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Arsenal vs West Ham – Match Preview

It’s just one Premier League win in six for Arsenal and the mood at The Emirates is nothing short of toxic right now. Fighting in the stands, fighting outside the ground, planes, trains (not yet) and automobiles pleading for Arsene Wenger to step down at the end of the season. The red half of North London is not a fun place to be right now and Tonight they play host to West Ham in a bid to keep alive their hopes of a top four finish.

Sunday saw small steps after what has been an incredibly shaky period as of late, a draw against Manchester City was perhaps not one to be shouted from the rooftops as many still questioned the desire and hunger of certain Arsenal players. But after going behind through Leroy Sane’s fifth minute goal many felt the writing was on the wall, so credit must go to The Gunners for drawing level not just once but twice.

That said questions will probably be asked as to why they did not go and try to win the game with the scoreline evenly poised at 2-2 with still more than half an hour to play. I think it’s fair to say that the obvious answer was that Arsene Wenger dare not lose that game for the maelstrom it could have created. The scenes inside and outside of the ground were certainly not pretty but had they lost to Manchester City then they could have got very ugly.

They will look to use that draw as a platform to build on as they welcome a West Ham side that is desperately out of form. It’s now six games without a win for The Hammers and the last four have been successive defeats. Not only is the pressure mounting on Slaven Bilic once again but the league placing is also looking precarious once more. They go into this fixture lying 15th in the Premier League table and just 6 points from safety.

Bilic knows he has to arrest the slide and soon. Although Arsenal are low on confidence themselves this is not going to be an easy place to come to, especially with that heavy defeat that they suffered at the hands of Alexis Sanchez still in the back of their minds. When these two sides met at The London Stadium back in December it was an embarrassing 5-1 defeat for The Hammers and one that led to Bilic getting the dreaded vote of confidence.

Now in fairness to the clubs owners they did back Bilic and that did see an upswing in results as West Ham pulled themselves far clear of the bottom three but you do now have to wonder whether or not David Sullivan and David Gold are going to have the same patience as they see their club edge closer and closer to the bottom three. I don’t think the former Croatian international will be given his marching orders just yet but there could be a parting of ways in the Summer.

The best way to make sure that does not happen is by getting wins on the board but that is easier said than done, Saturday saw them travel to stuggling Hull and come away empty handed as Marco Silva’s players earned an all important three points in their bid to beat the drop. It was a disappointing result for West Ham but to be honest not one that was that unexpected as many tipped Hull to pick up the win.

Both teams need a win although for very different reasons but ultimately the two respective managers need a victory to increase their own chances of still being in charge come the end of next season. Arsenal have not been great as of late but West Ham have been worse, I think this one is going to be a home win which will at least paper over the cracks for a few days at The Emirates. I honestly dread to think what will happen if The Gunners don’t win.

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