Match Preview: Arsenal vs. West Ham

By: Dan | December 31st, 2007

The first game of the new year against the only team to beat us at home last season. Judging from the weekend’s game against Manchester United, West Ham is more than capable of giant killing and will be a hard match with many of our first-team players obviously fatigued. Arsene Wenger seems to appreciate this, and is apparently giving a rare start to Justin Hoyte.

Justin Hoyte is getting the worst of Bakary Sagna’s surprise transfer and success. He has been in the Arsenal first team since 2003 and at the age of 23 is behind Sagna, Diarra and even Eboue for the right back position. Unfortunately, he is also the first squad’s second Englishman, and was born and raised in North London. He is Arsenal through and through, yet he may not have a future at the club.

I can only imagine Wenger will keep the 4-4-2 after its (belated) success against Everton, and surely start Eduardo behind Adebayor.

Thus, the line-up.

——————–Almunia———————-
–Hoyte—Touré—Gallas—Clichy–
–Hleb–Fabregas–Flamini–Rosicky—
———-Adebayor–Eduardo————-

I going with 3-1 Arsenal, with goals by Fabregas, Adebayor and Eduardo.

Robin van Persie has a “muscle strain” and will be out for ten more days. Of course, these injuries seem to linger on for a month, and it seems unlikely he’ll be back for the Carling Cup game against Tottenham. This does give a chance to Robbie Fowler to have more games though and prove himself more.

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BBC speculates on the transfer activity of every club in the January window, and says that Arsenal only really need goalkeeper cover if Lehmann returns to Germany and a centerback to cover King Kolo as he goes to the African Cup of Nations with Eboue. Thus all of the high profile signings that have been bantered around for the past six months (Modric, Anelka, N’Zogbia, etc.) are probably not happening. Of course, none of these signings were going to come, and I am sure we will just get a unknown French 20 year old center back for free who will be amazing in three years. That is the Wenger way.

carlos_vela_120×95_410209a.jpg On the plus side, we could have Carlos Vela back from Osasuna in January. The 18 year old needed to qualify for a work permit before coming to England, and spent the time on loan to Salamanca and Osasuna. His play seems very similar to Jose Antonio Reyes, and if he is a little smarter and able to handle winter weather, he could actually be successful for us. Unlike Eduardo, Vela can actually play on the wing, and may serve as back-up to Rosicky on the left. He is a really exciting prospect who finished top scorer in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2005, and could add a new dimension to Arsenal’s attack. He has also constantly ranked in lists of wonderkids, and should fit right in with the “young guns” at Arsenal.