How Arteta has brilliantly rebuilt Arsenal and re-booted Xhaka’s career as they prepare to face high-flying West Ham
ARSENAL really, really need the points and West Ham will see this as a free-hit and hope no key players get injured.
Logic therefore says Arsenal - but how often does a derby follow logic?
Watch out for Arsenal trying to encourage West Ham to come out and play a bit.
But also, don’t be surprised when West Ham try and keep the ball as often as possible too.
Right now, you would be hard pressed to find a more impressive manager than David Moyes of .
Take a minute to let that sink in, yes, that Moyes.
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It’s unlikely that even the most optimistic West Ham fans saw this coming when the club appointed the Scotsman in December 2019 as the club are competing in a European semi-final while also sitting 7th in the Premier League table.
Have the dissenters gone quiet? You’d think so.
Now that we are at the business end of the season, we are going to find out if the West Ham squad is big enough to handle the congested fixture list.
The games are coming thick and this weekend sees West Ham host Mikel Arteta and his impressive Arsenal side.
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Arsenal come into this match off the back of wins over Chelsea and Manchester United as they close in on a top-four finish and a return to the Champions League.
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This left Chelsea trying to play passes that were covered or into areas in which the ball could be contested by the West Ham defenders and midfielders.
This defensive compactness has been a feature of West Ham’s game whether they have lined up in a three man or four man defensive system.
Their work against the ball is helped, of course, by the fact that we are likely to see a midfield structure of Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek (unless Moyes is thinking a lot about Thursday) in a double pivot.
Both are extremely versatile in terms of their roles with the ability to receive and play through the thirds, make forward runs to support the attack, and hold deeper positions in order to prevent the opposition from playing through.
Given that he took over the squad build by Unai Emery, the players were not quite at the level needed to be able to do this effectively.
This led to some comedy moments and Arsenal fans were becoming more and more frustrated with their team and this very deliberate system of play.
Fast forward to today and thanks to some impressive coaching and even more impressive recruitment Arsenal are one of the few teams in the Premier League who can rival Manchester City when it comes to playing out from the back. Yeah, that’s right - Man City.
Their attacking threat has been hugely enhanced by the partnership that has been created on the right-hand side of the pitch by Bukayo Saka, at right-wing, and Martin Odegaard, as the right-sided central midfielder.
Those two are incredibly technical players with a real creative streak.
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