West Ham Utd 0 Arsenal 2 (26/10/08)

[bubbles1966]

Am bizarrely (and extremely strangely for me) optimistic about this one.

They will play open, will attack and wont be much of a threat from set pieces. This might well suit us. Hopefully Toure's shoulder will keep him out.

Similar team to yesterday's starters, but with a willingness to switch to 4-4-2 with Bellamy up with Cole, and two wingers.

I think we may well win.

(Apologies if this thread has already been started)

[Georgee Paris]

Tristan to score in 77 min...and we'll be Tristan the night away....Tristan shout!

[Bobby Orangeboom]

I can't see it i'm afraid, we just seem as if we are gonna leak Goals, especially against a decent Side like Arsenal & especially down our Right Side..

I can see Arsenal scoring 3 & i can see us scoring one, which means, let me just check & count some fingers, yep, it will be 1-3.

[Puff Daddy]

I think this will be a good game and I think we'll get a point as we do seem to raise our game against the better sides. 2-2

[derby jed]

If arsenal really want to come & turn it on,then from what ive seen this season we will get thrashed 5 or 6 nil.

[bubbles1966]

Arsenal (from): Almunia, Song, Silvestre, Clichy, Eboue, Fabregas, Denilson, Nasri, Diaby, Walcott, Van Persie, Adebayor, Fabianski, Vela, Ramsey, Gibbs, Hoyte, Bendtner, Djourou.

The current state of their squad. Dangerous front players but piss poor at the back.....

Cole should muller their back line.....

[HammerinHank]

Arsenal were certainly caught sleeping late against Everton, it really looked like a repeat of their games versus Fulham and Hull City.

I think West Ham can turn it up and nick a draw, better a win. I think travel dogs Arsenal and they may be having to travel to faraway Turkey this week. Exhausting under any circumstances. They didn't even travel well against Liverpool the past two seasons. Maybe this has no credence either.

[DeadJoshWalkin]

We're in for a whipping I think, we reminded me a lot of Arsenal yesterday against Hull (in the first half at least), beautiful passing and build up met by a wall of defenders on the 18 yard line.

If we try and play like that against Arsenal they'll rip us to shreds (and show us how it's meant to be done).

Having said that we haven't played a 'top' team yet under Zola so maybe he'll change things around. I'm not optimistic though, you don't get points against better teams by outplaying them. And we can't even get points from worse teams by outplaying them at the moment.

[Bobby Orangeboom]

The current state of their squad. Dangerous front players but piss poor at the back.....

Cole should muller their back line.....

That doesn't look as scary as i thought, is Gallas & Toure definately out then ??

So will the one's in Red be their back 4 then ?? :shock:

[Westbourne Bill]

Unfortunately our new open attacking style will allow Arsenal to rip through our midfield I fear. Time for a more cautious Curbs-like approach if we are to sneak anything IMO.
.

[bubbles1966]

That doesn't look as scary as i thought, is Gallas & Toure definately out then ??

So will the one's in Red be their back 4 then ?? :shock:

Dunno- but that's their listed squad for the game against Fenerbache tomorrow night. Gallas is medium- term injured I think and Toure did his shoulder the other day. If we can get at them we'll get chances definitely.

Ilunga needs to do his stuff against Walcott - ditto Faubert against Eboue and Clichy.

[PrinceH]

I can't see it i'm afraid, we just seem as if we are gonna leak Goals, especially against a decent Side like Arsenal & especially down our Right Side..

I can see Arsenal scoring 3 & i can see us scoring one, which means, let me just check & count some fingers, yep, it will be 1-3.

I think you should give credit to Faubert - our RB - yesterday. He kept his side clean and Giovanni did not create anything from there (except when Niell tried to come out there for help... ).

[Fionn]

They're going to destroy us.

[dave_l]

Wholly depends which Arse turns up. The slick passing one or the one that wanders around trying to walk the ball into the net. One thing's for sure though is that the league's biggest cheats visit us this weekend and there will be plenty of rolling around on the floor looking like they've been shot with plenty of choreographed time wasting. Anyone know who the ref is for this one?

You can never predict how they're gonna play and recently they've been pretty mixed. CFC will annoy their CB's no end, they absolutely cant deal with someone who plays like him and hopefully we'll be aggressive from the off. It'll certainly be an entertaining game though and I seriously seriously hope we beat them.

[sanchoz]

Would be over the moon with a draw but can see us losing by three clear goals

[Dan1326]

Doom merchants

['stone hammer]

If they destroy us, the excuse will be that they are Arsenal. If we beat them, it will be f*cking hilarious.

So naturally i am hoping for a win, but i won't be surprised if they do f*ck us over

[westlondonhammer]

I totally agree with Bubbles... they may be pretty tasty going forward, but they dont look good at the back on paper! In lots of respect it will be an easier game than the Hull one

I think the big thing that could possibly f*** us up again next weekend is whether they can find that end product

Should be an entertaining, attractive game of football anyway

[Fionn]

There is a good chance they could be without Toure, Sagna and Gallas.

[hawkins_hammer]

I predict this will be Faubert's last game at right-back. Our passing needs to be on the ball or we will give away soft goals. I like our new style but it normally takes us ten minutes to get into our groove and that could mean one of the midfield giving it away cheaply and a devastating Arsenal counter-attack. Having said that if we keep possesion well we will create problems for their defence, which without Toure and Gallas will be ripe for exploiting. Take your chances boys.