West Ham Online

". ........... V Emirates Stadium THURSDAY 28th Dec 20:15GMT VAR Craig Pawson Michael Oliver: (12) - 52 4 Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, ?òdegaard ¬©, Trossard, Martinelli, Saka, Jesus Subs: Ramsdale (GK), C?©dric, Kiwior, Jorginho, Nwaneri, Elneny, Nelson, Smith Rowe, Nketiah Areola, Coufal, Ogbonna ¬©, Mavropanos, Emerson, ?Ålvarez, Souƒçek, Paquet?°, Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Bowen Subs: Fabia?Ñski (GK), Johnson, Cresswell, Kehrer, Fornals, Benrahma, Cornet, Ings, Mubama Arsenal 1/3 : Draw 4/1: West Ham 15/2 . Amazon Prime UK ."

"No Zouma & Aguerd is disastrous,"

"Oh well, Soucek starts - best we can hope for is a high press, high intensity showing. Moyes is unreformably pig-headed with his insistence of building the team around its least skilled element."

"Aguerd and Zouma not available through injury and illness. Moyes has no choice but oh boy, Mavropanos and Oggy is a real worry."

Ogb9nna is in for zouma only change

Nothing to worry about they have played together before.. it was the Liverpool game right.

"Fuck me, Ogbonna, we are doomed !"

"Fuck me, Ogbonna, we are doomed !"

Wtf

Magnificent central defensive pairing ?üëä

"Tonight,s Line up is as follows, West Ham United: Areola, Coufal, Ogbonna ¬©, Mavropanos, Emerson, ?Ålvarez, Souƒçek, Paquet?°, Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Bowen Subs: Fabia?Ñski (GK), Johnson, Cresswell, Kehrer, Fornals, Benrahma, Cornet, Ings, Mubama Referee: Michael Oliver"

Ominous feeling for tonight. We are hopefully not set up as weak in midfield as we were against Fulham and Liverpool but I fear the Moyes fixation on Soucek will mean us relying on Alvarez and JWP as Soucek seems to get some strange advanced role these days. Give them a game is all we ask. Result would be wonderful but give them a proper game. Please :-)

The knob that is Chris Sutton predicts Arsenal to win 3-1. The man's a cսnt and nothing would please me more than to see him eat humble pie tomorrow.

"Because Alvarez isn't as good as Rice doesn't make him not good enough.. He's plenty good enough at just screening... He's a very good player. But not good enough to carry Soucek and have to take the ball forward. JWP also needs carrying when back there.. I would love to see a midfield three of Alvarez, Paqueta and Kudus. I agree a left winger in January would help us massively and a centre forward.. Don't hold your breath though.. Soucek should be a sub..."

"Fraser: Because Alvarez isn’t good enough there lies the problem ,Alvarez looks a better player when soucek plays deeper with JWP in the 10 role. Paqueta playing on the left to accomadate Soucek is bullshit, he’s playing him there because it’s a problem position for us what with Benrhama’s performances belonging in the women’s league.The club did try and buy left wingers (Doku,Borge)but where unsuccessful hence Paqueta playing there,that could change if we buy a left winger in jan ."

"Although our counter-attacking style can be effective, particularly with our 3 front players who are on fire at the moment, I can’t see us holding out Arsenal tonight. Our lack of possession, Moyes’s DNA, makes us extra vulnerable against teams that are unrelentingly progressive. Along with Liverpool and City, of course Arsenal fits this description these days. Due to this, our defence will get over-worked and worn down at some point and the dam will burst. It’s games like this where we miss commanders like Dawson at the back - perfect for laying your body on the line type tackles and clearances.. If all the defence bring their A game, and Alvarez and Soucek can share the defensive load, we may frustrate Arsenal and escape with a point. I’d like to be proven wrong and hold out like we did against Chelsea and Spurs - but I’m not optimistic. That said, I’d be so pleased to lay the ridiculous assertions that Arteta is a tactical genius and Moyes is a dinosaur."

"We’re going to frustrate the hell out of Arsenal, with an advanced Moyesball system, before getting a controversial injury time penalty which Lucas scores with a Panenka. Cue an animated Arteta on the sidelines having a meltdown."

"wd40 4:21 Thu Dec 28 And that pretty much sums you up, you cowardly worm. No wonder you're so pro Moyes as he's got no backbone either. What a wanker."

*current league form.

Looking at current form one defeat in 6 for both teams. However. Arsenals form at home is very solid so we probably lose this one. We are certainly capable of scoring these days but so are they. The best we can expect is a score draw. Still looking forward to pre match pint in Upper St as usual.

"Wd40 - you're correct of course if he loses his 52nd match out of 73 games away to a top club having not one win.. It will indeed mean he's not shit... He's beyond shit at playing away against the top clubs, unprecedented levels of record failure shit.. Let's hope for a miracle and he breaks his disgusting run of failure."

"Fucking hell, wd40 says have a day off and then basically states he’ll let the team have a day off from going for a win…..we should have stayed at UP with this attitude….."

"Despite some awful results and performances we are a better team since Rice left. I just wish Moyes would let the handbrake off and let Paqueta, Kudus and Bowen do their stuff. As previously mentioned I think most of us would prefer to have a right go at them even if we lose by 2 or 3 nil. But.......we know what's coming!"

"Solidbond bless u mate for trying to make a case for Soucek as not being a big part of the problem. As mentioned, our better spells of getting the ball in midfield tend to be when Alvarez gets to play alongside Paqueta centrally. Paqueta is actually a bit of unit and wins the ball / intercepts well. He was top of that stat first month of the season when central. Playing Paqueta out of position to accommodate a fella who hardly touches it or loses it in midfield when we do try to build thru the middle and keep the ball will be a problem against the rich and better teams. We will be so weak if he’s with JWP trying to “press”. He can’t do it no shame he’s simply too slow. He’s valuable l if we sit very deep and narrow and keep the shape ( the “double block” or whatever it’s referred to nowadays) and he can contribute aerially clearing from corners and set pieces or getting a foot in. But we will have 20% possession and rely on Arsenal not getting thru our block and being forced wide. Proper Alamo stuff aka “Moyesball”. Play a proper wide left player not Paqueta, Fornals or Benrahma. None of them are wide men or ever were although Paqueta is good enough to make a fist of it. We have one naturally wide left man in Cornet and Antonio can play there too. But Moyes is blind, myopic when it comes to Tommy. Him scoring a few goals in purple patch means he will never ever be benched or even subbed. Soucek is a real team man and gives 100% it’s just that it isn’t what we need. Last season he was appalling all put down to accommodating Rice. So he’s been pushed further forward and Moyes sacrifices Paqueta and JWP. Of all the things we don’t understand about how Moyes thinks, Soucek s the biggest one. He’s a battler for a team that is in relegation trouble or just promoted not for a team that sometimes wants to try to match the possession / pressing teams that dominate the top 6."

Understand Arsenal are one of the tops sides so if we loose 2-0 or even 3-0 and we put up some effort and a shift that's the way football goes . if your expecting us to win 0-4 then we don't don't bore us all to death about how Moyes is a shit manger Have a day off .

Russ of the BML 12:06 Such a damning stat isn’t it. You’d think that just by law of averages or a freak 1-0 by now there would be one win. It has to be amongst the very worst percentages of most managers against those/similar sides.