Arsenal v West Ham. The possible Arsenal line up

by Bulldog Drummond

Almost time to set off in the car, but before I go, here’s the final instalment of news about the game tonight.

In terms of injuries Physioroom shows us this

Pos	Club	Total men down	Last man down	What happened
1	Watford	8	K Femenia	Hamstring Injury
2	Liverpool	6	D Sturridge	Tight Hamstring
3	Everton	6	Y Bolasie	Fitness
4	Huddersfield Town	5	C Lowe	Bruised Foot
5	Burnley	5	S Ward	Knee Injury
6	West Ham United	5	A Carroll	Back Injury
7	Stoke City	4	K Zouma	Hamstring Injury
8	Crystal Palace	4	D Delaney	Minor Surgery
9	Swansea City	4	W Bony	Hamstring Injury
10	West Bromwich	4	M Phillips	Hamstring Injury
11	Bournemouth	3	C Wilson	Knee Injury
12	Manchester City	3	V Kompany	Muscle Injury
13	Manchester United	3	M Fellaini	MCL Knee Ligament
14	Arsenal	2	A Ramsey	Hamstring Injury

The West Ham injury list is given by the site as

Player	What’s wrong		When’s he back	Today?
A Carroll	Back Injury		December 19, 2017	Late Fitness Test
E Fernandes	Ankle Injury		No Return Date	No
C Kouyate	Hamstring Injury		December 23, 2017	Slight Doubt
S Byram	Thigh Strain		December 26, 2017	No
J Fonte	Ankle Injury		January 20, 2018	No

Elsewhere with West Ham, Manuel Lanzini, has been charged with “successful deception of a match official” after he was awarded a penalty during Saturday’s win at Stoke. Mark Noble will also miss the game with a tight hamstring according to the media.

Returning however is Joe Hart who has not been playing while West Ham have been improving.  It is said he will start tonight.   Moyes said, in this regard,  “I’ve said all along he’s a really good goalkeeper. Adrián has had some really good performances too, but Joe has a great level of experience and has been good around the place, he is ready to play.”

Walcott we are told is 100% fit and will definitely play against West Ham.  He also suggested that virtually everyone who will play is an international which again seems to suggest that some of the promising youngsters will only make the bench – although if we count under 20 internationals as “internationals” in this context, that widens the scope.

There is also a suggestion in what Mr Wenger says that Mertesacker will also play.  I would also anticipate Elneny who is looking to me to be ever more purposeful and assured when he plays, will also get a full game, perhaps alongside Coquelin.

Danny Welbeck, Sead Kolasinac and Olivier Giroud look quite likely to start with a bench that includes a selection from Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Josh Dasilva, Eddie Nketiah, and Matt Macey, with a couple of those dropping out to make way for established players, just in case we get an early injury.

I am going to go for a fairly standard Arsenal II line up but with one major change – that is playing Maitland Niles again, but this time in central midfield, which is where Mr Wenger says he is at his best.  That leaves a space at full back and in would go Kolasinac in a 4-3-3 system

Ospina,

Debuchy, Holding, Mertesacker , Kolasinac

Coquelin, Maitland Niles, Elneny,

Walcott, Giroud, Welbeck.

On the beach we then might have Macey, Reine-Adelaide, Akpom, Nelson, Nketiah, Sheaf, Willock.

Of course we might go with three centre backs and have… well that is where all sorts of options seem arise and there are so many possibilities… but none of them look quite as good as the line up above.

But the question with four at the back is then, can Kolasinac stop himself charging forwards?

Incidentally Allnigeriasoccer.com [don’t tell me we don’t cover every possible source here] “understands that Alex Iwobi is a huge doubt to suit up for Arsenal when they face West Ham United in the quarterfinals of the League Cup at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.”

Well, that’s all right cos we didn’t have him in the team anyway.

Let’s try one more option, this from the Evening Standard

“Arsenal star Eddie Nketiah wants chance to nail West Ham after coming of age against Bayern Munich”

The Munich game in question was one of the pre-season affairs, and the Standard piece rather tamely tails off with the notion that Eddie’s “next opportunity may come from the bench on Tuesday, even though Wenger is set to rotate his squad heavily, with Friday’s Premier League visit of Liverpool in mind.”  I’m not so sure that tells us anything we didn’t know.

Right, now, where are those gloves?  And woolly hat.  And…

• It should be Arsenal II v West Ham II. And Arsenal should win, but…
• Arsenal and WHU could use some of their U23 teams tomorrow. So how have they been doing?
• Arsenal II: how have they done so far – and how we compare with WHU II.
• Arsenal v West Ham United. Do we continue to use the reserves for this game?

Approaching 100 years of Arsenal in the first division

Even if you don’t have much interest in Arsenal’s history, you will probably have heard that in 1919 Arsenal were elected to the first division.  You may even have heard that there was skulduggery afoot and that Henry Norris was at the heart of it all.

The full truth is currently being revealed for the first time in the long running series on “Henry Norris at the Arsenal” from the Arsenal History Society.  We’ve just reached the end of 1918, and I can tell you, whatever you have heard before will not be the reality that actually unfolded in that extraordinary period.

Arsenal, 11 – 31 December 1918. A 9-2 victory, the chairman becomes an MP, footballers unionise has just been published, with the story continuing every two or three days.   And oh yes, there is definitely some match fixing involved.

The next episode will be published on the Arsenal History Society site in a day or two.