- West Ham v Arsenal the referee and the way he sees his games
- The strange case of the West Ham games against Arsenal
So the latest is that the Manc manager is begging the HAM manager to get his team to beat Arsenal to give ManC a chance of winning the league. At least that is what the media is reporting
Pep Guardiola playfully urged West Ham to take points off Arsenal in the title race when the leaders play them on Sunday, saying: “Come on you Irons,” at the end of his press conference after Manchester City beat Brentford. At least that is what the media is saying, but whether the PG tipped it we don’t know.
ManC did of course, win their game yesterday, meaning Arsenal need to keep winning, but I guess we knew that anyway. West Ham have been notoriously poor supporters of their own team this season, but then it has been season after season or pretty poor performances, especially when we consider just how low their rent is on the so-called London Stadium
They started the decade coming sixth in 2020/21 and then came in the subsequent seasons 7th, 14th, and 9th, and are currently sitting 18th. Which means they are actually doing worse than Tottenham. The two clubs below them (Burnley and Wolverhampton) have long since descended to the lower reaches mentally, and more recently on points, but WHAM could actually survive, although mentally they seem to have chucked the towel in.
And it is one of those – funny quirks of the away fixtures are done that after today’s game we play at home to Burnley and then have to get out the A to Z to find out exactly where Crystal Palace has got to. And Palace must be feeling as if they are going to be knocked about a bit because they also have to play ManC.
I think the one thing we can be quite sure of is that Arsenal are not going to be taking any of these League matches easy in order to save themselves for the Champions League final – they and we want the League Title, especially as it means ManC not getting it. We can think about the Champions League later.
West Ham lost their last match to Brentford 3-0 , but in the last six games table, they are sitting near midtable, although four points below Arsenal. So WHAM are making a fair fight of staying up, and must be wondering why they have left their revival so late. But I guess that is just what they do.
Certainly, their last three games have been quite a mixture, losing 0-3 to Brentford, beating Everton 2-1, and having a goalless draw with Crystal Palace. Across the last 10 games, West Ham are 11th, which shows something of a revival, but not really enough to get them out of the trouble they have already got themselves into.
In March, they did hold Manchester City to a draw however, so Arsenal still have to be careful. But Arsenal are only showing Merinio and Timber as out at the moment which is quite a relief after the high numbers of wounded of late.
Sports Mole kindly provide us with another piece of information, and that is that “As a result of those dominant displays, Arsenal now have the chance to become just the second team in English league history to score five or more goals in three consecutive away games against a single opponent.
West Bromwich Albion achieved the feat 66 years ago, claiming 5-3, 6-0 and 7-1 victories from December 1957 to April 1960. 2
Of course, such things don’t really mean that much in the longer term, and will obviously be forgotten assuming that Arsenal finish the job and win the league, but it is a nice thought. But thinking of winning the league, it would be wise not to get too excited about what the media might say or to expect any sort of celebration about Arsenal’s brilliant goal scoring, brilliant defence, or brilliant anything else, despite their achievements all round. Judging by the way the team has been reported through the rest of the season, the most likely headlines we shall see will be “Arsenal limp home.”
As for the team, try this….
Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie
Rice, Lewis-Skelly
Saka, Odegaard, Eze
Gyokeres
