West Ham v Arsenal

Arsenal will be looking to dish out a thumping when they travel to Upton Park on Sunday. The Gunners can consider themselves unlucky to have scored only one goal in their last 2 games considering they have created a staggering 31 chances against CSKA Moscow alone! Surely it's only a matter of time till we destroy a team?

Providing Arsene has kept the boys' confidence up and has made them work on their finishing (surely he has?) then I can see nothing but an Arsenal win considering West Ham have won only two games this season.

Arsenal welcome Adebayor back to the squad after a ten day absence. There are no other players returning from injury but Eboue is getting close and could feature against Everton midweek. Ljungberg, Diaby, Lauren and Baptista are all missing still.

West Ham welcome back their Star Trek wannabe Carlos Tevez after he recovered from a knee injury.

The full squads (according to the BBC website) are:

West Ham: Carroll, Green, Walker, Gabbidon, Ferdinand, Konchesky, Spector, Dailly, Pantsil, Mears, McCartney, Benayoun, Mullins, Mascherano, Reo-Coker, Sherringham, Cole, Harewood, Zamora, Tevez.

Arsenal: Lehmann, Hoyte, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Fabregas, Gilberto, Hleb, Rosicky, Henry, Van Persie, Almunia, Djourou, Senderos, Song, Flamini, Walcott, Aliadiere, Adebayor.

West Ham could drop back into the relegation zone if they lose. That result could also see Arsenal climb two places to third if Bolton and Pompey lose to Wigan and Man United respectively.

Alan Pardew is well aware that Arsenal will be looking to dish out the pounding we need to, but says that West Ham have to be fearless:

'Knowing Arsenal, that will only fuel them towards getting a better response this time but the most important thing for us is remembering last year how we approached those two games.

'We have to have the same approach because whatever set up you have you have to have a 'no fear' approach.'

Le Boss thinks that we can take a lot from our draws against Everton and CSKA Moscow but is also well aware of the threat that Teddy Sherringham and Nigel Reo Coker pose:

'We should get a lot of encouragement from the last two games and turn it our way by just insisting and trying to do better.
'Teddy Sheringham in the Blackburn game has showed how much experience can make a difference.

'I also like Nigel Reo-Coker. He has a good work rate, technique and power. He has physical power. In the middle of the park he uses that very well, he is very incisive and wins the ball. He did that against us last year.'

As usual, my prediction is over on the forum.

Match preview submitted by Simmy8_2000

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