well, look at it this way. Two teams - call them Team A and Team B - are about to meet in the Premiership, for the fifth time in the last three seasons.

In the previous three games between the two sides, Team A have won three and drawn one. They have scored five goals and conceded three. Their last two games were both 1-0 victories. In fact, Team B last beat Team A in 2003.

Under any other circumstances, wouldn't you say that Team A had a decent chance of winning game no.5?

And, in this case, we are Team A and Arsenal are Team B.

So f*ck 'em, they haven't a chance!

[Bobby Orangeboom]

We're going to get beaten. No doubt about that... Can anyone seriously see us beating Arsenal for a FOURTH successive game? The team we used to beat about once a decade? No chance.

Well, look at it this way. Two teams - call them Team A and Team B - are about to meet in the Premiership, for the fifth time in the last three seasons.

In the previous three games between the two sides, Team A have won three and drawn one. They have scored five goals and conceded three. Their last two games were both 1-0 victories. In fact, Team B last beat Team A in 2003.

Under any other circumstances, wouldn't you say that Team A had a decent chance of winning game no.5?

And, in this case, we are Team A and Arsenal are Team B.

So f*ck 'em, they haven't a chance!

That's made me far more upbeat & is a great way to put it too CB...

[Hambrosia Stu]

The thing about L'Arse is that they're a team of 10 (plus a keeper) great athletes, who use every inch of the pitch.

Its a testament to Fabregas' game that, even though every team must devise a plan to contain him, he always seems to find the bit of space in the attack - from which to shoot or play the killer pass (some of his assists / through balls against Derby were sublime).

The only weak spots are

1. Slightly moody keepers
2. Wenger not having Gallas in CD.

Our wingers will be fully pushed into defensive duties, because the Arse full backs will press from start to finish.

Bellamy could cause them a few problems, but this is clearly the best team of the season so far coming to UP.

I think we'll lose - possibly by 2 goals.

As I've said the last few times we've played them, Arsenal don't like it up 'em!!!

Sure we need to have a slightly more detailed plan than that, but we need to be into them from the off, don't give them any time on the ball, and keep that up for 90 minutes.

Only if we do that do we have a chance to compete, imo

[Scaloni Is The Messiah]

I've never seen Bowyer have a decent game for us in the centre. I've seen him have a few out wide. I'd sooner have Quashie and Collison in the middle than Bowyer. He's proved this year he's more suited to the right.

I'd play Noble and Parker in the middle, probably. I think that's our strongest CM partnership and I'm interested to see if it'll work. Ljungberg will be really up for this one, so him and Etherington on the wings for me. Ashton partnering either Bellamy or Camara up top.

In terms of the defence, I think Curbs's comments indicate changes will be made. We should take a leaf out of Australia's book (somewhat ironically) and drop our captain if he needs a rest. Captaincy shouldn't neccesarily give a player immunity from being dropped. And Neill is just not up with the pace mentally for the time being. In the middle, I'd be inclined to give Upson and Ferdinand a chance to redeem themselves, as their peformance at Reading makes them deserving of another chance. McCartney is the only competent left-back we have, so he's in until January, barring injuries or suspensions.

I think we can win it, but it'll take some very hard work this week and the Carling cup tie in the middle of it is likely to make it quite difficult to focus on it. Certainly, if we pull this off, it will be an even better result than the one at the Emirates in many ways. This Arsenal team have come on leaps and bounds (and whilst we have too, there's not much between the side that played that day and the one that will this weekend).

[Duff]

L'Arse have to slip up some time, we've got a good record against the big teams in recent years beating Man U, Arsenal and competing against Liverpool and Chelsea.

I'll go for the usual 1-0 please, Deano 35 yarder into the BM end would be acceptable!!

[richneal]

Someone posted that they think we should play a 4-5-1 . . . I'm thinking we play a 7-2-1 for a point

[claret parrot]

I'll go for the usual 1-0 please, Deano 35 yarder into the BM end would be acceptable!!

Yeah, I think on reflection I'd probably take that

[HAMMERJER]

Arsenal fans at work are sh1tting themselves about this match, going so far as saying its the one they are dreading the most, because and us being their current bogey team and that they don't want to lose momentum after some truly impressive displays....

Arsenal have Steau Bucharest away on Tuesday night in the Champions League. Thats a five+ hour flight, thousands of miles away, so they most be thinking of resting some players for Sunday. They played a 2nd team last night, so we can expect a mix of 1st and 2nd team players, but hopefully we won't see Fabregas at least.

Agree with some other comments, we need to go in very hard and give some of their lesser experienced players a lesson in english football.

Deano to score 2 and we win 2-1 with lots of cards.....

[Row X]

I've been on a bit of a scouting missing this week. I had tickets for their game against Derby and last night game due to mates having spares.

To be fair any side would have beaten Derby on Saturday, even the Dog and Duck!

What I have notice though, is they seem a different side without Henry. They actually get around the box and are shooting, instead of looking for the sulky Frenchman. So gone are the days where you think "oh he's turned him, but he won't shoot cos' they try and walk it in" They are basically shooting on sight now and they have quality to do it well. We need to chase down every ball and work our socks off because they can ping the ball about quick with their 1 or 2 touch football.

There are a couple of weaknesses I have noticed though, if Walcott plays we must exploit the space he leaves behind himself as he likes his full back to overlap him and help him out. This leaves massive gaps for our wingers/strikers to run into for balls down the channels and quickly turn defence into attack which we have shown we can do well.

Also, we must target Senderos if he plays. He can make blinding tackles etc.... but is prone to switching off now and then (sounds a bit like our defence). He is also a massive liability with his distribution and our forwards whoever they may be, must chase and hassle him when ever he is on the ball as he looks really uncomfortable on it.

They are playing really well at the moment and any point we get from this game would be a massive bonus for us. I really hope we do em', but all I ask for is a performance. C'mon you irons!!!!

[kthammer]

We will lose if we try to keep it tight and pack defence - their shooting is too good. We have to move the ball through Freddie and get it wide for Matty and have a go at them. Ashton can and will score against anyone. We will need a goal because they will certainly score. But no-one has had a go at the Arse this year. Their central defence is not perfect, nor is their keeper.

[BubbleBoy]

We don't do it over here but I'd be tempted to play a 4-5-1 and man mark Fabregas (probably with Mullins)
Etherington and Bellamy out wide supplying pace to support Ashton when we have the ball.

Mullins to follow Fabregas all over the park and whenever he gets the ball get right tight to him and don't let him turn and dictate the play.

We still might get beat as they have quality everywhere but if we make them bypass their best player we'll go a long way to getting something out of the game.