Arsenal will entertain West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon looking to get their first win of the season. The Gunners have made a nightmare start under Unai Emery but would be expected to bounce back versus the Hammers, who have found life hard as well under Manuel Pellegrini. The away team has lost their past two matches and would be desperate to pick up maximum points from this contest.
Emery is likely to opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation and might hand Lucas Torreira his first league start of the season. Anything other than a victory would disappoint the Gunners supporters so its high time that Emery’s players started delivering on the pitch.
4-2-3-1 Arsenal Predicted Lineup To Face West Ham United
Defence
Petr Cech is expected to start for the Gunners once again while Bernd Leno takes his place on the bench. The central defensive pair of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi would line up in defence while both Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin operate as the full-backs.
The Arsenal defence has already conceded five goals in their opening two league matches so Unai Emery needs to take a cautious approach and hope that his defenders can keep things stable at the back on Saturday. The Gunners backline will come up against one of the best forwards of the Premier League in Marko Arnautovic; hence, they will have their work cut out in trying to keep the Austrian international quiet.
Midfield
The French youngster, Mattéo Guendouzi should retain his place in midfield and might play alongside Lucas Torreira, who will be desperate to make a league start for the home team. Granit Xhaka’s recent form has been poor, and thus, the Uruguayan midfielder might finally get a chance to showcase his worth at the middle of the park. It is quite likely that the trio of Alex Iwobi, Mesut Ozil, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan would play in front of them as part of Unai Emery’s attack.
All three of them started quite effectively against Chelsea but failed to finish off their chances in the first half which ultimately cost the North London side all three points. The Emirates faithful will be hoping for a much-improved showing from the attacking trio as Arsenal looks to get their first win under their belt.
Attack
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will once again spearhead the attack for the Gunners. The Gabonese striker has been far from his best in recent weeks after squandering many opportunities in and around the opposition penalty area over the past two matches.
Emery will hope that the former Borussia Dortmund star can finally get off the mark this season by registering his name on the scoresheet against the Hammers.
