Arsenal will clash heads with West Ham United at the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon hoping to build on their two wins on the spin against Fulham in the league and Blackpool in the Carabao Cup recently. The Gunners are still in the race to secure a top 4 spot at the end of this campaign so they cannot afford to drop points this weekend.
Unai Emery might opt for a 3-4-2-1 formation to get the best out of the players available for this match. The significant change could be Alexandre Lacazette returning to his side to spearhead the Arsenal attack up top.
3-4-2-1 Arsenal Predicted Lineup To Face West Ham United
Defence
Bernd Leno will resume his goalkeeping duties this weekend against the Hammers despite failing to keep a clean sheet in his last five starts in the Premier League. The Gunners could opt for a back three of Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Laurent Koscielny if all of them can recover on time for this encounter at the London Stadium.
The North London outfit have a poor defensive record in the English top-flight this season having conceded 31 goals in 21 league matches so far. Thus, Emery would hope that his defenders can improve and put in a solid display at the back on Saturday. Both Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal will be in a race against time to be fit for this weekend’s London derby.
Midfield
The dynamic pair of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira might be given the nod to start as the holding midfielders as they look to establish Arsenal’s dominance in midfield early on.
Sead Kolasinac will aim to deliver some dangerous crosses from the left flank while Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who has caught the eye with a few dazzling displays recently, would hope to do the same on the other side of the Gunners midfield.
Mesut Ozil is a significant doubt for this game but could be part of Emery’s bench alongside the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Matteo Guendouzi.
Attack
Alex Iwobi should feature as the left-sided forward as he makes some direct runs behind the West Ham defence. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is currently the Premier League’s top scorer so he would be confident about getting his name on the scoresheet on Saturday afternoon.
Alexandre Lacazette could be asked to lead the line down the middle. The Frenchman has seen first-team chances hard to come by recently so this match could prove to be a perfect chance for him to stake a claim in Emery’s first-team.
